DPP set on preventing KMT blockage
DPP set on preventing KMT blockage‘A DIFFICULT TIME’: The KMT has assigned caucus officials to draw up plans to disrupt the vote for Control Yuan members, but the DPP said that it is preparedBy Peng Wan-hsin / Staff writer, with CNAWith lawmakers scheduled to vote on Control Yuan member nominees on Friday, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus has battened down the hatches to prevent opposition parties from obstructing the proceedings. The terms of the current Control Yuan president and members expire at the end of this month. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) on Saturday reiterated that his caucus would oppose Tsai’s nominations. The DPP caucus would work to prevent the KMT caucus storming the legislative chamber and occupying the speaker’s podium as it did at the start of the current extraordinary session, to avoid conflict, Chung said. Both proposals say that any new design must make a distinction between China Airlines and Chinese state-run Air China.
Source:Taipei Times
July 12, 2020 15:56 UTC
Taipei Railway Station calls off ban on sitting
Taipei Railway Station calls off ban on sittingBy Shelley Shan / Staff reporterThere will be no permanent sitting ban in the main hall of the Taipei Railway Station, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) said yesterday, adding that it has placed smiley face decals on the floor to welcome all visitors. People yesterday sit on the floor of the main hall of the Taipei Railway Station yesterday, which has been decorated with decals of smiley faces and the word “smile” in 10 languages. Our hope is that people, be they standing or sitting, can come to the main hall and find a place they belong,” it added. “These moves demonstrate our commitment to fulfilling our social responsibility and to making the Taipei Railway Station’s main hall a landmark for cultural diversity that is friendly to all,” it said. Given that COVID-19 has been contained domestically, event organizers are welcome to rent TRA station facilities, provided that participants follow social-distancing guidelines, wear masks and wash their hands frequently, it added.
Source:Taipei Times
July 12, 2020 15:56 UTC
INTERVIEW: Leading Taiwan’s scooter race
Likewise, overall scooter sales in Taiwan grew 2 percent annually to 403,199 units in the first six months of the year. That brought electric scooter makers’ local market share to a combined 18.7 percent. Our efforts to promote tax equity starting last year are also affecting electric scooter sales. With the new tax incentives in place for the remainder of the year, electric scooter sales could drop a bit more. In my view, all these factors are likely to lead to falling electric scooters sales this year.
Source:Taipei Times
July 12, 2020 15:56 UTC
New execution rules drop organ donation articles
New execution rules drop organ donation articlesBy Wu Cheng-feng and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNAThe Ministry of Justice on July 1 unveiled a mandatory preview of draft amendments to the Regulations for the Execution of the Death Penalty (執行死刑規則), which would remove articles governing the use of organs from executed convicts. Although the use of organs from executed prisoners has been banned in Taiwan since the Human Organ Transplantation Act (人體器官移植條例) was amended in 2015, three articles in the regulations still contain rules that regulate the practice, the ministry said. That year, five prisoners were executed and three of the bodies were taken to a hospital for organ transplant surgery shortly after execution, it said. Recipients of the organs could also develop stress disorder after finding that the organs came from executed prisoners, it added. Amending the rules to require a prisoner to wear a hood would limit the chances of that happening, they added.
Source:Taipei Times
July 12, 2020 15:56 UTC
EDITORIAL: Alleyways are a national treasure
EDITORIAL: Alleyways are a national treasureA Briton who has lived in Taiwan for 10 years has gained renown for drawing detailed maps of Taiwanese cities. The Taipei Times first reported on Rook in 2015 (“The accidental illustrator,” Sept. 9, page 12). Rook’s maps, with their ability to evoke a sense of nostalgia, easily lend themselves to rendering Taiwan’s unique history and identity, fostering a national consciousness and claiming a beachhead among tourists. Another British artist, Amy Tams, integrates things she considers to be representative of Taiwan into caricatures of birds that are seen throughout Taiwanese cities. It makes sense then that the country’s communities — and the living spaces they share — should be emphasized when sharing Taiwan with the world.
Source:Taipei Times
July 11, 2020 16:07 UTC
‘A123456789’ ID holder grateful to police for no grief
Hsieh Tiao-ken (謝條根), 63, said that he has had to visit police stations and prosecutors’ offices more than 100 times for crimes he did not commit due to his peculiar ID number. Hsieh Tiao-ken shows his national identification card with the number A123456789 in New Taipei City on Friday. The worst time was when a teenager falsely reported his ID number to police after paying for sex, which infuriated his wife and almost touched off a “family crisis,” he said. New Taipei City Household Registration Service director Yan Yao-ming (顏耀明) said that people whose ID number ends in 4, or contains three or more 4s, can apply for a new number. However, Hsieh has declined the offer, saying that at his age, he has made peace with his ID number, and changing it would involve the ordeal of needing to update it on too many documents.
Source:Taipei Times
July 11, 2020 15:56 UTC
Web site warns of voucher text fraud that asks people to fill out fake forms
Web site warns of voucher text fraud that asks people to fill out fake formsBy Huang Chao-hsiang and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writerFact-checking Web site MyGoPen yesterday warned of scams that ask people to give up personal information by filling out fake forms for the government’s Triple Stimulus Voucher program. Pre-ordering, online and at convenience stores, started on Wednesday for the vouchers, which can be used from Wednesday next week. Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei TimesMyGoPen said the text is a phishing attempt to obtain personal information, including names, telephone numbers, dates of birth and images of national identification and National Health Insurance cards. The Web site said there three flaws in the text that make it easily identifiable as fraudulent, such as in the Mandarin name of the voucher program. The text uses the character chuan (卷), whereas the official government title uses chuan (券), MyGoPen said.
Source:Taipei Times
July 11, 2020 15:56 UTC
Taiwan still replete with reminders of authoritarian-era rulers, report finds
Taiwan has 1,235 monuments, statues, sculptures and large-frame portraits commemorating the two Chiangs, commission Chairwoman Yang Tsui (楊翠) said, adding that of those, 511 fall under the central government’s jurisdiction, and only 54 have been removed or renamed. There are also 579 memorial sites and office spaces named in remembrance of them. A Chiang Kai-shek statue stands at the Cihu Memorial Sculpture Park in Taoyuan’s Dasi District on June 3. Taipei has the most statues of Chiang Kai-shek at 129, followed by Taoyuan at 112 and Taichung at 98, it added. The three ministries also have the highest number of office spaces and sites dedicated to the two Chiangs at 143, or 89 percent.
Source:Taipei Times
July 11, 2020 15:56 UTC
Brothers trounce Fubon Guardians
Brothers trounce Fubon GuardiansMONKEYS ALSO WIN: The Rakuten Monkeys kept the Brothers from the first-half title as they dominated the Uni-President Lions, scoring four in the fourthBy Jason Pan / Staff reporterThe CTBC Brothers still need another win to clinch the first-half CPBL title, despite thrashing the hapless Fubon Guardians 17-0 yesterday, after the Rakuten Monkeys beat the Uni-President Lions 9-2. The CTBC Brothers’ Chiang Kun-yu swings during an at-bat against the Fubon Guardians at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium yesterday. The Uni-President Lions’ Chen Chieh-hsien bats against the Rakuten Monkeys at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium yesterday. CTBC Brothers pitcher Huang En-shih winds up during their game against the Fubon Guardians in Taichung yesterday. If the Brothers win, they will clinch the first-half title.
Source:Taipei Times
July 11, 2020 15:56 UTC
ER visits for heat injuries spike this month
Outdoor temperatures have on most days recently reached 35°C, and sometimes topped 37°C, resulting in a rise in heat injuries, it said, citing Central Weather Bureau statistics. The types of injury are heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke, it said. The main cause of indoor heat injuries is poor ventilation, which causes the indoor temperature to rise rapidly, HPA Community Health Division head Lo Su-ying (羅素英) said, adding that heat injuries develop if people’s bodies are not regulating their temperature properly. Heat injury symptoms include rising body temperature, flushed skin, a rapid heartbeat, headache, dizziness, vomiting, weakness, cramps and confusion, Lo said. They should drink cool water with salt or an electrolyte drink, and be taken for medical treatment as soon as possible.
Source:Taipei Times
July 11, 2020 15:56 UTC
Johnny Chiang touts KMT’s values
Johnny Chiang touts KMT’s values‘TOO MUCH TV’: Former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu said comparisons of him to the Three Kingdoms legend Cao Cao do not appropriately reflect his role in the KMTBy Shih Hsiao-kung and Shen Pei-yao / Staff reportersThe Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) core values are the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution and the ideas it champions, KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said yesterday. Chiang made the remarks at a ceremony to certify the chairs of the party’s chapters in Taipei’s 12 districts. The Constitution promotes freedom, democracy, equality and human rights, as well as a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” Chiang said. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang, left, and former KMT chairman Eric Chu talk to reporters in Taipei yesterday. The nation is the ROC now.”“Brother Johnny and I have always agreed to work together” not just within the party, but also when rallying external forces to the KMT’s cause, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
July 11, 2020 15:56 UTC
BES to launch Changhua County, Taipei projects
BES to launch Changhua County, Taipei projectsBy Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterBES Engineering Corp (中華工程), which has increasingly shifted its focus from civil engineering to property development, is to start construction on an urban renewal project in Taipei and a high-tech industrial park later this year, BES chairwoman Chu Hui-lan (朱蕙蘭) told a media briefing in Taipei yesterday. BES Engineering Corp’s luxury building project Taozhu Garden in Taipei’s Xinyi District is pictured in an undated photograph. Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times“It is my goal to help 60-year-old BES deepen its operations in Taiwan and abroad with the support of all my colleagues,” Chu said. It is also to start construction of an industrial park with artificial intelligence features in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District (土城), Jih said. The artificial intelligence features would greet visitors, check their identity, help them to park and carry out many other functions, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
July 10, 2020 15:56 UTC
CTBC Financial net income slides due to NT$2bn tax bill
However, the lender’s common equity tier 1 ratio and tier 1 capital ratio remained higher than the industry average, the data showed. CTBC Financial posted net income of NT$19.17 billion for the first six months of the year, down 6 percent year-on-year from NT$20.39 billion. Tax payments on undistributed earnings also eroded their net income at Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) and Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) last month. Cathay Financial posted net income of NT$5.94 billion for last month. Fubon Financial paid NT$2.6 billion in taxes and posted net income of NT$3.03 billion for last month.
Source:Taipei Times
July 10, 2020 15:56 UTC
Su Jia-chyuan mulls suing KMT
Su Jia-chyuan mulls suing KMTBy Sean Lin / Staff reporterPresidential Office Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) yesterday said that he would file a defamation suit against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers if they continue to insinuate that he interceded on behalf of former Tang Eng Iron Works Co (唐榮鐵工廠) general manager Chang Chung-chieh (張仲傑), who is the subject of four conflict of interest probes. Presidential Office Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan, front, is pictured in in Taipei on Thursday last week. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Lin Wei-chou, second right, speaks alongside KMT lawmakers Yeh Yu-lan, right, Yosi Takun, third right, Chen Yu-jen, fourth right, Lin Yi-hua, fifth right, and others at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday. The document, which cannot be declassified until December 2025, reportedly shows that Shen asked Tang Eng to “make improvements” to its corporate governance, without meting out any punishment. Su wrote on Facebook that since the allegations surfaced last year, he has repeatedly said that he was not part of Chang’s employment or promotion at Tang Eng.
Source:Taipei Times
July 10, 2020 15:56 UTC
Animal lovers flock to annual Taipei Pet Show
Animal lovers flock to annual Taipei Pet ShowBy Angelica Oung / Staff reporterWhile many exhibitions and trade shows have been canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 1 was packed yesterday for the Taipei Pet Show, with most people opting to carry their pets in special strollers while perusing the latest in pet food, toys and other items from around the world. People take their dogs to the Taipei Pet Show at Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 1 yesterday. Photo: Angelica Oung, Taipei TimesTheir offerings include pet birthday cakes, cosplay collars, portrait and photography services, pet astrology services and dog massages. Pet food vendor David Huang (黃晨洋), who brought the Margot and Billy range of dog ice cream to Taiwan last year, said that pet food now needs to be the same quality as food the owners would eat. The owner of Chen-chen, a two-year-old Maltese, said: “When I’m happy she’s happy, and when she’s happy I’m happy.
Source:Taipei Times
July 10, 2020 15:56 UTC