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[] | 2016-08-29T16:53:33 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | Police believe they have captured a serial killer, dubbed China’s “Jack the Ripper” for the way he mutilated several of his 11 female victims, state-run media reported yesterday, nearly three decades after the first murder. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2F2003654174.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Chinese authorities apprehend alleged serial killer: report | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, BEIJING
Police believe they have captured a serial killer, dubbed China’s “Jack the Ripper” for the way he mutilated several of his 11 female victims, state-run media reported yesterday, nearly three decades after the first murder.
Gao Chengyong (高承勇), 52, was detained at a grocery store he runs with his wife in Baiyin, in northwest Gansu Province, the China Daily said.
The newspaper said he had confessed to 11 murders in Gansu and neighboring Inner Mongolia between 1988 and 2002, citing the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.
Gao allegedly targeted young women wearing red and followed them home to rape and kill them, often cutting their throats and mutilating their bodies, according to reports.
The youngest victim was eight years old.
Some victims also had their reproductive organs removed, the Beijing Youth Daily said.
“The suspect has a sexual perversion and hates women,” police said in 2004, when they linked the crimes for the first time and offered a reward of 200,000 yuan (US$29,938 at the current exchange rate) for information leading to an arrest.
“He’s reclusive and unsociable, but patient,” they said at the time.
The original Jack the Ripper was a serial killer active in east London in the late Victorian era, who is widely believed to have murdered five women, mutilating several of them. Those killings have never been solved.
Gao was identified after a relative was put under house arrest in Baiyin over allegations of a minor crime and had his DNA collected and tested, the China Daily said.
Police concluded the killer they had been hunting for 28 years was a relative, and Gao’s DNA matched the murderer’s, it added.
There were no immediate explanations as to why the killings stopped in 2002.
Miscarriages of justice are not rare in China, where the use of force to extract confessions remains widespread.
In several high-profile cases in recent years, China has exonerated wrongfully executed or jailed convicts after others came forward to confess their crimes, or in some cases, because the supposed murder victim was later found alive.
None of yesterday’s reports said whether anyone had previously been convicted in connection with Gao’s alleged crimes. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/30/2003654174 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/c6db1772361dd9836a0c96f12f45bd8f80ace6fbf62f545e235c6da22b28c9f0.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:51:04 | null | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | Greece said yesterday that the EU was “sleepwalking toward a cliff” by sticking to austerity rules that created huge inequalities among members, and it expected a debt relief deal for itself to be honored by the end of this year so that its economy could recover. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2F2003654060.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/29/thumbs/P14-160829-322.jpg | en | null | EU ‘sleepwalking toward cliff’: Greek prime minister | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Reuters, ATHENS
Greece said yesterday that the EU was “sleepwalking toward a cliff” by sticking to austerity rules that created huge inequalities among members, and it expected a debt relief deal for itself to be honored by the end of this year so that its economy could recover.
Athens, facing a second bailout review entailing an unpopular loosening of labor laws in the autumn, is keen to show that painful tax rises and pension cuts as part of its 86 billion euro (US$96.3 billion at current exchange rates) bailout deal last year will bear fruit.
“Greece has kept its part of the agreement and expects the same from its partners. We are not simply seeking, we are demanding and expecting specific measures that will render debt sustainable as part of the deal we are implementing,” Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told the Sunday newspaper Realnews.
“This [debt relief] will be followed by reduced [budget] surpluses after 2018, which will open the way for the economy’s recovery,” he said.
Greece has committed to attaining a primary budget surplus — excluding debt servicing costs — of 3.5 percent of economic output by 2018 as part of its third bailout package since 2010.
The IMF, which has yet to decide whether it will fund the third bailout, has said that surplus targets of 3.5 percent beyond 2018 are not realistic for Greece and has pushed for softer fiscal goals to take part in the financing.
Greece’s leftist-led government and the central bank also want lower primary surplus targets, arguing this will give Athens room to cut taxes and help the battered economy return to growth after a protracted recession.
The economy has shrunk by a quarter in six years and the jobless rate is 23.5 percent.
Tsipras also told Realnews that the EU was “sleepwalking toward a cliff” as the Stability Pact’s tough fiscal rules had engendered deep inequalities among member states.
“Brexit will either awaken European leaderships or it will be the beginning of the end of the EU,” he said, referring to Britain’s June vote to leave the 28-nation bloc.
He criticized Germany for acting as Europe’s “savings bank” with excessive surpluses, frozen wages and low inflation, at a time when the EU’s deficit-ridden southern members have broken all records for unemployment.
“If [German Finance Minister Wolfgang] Schaueble’s dogma for a multi-speed Europe and economic zones of low-cost labor is not abandoned, Europe will be brought to the brink of dissolution,” Tsipras was quoted by Realnews as saying. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/29/2003654060 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/e0d44e960479e2050220e106dfdeeee5b64d4267e1002b8907f1081736b46105.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:51:37 | null | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | Striking miners in Bolivia kidnapped and beat to death the country’s deputy interior minister after he traveled to the area to mediate a bitter conflict over mining laws, officials said. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2F2003653972.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/27/thumbs/P07-160827-304.jpg | en | null | Striking miners kill Bolivian minister | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AP, LA PAZ, Bolivia
Striking miners in Bolivia kidnapped and beat to death the country’s deputy interior minister after he traveled to the area to mediate a bitter conflict over mining laws, officials said.
Bolivian Minister of Government Carlos Romero called it a “cowardly and brutal killing” and asked that the body of Bolivian Vice Minister of Government Rodolfo Illanes be turned over to authorities.
Illanes was “savagely beaten” to death by the striking miners, Bolivian Minister of Defense Reymi Ferreira told Red Uno TV, his voice breaking.
Earlier, Romero had said that Illanes had been kidnapped and possibly tortured, but was not able to confirm reports that he had been killed by the striking informal miners, who are demanding the right to associate with private companies, among other issues.
The fatal beating follows the killings of two protesters in clashes with police, deaths that likely escalated tensions in the strike.
Illanes had gone to Panduro, 130km south of La Paz, to open a dialogue with the striking miners, who have blockaded a highway there since Monday.
Thousands of passengers and vehicles were stranded on roads blocked by the strikers.
Officials said he was taken hostage by the miners on Thursday morning.
At noon on Thursday, Illanes said on Twitter: “My health is fine, my family can be calm.”
There are reports that he had heart problems.
Bolivia’s informal or artisan miners number about 100,000 and work in self-managed cooperatives. They want to be able to associate with private companies, which is prohibited.
The government argues that if they associate with multinational companies they would cease to be cooperatives.
The National Federation of Mining Cooperatives of Bolivia, once strong allies of Bolivian President Evo Morales, went on an indefinite protest after negotiations over the mining legislation failed. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/27/2003653972 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/c18596da07578a69895ecfb3bc1974c2071133dd2949ae37d4aa9e359fd51622.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:52:57 | null | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | Shoddy, price-cutting renovations, in breach of local building regulations, could be partly to blame for the high death toll from this week’s devastating earthquake in central Italy, according to a prosecutor investigating the disaster. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2F2003654104.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/29/thumbs/P04-160829-307.jpg | en | null | Illegal repairs contributed to Italy quake toll: official | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, ROME
Shoddy, price-cutting renovations, in breach of local building regulations, could be partly to blame for the high death toll from this week’s devastating earthquake in central Italy, according to a prosecutor investigating the disaster.
As questions mount over the deaths of nearly 300 people, prosecutor Giuseppe Saieva indicated that property owners who commissioned suspected sub-standard work could be held responsible for contributing to the quake’s deadly impact.
Saieva, who works in the Rieti region between Rome and the quake’s epicenter, said the tragedy could not simply be filed away as an unavoidable natural disaster.
“If the buildings had been constructed as they are in Japan they wouldn’t have collapsed,” he told La Repubblica.
Within hours of the quake hitting on Wednesday Saieva was in Amatrice, the small mountain town hit hardest by the temblor.
He was inspecting the damage there before opening a preliminary investigation for possible culpable homicide and causing a disaster.
The crushed partition walls of a collapsed three-story villa were among the sights that caught his eye.
“I can only think it was built on the cheap with more sand than cement,” he said.
A number of engineering and architectural experts have highlighted the widespread use of relatively cheap cement beams for house extensions and renovations as a possible factor explaining why so many buildings collapsed.
Heavy and inflexible, the cement beams become deadly if released by shaking because they will crush older walls beneath them with deadly implications.
“If it emerges that individuals cut corners, they will be pursued and those that have made mistakes will pay a price,” the prosecutor said.
The issue of whether some of the deaths could have been avoided is particularly acute in the Amatrice area because it is only 50km from the city of L’Aquila, which was hit by a 2009 earthquake in which over 300 people perished.
An outcry over the shoddy, corrupt building practices which led to so many buildings in the university city being inadequately prepared for a quake led to the national Civil Protection agency making almost 1 billion euros (US$1.12 billion) available for upgrading buildings in quake-vulnerable areas.
However, the take-up of grants has been low. Critics blame bureaucracy but others maintain that independent-minded villagers always find the cheapest way of getting their renovations done, whatever the risks.
About 40 percent of Italians, 24 million people, live in zones vulnerable to earthquakes and the risk that entails has been a subject for the country’s finest minds for centuries.
However, experts say protecting Italy’s architectural heritage is far from straightforward.
“If we start from the idea of upgrading every old building to comparable safety levels of a modern building built to anti-seismic norms, we have to accept that we will never get there,” said Paolo Bazzurro, a professor in construction techniques at the University of Pavia.
The trend away from traditional wooden roofs and beams is not the only problem: widening window openings and the removal of reinforcing chains embedded in walls have also contributed.
“These things make buildings more vulnerable,” Bazzurro said.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi vowed to rebuild the hilltop villages devastated by the quake. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/29/2003654104 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/dee94f0f6184c52264b9ef70b136c4a6cf0199224842310991fab7706e70d22f.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:07:41 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said the ban on his country from competing at the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics was immoral and inhumane. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fsport%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653885.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/26/thumbs/P16-160826-325.jpg | en | null | Putin denounces Russia’s ban from Rio Paralympics | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AP and AFP, MOSCOW
Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said the ban on his country from competing at the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics was immoral and inhumane.
Russia was suspended on Aug. 7 over what International Paralympic Committee president Philip Craven called a “medals over morals” culture with evidence of state-sponsored doping. The ban was confirmed on Tuesday when the Court of Arbitration of Sport rejected a Russian appeal.
Speaking to Olympic athletes at the Kremlin, Putin said the “decision to disqualify our Paralympians is outside the bounds of law, morality and humanity.”
Russia’s Paralympic Committee on Wednesday said there was still a chance Russians could compete at the Rio Paralympics, but remained vague on the legal measures it would take in the hope of overturning the country’s suspension.
“The Russian Paralympic Committee believes that Russian athletes still have a chance to take part in the Games,” the committee said in a statement.
The committee’s president, Vladimir Lukin, declined to elaborate on the legal steps it was pondering to contest the rejection of Tuesday’s suspension appeal.
“We are using all possible measures to prove that we are right and that our opponents are wrong,” Lukin said, adding that legal means to challenge the rejection of the appeal would become clear “in a day or two.”
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday slammed the rejection of Russia’s appeal as a “cynical decision,” accusing members of the international Paralympic movement of trying to “remove strong rivals.”
Special competitions will be organized in Russia for banned Paralympic athletes, with winners getting the same prizes they would have had from success in Rio. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2016/08/26/2003653885 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/a2cf90233d304053b7e1a64fbc319cc2095d5bbf6acf2222aae77284b166c440.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:01:28 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | The number of unemployed young people is set to swell by 500,000 worldwide this year to reach 71 million, marking the first hike in three years, the UN said on Wednesday. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653862.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Young jobless rate rising worldwide: ILO | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, GENEVA
The number of unemployed young people is set to swell by 500,000 worldwide this year to reach 71 million, marking the first hike in three years, the UN said on Wednesday.
In a new report, the UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that the global youth unemployment rate would reach 13.1 percent this year, up from 12.9 percent last year, and nearing its 2013 record high of 13.2 percent.
The increase “is driven by a deeper-than-expected recession in some key emerging commodity-exporting countries and stagnating growth in some developed countries,” lead author of the report and ILO senior economist Steven Tobin said.
The situation is expected to stabilize next year, according to the ILO report.
Perhaps of greater concern than stubbornly high youth unemployment, was that more than a third of young people who have a job are living in extreme or moderate poverty, compared to about a quarter of working adults, the report said.
Breaking down the numbers by region, the report showed that Arab nations — hard-hit by a range of geopolitical tensions — count the world’s highest youth unemployment rate, at more than 30 percent.
Within the region, young people in oil-exporting countries such as Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were expected to face the greatest jobless rates amid a slowdown in growth and tighter fiscal policies, the report said.
North African countries also registered a youth unemployment rate near the 30 percent mark.
In terms of development status, emerging countries were expected to see unemployment among 15-to-24-year-olds grow the most, rising from 13.3 percent last year to 13.6 percent this year, affecting 53.5 million people, the report said.
The world’s most developed nations count youth unemployment rates averaging 14.5 percent, affecting 9.8 million people, with the situation expected to improve only slightly next year to 14.3 percent, the report said.
However, the report said that this “does not reflect more favorable labor market conditions” in emerging and developing countries.
Instead, it indicates that “young people in these countries must often work, typically in poor-quality and low-paid jobs in order to provide basic necessities,” it said.
In fact, about 156 million working young people in emerging and developing countries are currently living in extreme poverty, meaning they have less than US$1.90 a day, or in moderate poverty, which means they have to make do with less than US$3.10 a day.
“Given this twofold story of rising unemployment rate on one hand and a persistently high working poverty rate on the other hand it will be very difficult to reach the goal that we have set to end poverty by 2030,” Tobin told reporters, referring to one of the UN’s new targets for sustainable development.
He said the world needed to “redouble our efforts to achieve sustainable economic growth and decent work, including for youth.” | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/26/2003653862 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/e90ab1bcb8fa6d43917737c3db0d3cc52f953ec6d53883dec6d6efb83cbc94a2.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:51:48 | null | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | In-form Alexandre Lacazette scored before coming off injured in the first half as Olympique Lyonnais collapsed to a 4-2 defeat away at promoted Dijon FCO in Ligue 1 on Saturday. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fsport%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2F2003654084.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/29/thumbs/P11-160829-321.jpg | en | null | Lacazette injured as Olympique Lyonnais suffer loss at Dijon | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, PARIS
In-form Alexandre Lacazette scored before coming off injured in the first half as Olympique Lyonnais collapsed to a 4-2 defeat away at promoted Dijon FCO in Ligue 1 on Saturday.
Lacazette put the visitors 2-1 up on 37 minutes at the Stade Gaston-Gerard with his sixth goal already this season after Corentin Tolisso’s opener for Lyon had been canceled out by a Frederic Sammaritano penalty.
However, the 25-year-old then hobbled off just before the break and was later seen with strapping and an ice pack around his left knee.
Things got worse for Lyon as Dijon came roaring back with goals by Julio Tavares, Dylan Bahamboula and Pierre Lees-Melou to claim their first points since returning to the top flight.
“I am worried. When a player comes off before halftime it is always worrying,” Lyon coach Bruno Genesio told Canal Plus at halftime before adding that the player would undergo tests today to determine the extent of the problem.
En Avant de Guingamp are the provisional leaders of the fledgling table after a 2-0 win at promoted AS Nancy-Lorraine, although they are level on points with OGC Nice, who drew 1-1 at home to Lille OSC.
Vincent Koziello put Nice ahead at the Allianz Riviera only for Lille captain Franck Beria to equalize with his first goal in Ligue 1 since November 2010.
Stade Malherbe Caen beat SC Bastia 2-0, Metz defeated Angers SCO by the same score and Stade Rennais came from behind to draw 1-1 at Montpellier Herault.
Champions Paris Saint-Germain were looking to maintain their perfect start to the campaign at AS Monaco yesterday. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2016/08/29/2003654084 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/273cb30de2ce5316ff3056c68e6aaddbd8b03cee45e86a109904eac0404fc80b.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:51:00 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | A judge in South Africa on Friday refused to grant prosecutors permission to appeal the six-year prison sentence she gave the double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius, saying an appeal would not have a reasonable chance of success. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fsport%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654017.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/28/thumbs/P10-160828-305.jpg | en | null | South African judge rejects prosecutors’ Pistorius appeal bid | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | NY Times News Service
A judge in South Africa on Friday refused to grant prosecutors permission to appeal the six-year prison sentence she gave the double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius, saying an appeal would not have a reasonable chance of success.
Pistorius, who is serving the prison sentence for the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in 2013, did not appear in court.
Last month, the judge, Thokozile Matilda Masipa of the High Court in Pretoria, gave Pistorius a six-year term, far shorter than the 15-year minimum sought by prosecutors.
She cited mitigating factors, including Pistorius’ disability, his expressions of remorse, his status as a first-time offender and the circumstances of the shooting.
Pistorius has said that he thought he was shooting at an intruder, not his girlfriend, when he fired through the locked door of a bathroom in his home in a gated community in Pretoria.
Prosecutors had called the sentence “shockingly too lenient,” and the ruling surprised most South African legal experts, who had predicted that Pistorius would get at least 10 years in prison.
“I’m not persuaded that there are reasonable prospects of success on appeal or that another court may find differently,” Masipa said, dismissing the prosecutors’ application for leave to appeal.
Her decision is not necessarily the last word in the matter. The National Prosecuting Authority might now directly petition the Supreme Court of Appeal to hear the case.
The agency’s press office on Friday did not immediately respond to calls and e-mails seeking comment on whether it intended to do so. The chief prosecutor in the case, Gerrie Nel, declined to comment, Reuters reported.
Masipa found Pistorius guilty of manslaughter in 2014, and she sentenced him to five years in prison.
After prosecutors appealed, the appeals court concluded that Masipa had erred and convicted Pistorius of murder. The appeals court then ordered Masipa to give Pistorius a new sentence. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2016/08/28/2003654017 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/9b90b748851d37a7be1b80faafe4eb9cbd7dafff1b215224bed5b001b52d884a.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:50:32 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | US dollar traders are playing catch-up with the US Federal Reserve. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654000.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | US dollar bulls awaken as Yellen hints at rate increase | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Bloomberg and staff writer, with CNA
US dollar traders are playing catch-up with the US Federal Reserve.
The greenback snapped a two-week losing streak after US Fed Chair Janet Yellen said the case to raise interest rates is getting stronger, while Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer indicated an increase is possible next month.
Those comments follow statements by officials in recent weeks that may persuade skeptical investors that the central bank is getting closer to tighter policy.
“There certainly has been a gap in expectations,” said Bill Northey, chief investment officer in Helena, Montana, at US Bank’s private client group, which oversees US$133 billion in assets. “This certainly does strengthen the case for the Fed to move by year-end. That provides opportunities for the dollar to strengthen.”
DIVERGENCE?
Friday’s rally trimmed the US dollar’s loss to 4.2 percent this year on speculation that the US central bank would reduce stimulus and diverge from unprecedented easing in Europe and Asia, boosting the relative allure of the greenback.
Currency investors’ sentiment has shifted back and forth in recent weeks on how aggressive the Fed will be after it raised borrowing costs in December last year for the first time since June 2006.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index advanced 1.2 percent this week, the largest gain since the week ended May 6.
The greenback climbed 1.1 percent to US$1.1198 per euro and strengthened 1.6 percent to ￥101.84.
On Friday, Yellen expressed confidence that tighter labor markets over time would push inflation back to the central bank’s 2 percent goal. The likelihood of a boost to rates at the Fed’s meeting on Sept. 21 reached 40 percent, up from 32 percent the day before, futures prices show.
“As long as the odds are rising, we are likely to see pressure on emerging-market currencies and US dollar strength,” said Steven Englander, global head of G10 currency strategy at Citigroup Inc in New York.
While hedge funds and money managers trimmed net bullish positions on the US dollar for the third week, net-long bets still stand near a five-month high, according to data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Bets the US dollar would rise outnumbered bearish wagers by 79,363 contracts in the week to Aug. 23, compared with 125,117 the previous week.
The US currency is forecast to strengthen by the end of the year to US$1.09 per euro and ￥105, according to the median estimates in Bloomberg surveys of analysts.
“We’re positioned for dollar strength,” said Jason Thomas, Los Angeles-based chief investment officer of Savos Investments, a unit of AssetMark Inc., an asset manager that oversees US$31 billion.
That is because the US dollar is undervalued relative to the resilience of the US economy, he said.
WEAK NT DOLLAR
In Taipei, the US dollar rose against the New Taiwan dollar on Friday, gaining NT$0.002 to close at NT$31.672 after consolidating amid cautious sentiment ahead of Yellen’s speech later in the day, dealers said.
The greenback also climbed 0.2 percent from NT$31.618 on Aug. 19, Taipei Forex data showed.
While the weakness of other regional currencies put pressure on the NT dollar, its losses were limited as foreign institutional investors bought a net NT$3.5 billion worth of local shares, they said.
Meanwhile, the British pound looks set for a litmus test next week with the release of housing data and purchasing managers’ surveys that might crimp the currency’s best run since May versus the US dollar. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/28/2003654000 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/8fc8b73bfdd7476db7d9e6baaa802696a85aa74ffec698156bc591f60ac7973b.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:51:58 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | Minister of Health and Welfare Lin Tzou-yien (林奏延) has approved the Centers for Disease Control’s imposition of a NT$1 million (US$31,774) fine on the National Defense University over its expulsion of a student with HIV, the ministry announced yesterday. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ftaiwan%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654032.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Minister backs fine after expulsion of HIV student | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Lee I-chia and Chen Wei-han / Staff reporters
Minister of Health and Welfare Lin Tzou-yien (林奏延) has approved the Centers for Disease Control’s imposition of a NT$1 million (US$31,774) fine on the National Defense University over its expulsion of a student with HIV, the ministry announced yesterday.
On Aug. 15, the centers announced that it would fine the university for discriminating against a student named A-li (a pseudonym), who tested positive for HIV in 2012, and in 2013 was expelled for what the school said was his poor attitude and conduct.
However, the health ministry did not immediately back the centers’ decision, with the ministry’s legal affairs committee saying that the centers’ administrative penalty discretion standards and its rationale for issuing the fine were not clear enough, so it asked the centers to provide additional information before resubmitting the fine for approval.
During the more than 10 days that the centers deliberated over its approval, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Premier Lin Chuan (林全) both expressed their support for A-li.
Health ministry spokesman Liu Ming-hsun (劉明勳) yesterday said Lin has approved the centers’ document and that the proposed NT$1 million fine would remain unchanged.
Liu said the penalty notice is expected to be sent out by the centers tomorrow at the earliest.
The Ministry of National Defense said it would appeal the fine.
Defense ministry spokesman Major General Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) again said that neither his ministry nor the university discriminated against the student because of his HIV-positive status.
Cabinet spokesman Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) refused to comment on the defense ministry’s planned appeal, but said that the Cabinet respects the defense ministry’s action, as it behaved according to its duties and the authority invested in it.
The Cabinet on Monday asked the defense ministry to give A-li a certificate of education and relinquish its demand that he repay his scholarship. However, the ministry only agreed to give A-li a study record and to stop asking him to return a NT$800,000 scholarship, even though the Cabinet urged the defense ministry to respect its instructions. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2016/08/28/2003654032 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/70ef6255711423dd2c9ef98ba6a5d21cfb725f2b1ebb078f7e6936657faaacdc.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:53:38 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | A van driven by a suicide bomber exploded after ramming through a gate at the Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan yesterday, injuring three people, authorities said. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ffront%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2F2003654210.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/31/thumbs/p01-160831-320.jpg | en | null | Suicide bomber hits Chinese embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, BISHKEK
A van driven by a suicide bomber exploded after ramming through a gate at the Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan yesterday, injuring three people, authorities said.
“As a result of the explosion, only the suicide bomber terrorist died. Security guards were injured,” Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister Jenish Razakov told reporters at the scene.
Razakov said the three wounded were all Kyrgyz employees of the embassy and that they had been hospitalized.
Local medics said their injuries were not serious.
Impoverished majority-Muslim Kyrgyzstan — which borders western China — has a history of political instability and battling Muslim extremism.
Authorities said the country faces the threat of attacks from the Islamic State group after about 500 Kyrgyz left to fight for the group in Iraq and Syria.
Chinese officials have previously been targeted in attacks linked to Uighur militants based in China’s restive Xinjiang Province.
Law enforcement sources told reporters that a Mitsubishi Delica van smashed through a gate at the embassy yesterday morning before exploding in the center of the compound close to the ambassador’s residence.
A police source confirmed to reporters that the vehicle was driven by a suicide bomber and described the incident as a “terrorist attack.”
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attack as an “extreme and violent act,” but refused to classify it as terrorism.
“We asked the Kyrgyz side to get to the bottom of this incident and hold whoever is behind this accountable,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said.
Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev ordered a “thorough investigation.”
Kyrgyz police sources said body parts thought to be from the attacker were found several hundred meters from the blast site.
Local residents told reporters that the blast had blown in their windows and caused their houses to shake.
A reporter close to the scene said that damage could be seen on the embassy buildings and that police had cordoned off the area as emergency services worked.
Law enforcement officials also blocked traffic on one of the city’s main highways and were checking vehicles.
Employees from the Chinese and nearby US embassy on the edge of the city were evacuated, the Kyrgyz emergency service said.
An economically troubled ally of Russia, Kyrgyzstan has seen two governments overthrown and ethnic violence claim hundreds of lives since it gained independence in 1991.
The authorities regularly announce that they have foiled attacks planned by the Islamic State in the country.
Chinese officials in Kyrgyzstan have previously been targeted, with one shot dead in 2000 in an attack blamed on radicals from the Uighur minority.
In 2014 Kyrgyz authorities said they killed 11 people, including Uighur rebels, trying to cross into the country.
Kyrgyzstan is gearing up to mark 25 years since independence from the former Soviet Union with celebrations in Bishkek today. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2016/08/31/2003654210 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/dcdec3f0f2730a5c54cc33010c107d62c42479772792d0d3c29cb55640a5bd18.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:53:01 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | Sports Administration officials yesterday pledged to publish Chinese Professional Baseball League financial reports and require the inclusion of players’ union officials at meetings planning next year’s World Baseball Classic, following union complaints. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ftaiwan%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2F2003654161.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Baseball subsidies to be reported | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter
Sports Administration officials yesterday pledged to publish Chinese Professional Baseball League financial reports and require the inclusion of players’ union officials at meetings planning next year’s World Baseball Classic, following union complaints.
Speaking at a news conference convened by New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), union president Hu Chin-Lung (胡金龍) said insurance and profit-sharing for Taiwanese players in international games are in stark contrast with that of their international counterparts, calling for his union to be allowed a greater role in negotiating player benefits.
“All that we really want is a little respect so that we know that the league is not unnecessarily cutting corners while we are fighting for the nation,” said Hu, a former Los Angeles Dodgers player, citing an incident during the 2013 World Baseball Classic when national team players were allegedly not served breakfast.
He said his union should have the right to serve as a mediator between the league and team members, also calling for improved player benefits including image rights, profit sharing agreements and better insurance.
“Players are often scared of being injured because the average career is very short — so our attitude is to play as hard as we can to earn as much as we can in the shortest time possible,” Hu said, adding that insurance for participating in international competitions only covers salary deductions for injured players, with a NT$500,000 (US$15,722) cap.
“So far we have not been invited to participate in a single meeting” on 2017 World Baseball Classic preparations, union spokesman Chao Tzu-wei (趙子維) said, adding that while virtually all professional baseball players are union members, lack of legal protection put them at a disadvantage when negotiating with the league.
Baseball players are not included in the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), making it almost impossible to strike, particularly because most players sign individual one-year contracts and are not entitled to any severance benefits, he said.
Last year was the first in many that the league turned a profit, leading to player demands for better pay and benefits.
National Taiwan Sport University legal professor Lee Hsiao-ti (李孝悌) called for the Sports Administration to establish an independent arbitration body to allow players to resolve conflicts with the league.
“We have to move toward accepting the idea that people have ‘competition rights,’ rather than sports being the responsibility of the government and the duty of citizens,” he said, adding that independent arbitration can increase players’ bargaining power by allowing them to avoid the drawn-out legal process over competition bans.
Lee also called for greater transparency in the spending of government subsidies, adding that it was often unclear how much funding was actually used to the benefit of athletes.
Hsu said that while government subsidies were NT$30 million last year, actual funding was NT$100 million.
A Sports Administration-sponsored audit found discrepancies between revenue figures reported to the administration and those reported to the National Taxation Bureau.
Sports Administration competitive sports division deputy director Lan Kun-tien (藍坤田) pledged to publish financial reports submitted by the league on the administrations Web site. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2016/08/30/2003654161 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/508d8938bdff726a684744911379c2a3016db8b427dcd616416634526d019e26.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:52:14 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | Taipei Times: How did Yuh Tong Hotel (鈺通大飯店) fare in the first half of the year and do you expect the situation to improve or deteriorate? | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2F2003654186.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | INTERVIEW: Yuh Tong determined to hang tough | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Taipei Times: How did Yuh Tong Hotel (鈺通大飯店) fare in the first half of the year and do you expect the situation to improve or deteriorate?
Huang Kuo-fang (黃國芳): Our occupancy rates stood above 60 percent during the January-to-May period, but dropped below 40 percent in June and July, as exchanges between Taiwan and China chilled significantly.
Chinese travelers used to account for 38 percent of our clientele, mostly tour groups from Chinese companies, schools, civic organizations and government agencies. We lost about 50 percent of business to the estrangement in cross-strait ties, the economic slowdown and growing competition.
Things have changed little this month as Ghost Month in the lunar calendar spans almost all of August. Summer vacation is not a high sales season for hotel operators focused on Chinese tourists as the Chinese prefer long-distance travel to the US, Europe and Australia [in summer].
Occupancy rates usually improve from September onward due to the end of the Ghost Month and revived interest for travel to Taiwan. However, I am conservative about the landscape, even though the second half of the year is the peak season for the hospitality industry.
Reservations by travel agencies account for approximately 50 percent of our capacity, but they may end up being just a booking strategy and fail to deliver in the end. Not only hoteliers, but also transportation, food and gift suppliers are feeling the pinch.
TT: How does Yuh Tong plan to cope with the softening in business?
Huang: I have no intention of lowering room rates to attract customers, as competitors would do the same, thereby neutralizing the effect. Instead, I plan to cut costs and strengthen our promotional campaigns. We are reaching out to travelers from other Asian countries and Muslim tourists by applying for the Muslim-friendly certification.
It will take three to five years for the adjustments to bear fruit, if they work at all, as tourists from ASEAN nations are modest [spenders] compared with Chinese travelers. The number of Chinese travelers totaled 2.1 million in the first six months of this year, while tourists from Southeast Asian nations stood at 737,000. We do not yet have employees who can speak Southeast Asian languages.
Chiayi is at a disadvantage when it comes to attracting conferences or motivational tours. Unless tourists plan to visit Alishan (阿里山), they tend to skip Chiayi. The National Palace Museum’s southern branch is increasing tourist numbers, but it is also intensifying competition among hoteliers. Evergreen International Corp (長榮國際), the hotel operating arm of Evergreen Group (長榮集團), is to open a new hotel in Chiayi and Cosmos Hotel & Resorts Group (天成飯店集團) has already done so.
TT: Food and beverage operations are less affected by economic cycles. Will you shift your business focus there?
Huang: We have two restaurants: one provides Chinese cuisine and the other serves Western food and beverage (F&B). Together, they generate between 50 percent and 60 percent of overall revenue. However, dependence on F&B is not practical or sustainable due to the relatively thin profit margin. Food costs alone constitute 37 percent of F&B sales, while personnel costs take up another 30 percent.
In comparison, a hotel makes profits when occupancy rates are more than 40 percent with different costs — the “daily necessity” items and breakfasts — accounting for 30 percent of operating income. Therefore, we will continue to focus on hotel operations and shut down the restaurants, if a choice has to be made. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/31/2003654186 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/7e5399fbb4b5ea40aecd64cf4ce54f191962ccb5f230c405d9983c8d60aea9e5.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:51:53 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | The Cabinet on Friday said that in a bid to stem the steep decline in the number of Chinese tourists, the Tourism Bureau is to lead a delegation to China to promote travel in Taiwan. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ftaiwan%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654034.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Cabinet moves to stem steep decline in Chinese visitors | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter
The Cabinet on Friday said that in a bid to stem the steep decline in the number of Chinese tourists, the Tourism Bureau is to lead a delegation to China to promote travel in Taiwan.
The delegation is to organize promotional events in Beijing and Shanghai in conjunction with Taiwanese representative offices, Cabinet spokesman Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said.
The government also plans to initiate programs to court Southeast Asian and Muslim visitors, Tung said.
The move came after the bankruptcy of a Taiwanese travel agency on Wednesday, which specialized in arranging package tours for Chinese, and ahead of a protest planned by travel firms for Tuesday.
“We have observed a decline in [Chinese] group tourists recently, which has impacted local tourism, especially tour bus operators and agencies specializing in package tours,” Premier Lin Chuan (林全) said yesterday.
“Both group tourists and individual tourists are welcome. Both are advantageous to the development of the nation’s tourism,” Lin said, in response to the demand of travel agencies to boost the number of tourists visiting on package tours.
According to Tourism Bureau data, the number of Chinese tourists decreased 52,983 annually last month, or 15.01 percent.
The number of Chinese tourists has declined since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was sworn in, with Chinese visitor numbers declining by 12.21 percent year-on-year in May and by 11.88 percent annually in June, the data showed.
Minister Without Portfolio Chang Ching-sen (張景森), who heads a task force to boost Chinese tourist numbers, said the outlook is not rosy, but it is not Taiwan that is driving Chinese tourists away.
Chang called on Beijing not to use tourism as a political tool, saying that would hurt the chances of beneficial bilateral interactions.
Despite the decline in Chinese tourists, there were 6.28 million tourists from January to last month, representing growth of 7.9 percent from the same period last year, and the number of tourists grew 1.9 percent monthly last month alone, Tung said.
The growth is the result of an increased number of Japanese and South Korean tourists, with the number of Japanese travelers increasing by 17.5 percent annually and the number of South Korean visitors increasing by 52.8 percent annually in the January-to-July period, Tung said.
The growth indicates that the government’s promotional efforts in Japan and South Korea are paying off, and a visa-waiver program offered to Thais and Bruneians starting this month is expected to attract more visitors, he said. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2016/08/28/2003654034 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/50b34d163fadac17e9f7543b3b896d49b86f1462750d38bd0ff800add3cd955d.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:51:40 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | The Taipei Universiade Organizing Committee might replace local hip-hop trio Jiu Yi Yi (玖壹壹) as the spokespersons for the sporting event, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday, after the group sparked backlashes at home and overseas over a music video that has been criticized as offensive toward several religions. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ffront%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654013.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/28/thumbs/P01-160828-3.jpg | en | null | Universiade might replace group over video backlash | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Sean Lin / Staff reporter
The Taipei Universiade Organizing Committee might replace local hip-hop trio Jiu Yi Yi (玖壹壹) as the spokespersons for the sporting event, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday, after the group sparked backlashes at home and overseas over a music video that has been criticized as offensive toward several religions.
Ko made the remark in response to reporters’ questions over whether the city government would dismiss the group, who agreed to be the face of the Taipei 2017 Summer Universiade for free.
Ko initially said the committee had not made any plans to replace Jiu Yi Yi, adding: “If something went wrong, just correct it.”
When asked how the city would cope with the negative feedback the group has triggered in Malaysia, Ko said the committee would consider replacing the group.
“We will have more discussions about this matter. I do not think knee-jerk reactions are necessary,” he added.
In a recently released music video for a song titled Oh My God, the three Jiu Yi Yi members are seen dressed up as the Prophet Mohammed, Buddhist monk Xuanzang (玄奘) and a Taoist monk.
Malaysian rapper Namewee, whose real name is Wee Meng Chee (黃明志), and who is a collaborator of the group, wrote the song and portrayed Jesus Christ in the video.
In the video, “Mohammed” swaggers about several locations in Malaysia, including a mosque, carrying a rifle.
The four dressed as religious figures later indulge themselves with alcohol and a game of poker, during which they have an argument, prompting “Mohammed” to point his rifle at the others.
The video triggered an outpouring of online criticism almost immediately after its release, with many netizens calling the group “ignorant.”
Citing the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris last year, Christopher Hall said in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel Dream Lucid that the video could irritate religious extremists and make Taiwan a target of terrorist attacks.
The video has also drawn fire from Malaysian authorities.
Malaysian police on Sunday last week remanded Namewee into custody for questioning over his “intent to insult a religion.”
Jiu Yi Yi, which in Chinese means “911,” posted a video on Facebook in response to the controversy, saying they were approached by Wee to collaborate on the song, adding that the creative direction of the video and song’s lyrics were Wee’s alone.
The song’s message is about four religions living together in peace, the group said.
However, the group did not apologize for stirring up controversy, as many people had demanded, saying that netizens who criticized them had no knowledge of what had occurred and that the negative feedback only made them more determined to continue writing new songs.
The group has created a song for the Universiade, which they performed in front of Taipei City Hall last week to promote the event.
Jiu Yi Yi was nominated for best singing group at this year’s Golden Melody Awards. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2016/08/28/2003654013 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/084982b1d3977220576b7604a0ebabbaced48272eaee7a670bd39abe25aa8e14.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:52:17 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | Google executive David Drummond on Monday left the Uber board of directors as competition revs up between the companies over self-driving cars. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2F2003654197.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Google’s top lawyer resigns from Uber’s board amid rivalry over new vehicles | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, SAN FRANCISCO
Google executive David Drummond on Monday left the Uber board of directors as competition revs up between the companies over self-driving cars.
“I recently stepped down from Uber’s board given the overlap between the two companies,” Google chief legal officer Drummond said in a statement.
Drummond said that Google remains an “enthusiastic investor” in the on-demand ride-sharing service.
Uber cofounder and chief executive Travis Kalanick said Drummond had been a “sage advisor and great personal friend,” and adding that he was looking forward to continued cooperation between the companies.
Google parent Alphabet and San Francisco-based Uber have both been working on getting self-driving cars on roads, with their relationship evidently getting bumpier as efforts gain traction.
Uber recently announced plans to deploy driverless cars for its ride-sharing services in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this month, pushing the envelope for the use of self-driving technology.
Uber said the program would begin with the cars carrying company “co-pilots,” engineers and safety personnel.
At the same time, it also announced two other moves to further solidify itself as a trailblazer in driverless cars.
It established a US$300 million venture with Chinese-owned Volvo Cars in Sweden to develop self-driving cars for sale by 2021.
And Uber is buying Otto, a San Francisco startup developing self-driving commercial trucks.
For the past two years, Uber has made a strong push into developing self-driving car technology.
Uber and Volvo were two of the founding members of a coalition unveiled in April to push for a unified US legal code on self-driving cars — a group that also includes Google, Ford Motor Co and Lyft.
Autonomous cars are among big-vision ideas pursued by Google’s X lab.
A car industry executive was hired last year to turn it into its own company at Google parent Alphabet. Google has driven its autonomous cars about 2.4 million kilometers with only some minor dustups.
In May, the company announced plans for its self-driving car program to put down roots in the Detroit area with a technology center.
The facility will house engineers and others testing vehicles provided by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Alphabet said at the time.
The collaboration with Fiat Chrysler marked the first time the Internet giant has worked directly with an automaker to build self-driving vehicles. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/31/2003654197 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/5479f93ccbf8cd7268796a1e7c291e3284b881df6ca75b180b6239272ee078a3.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:51:15 | null | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | Taipei First Girls’ Senior High School’s Parent Teacher Association yesterday said that it would postpone a lawsuit against a woman who had criticized online the behavior of two of the school’s students, who were reportedly left upset over the incident. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ftaiwan%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2F2003653963.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Parents’ group to delay lawsuit on chicken criticism | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Chien Li-chung, Liang Pei-chi and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with staff writer
Taipei First Girls’ Senior High School’s Parent Teacher Association yesterday said that it would postpone a lawsuit against a woman who had criticized online the behavior of two of the school’s students, who were reportedly left upset over the incident.
The woman, surnamed Lee (李), on Thursday posted pictures of the students, saying: “I do not know whose daughters these young women are, but they should be chickens,” as the students had not yielded their seats on the MRT to older people nor women with infants.
The word “chicken” (雞) in Chinese holds a connotation of “prostitute” (妓), possibly due to their similar pronunciation.
Lee yesterday said she had not finished typing the sentence before accidentally posting the message, adding that she had intended to follow up the post with: “Even chickens laying eggs do not take that long.”
Lee expressed her willingness to apologize for the pictures and comments.
Chou Wu-jung (周武榮), a lawyer hired by the association, yesterday issued a statement saying that Lee’s comments contravened the Personal Information Protection Act (個人資料保護法) and the Criminal Code.
Lee has not properly expressed contrition, attempting to fob off her post as only a fragment of a complete statement, Chou said.
The association has only made an informal accusation against Lee and was postponing legal action, as the two students are under a significant amount of pressure, Chou added.
Association chairman Chen Cheng-chung (陳正忠) said the students needed time with their families and should not be further disturbed by legal proceedings over the incident.
Additional reporting by Chen Yi-yun | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2016/08/27/2003653963 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/2d37bce583a912930770bdad91a78910950bb0e41ec220f8832a894acd5ce063.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:08:58 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | The Executive Yuan yesterday said it plans to earmark NT$340 billion (US$10.7 billion) for a stimulus package to spur economic growth, with an emphasis on boosting government investment in state-owned businesses and projects. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ftaiwan%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653889.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Cabinet mulls NT$340bn stimulus plan | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Lee Hsin-fang and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The Executive Yuan yesterday said it plans to earmark NT$340 billion (US$10.7 billion) for a stimulus package to spur economic growth, with an emphasis on boosting government investment in state-owned businesses and projects.
The National Development Council (NDC) suggested that the Cabinet focus on ameliorating the nation’s investment environment, encourage private investment, step up investment in state-owned businesses and reinforce digital innovations as the main staples of its stimulus plan.
Premier Lin Chuan (林全) said the government must take the lead by increasing investments in public projects and state-owned businesses to encourage the private sector to follow suit.
NDC Deputy Director Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said the council is unable, at this time, to provide estimates on how much the stimulus would contribute to GDP growth, but should the Executive Yuan approve the plan, immediate policies would include a two-year waiver on rent for land in industrial zones and a stable rent policy for science parks.
The rent waiver will be applicable to the Changbin Industrial Park, the Southern Taiwan Science Park, the Heping Industrial Park in Hualien, the Shihliou area (石榴) of Yunlin Technology-based Industrial Park and recently developed areas in the Yunlin Offshore Industrial Park, Kung said, adding that the lease must not be less than six months.
The government is also looking to lower the rent in science parks by an average of 8.99 percent, he said.
The policy aims to help solve common problems confronting industries, including land shortage by focusing on renting instead of selling land in industrial zones and science parks, provide stable power sources via renewable resources, upgrade existing pipelines and promote reusable water resources, Kung said.
The Executive Yuan plans to increase the capacity of the power generation units at the Datan Power Plant in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音), expand and upgrade components at the Shenao Harbor power plant and boost hydroelectric power generation at the Liyutan Dam (鯉魚潭) as part of its increased investment in state-owned businesses, Kung said, adding that the upgrades to Datan power plant alone would cost NT$110 billion.
Other investments in state-owned enterprises or public projects include the establishment of a military port in Keelung City, a container terminal on the west coast, more warehouses for logistics, promotion of solar power generation, investment in 5G networks and reinforcing key facilities at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Kung said.
The stimulus plan aims to build a solid foundation for digital innovation, including ramping up broadband and Wi-Fi connections in campuses, ensuring that rural areas also enjoy basic Internet facilities, helping the government transition into a digital environment and offering aid to corporations for them to do the same, Kung said.
As for providing incentives for increased private sector investment, Kung said the government would encourage corporations to invest in new equipment, participate in the government’s plan for to promote “five innovative industries,” bolster tourism development and promote cultural-creative industries.
The “five innovative industries” is an overall plan laid out by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) during her election campaign, with promises to invest in “green” energy, an “Asian Silicon valley,” national defense, biotechnology and medicinem and Industry 4.0 to enhances Taiwan’s competitive edge. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2016/08/26/2003653889 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/d9e81c133cfc92328eaed6b0c0cc94ae0740ebc7413d0949e05b77a44d786ee3.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:51:57 | null | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | Corey Seager hit his 23rd home run to set a season record for Los Angeles Dodgers shortstops, helping his team to a 3-2 win against the Chicago Cubs in Saturday’s clash of National League division leaders. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fsport%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2F2003654086.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/29/thumbs/P12-160829-301.jpg | en | null | Dodgers edge Cubs 3-2 to expand lead | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AP, LOS ANGELES
Corey Seager hit his 23rd home run to set a season record for Los Angeles Dodgers shortstops, helping his team to a 3-2 win against the Chicago Cubs in Saturday’s clash of National League division leaders.
The Dodgers stretched their lead over San Francisco in the NL West to two games, while the Cubs’ imperious lead atop the NL Central remained at a seemingly impregnable 14 games.
In the American League’s meeting of divisional leaders, Texas established a big early lead and shut out Cleveland.
Among other key AL games, Boston beat Kansas City to stay within one game of East leaders Toronto, while Baltimore dropped three games off the pace after a heavy loss at the New York Yankees, who remain on the fringe of playoff contention.
Dodgers starter Julio Urias steered the hosts to victory by allowing only one run over six innings. It was a stark contrast to his previous outing against the Cubs, when he gave up six runs in five innings, including three homers. This time he struck out eight and improved to 4-0 since the All-Star break.
The Cubs’ four-game winning streak ended, with starter Jason Hammel hooked after just 2-1/3 innings, having given up three runs.
Texas’ Mitch Moreland hit a grand slam to cap an unusual five-run first inning that set up a 7-0 win against Cleveland.
In the first, Ian Desmond and Carlos Beltran singled with one out and both moved up a base on a pitching balk. The next hit was toward third, where Desmond dived back to base and avoided the tag, loading the bases. Rougned Odor then got on base courtesy of an error, bringing in one run, and Moreland followed with his second career slam.
Rangers starter A.J. Griffin pitched six scoreless innings to win for the first time in more than three weeks. It was the first time in 12 starts that he did not give up a homer.
Boston beat Kansas City 8-3 in a game where much of the interest centered on Dustin Pedroia’s quest for the major league record on consecutive hits.
Pedroia had hits in his first four at-bats to make it 11 straight. Attempting to equal the majors record of 12, he hit into a double play in the eighth inning.
Johnny Kling of the Cubs set the record of 12 in 1902, Pinky Higgins of the Red Sox matched it in 1938 and Detroit’s Walt Dropo accomplished the feat in 1952.
Boston put a two-game break on Baltimore after the Orioles lost 13-5 at the Yankees.
New York rookie catcher Gary Sanchez homered for the third straight game. He has reached 11 homers in 23 games, the fastest of anyone in majors history.
The Yankees have won four straight games to move within 2-1/2 games of the second AL wild-card berth.
Colorado’s Charlie Blackmon hit two home runs, including the go-ahead shot in the 11th inning, to power the Rockies past Washington 9-4.
Blackmon connected in the third, then hit a two-run drive off Yusmeiro Petit in the 11th. He has five multihomer games this season.
Washington star Bryce Harper was ejected in the 10th after getting called out on strikes, yelling at the umpire and throwing his helmet to the ground.
Chicago’s Jose Quintana pitched 7-2/3 solid innings to guide the White Sox past Seattle 9-3.
Quintana allowed one run and struck out eight.
Jose Abreu extended his hitting streak to 10 games and his on-base streak to 23 with a solo homer in the first inning.
Avisail Garcia, Alex Avila and Tyler Saladino also hit homers for Chicago. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2016/08/29/2003654086 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/707646cca67c6e07529e5300a86408f045a62f48211cbbf51f46f36c7b8578b6.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:51:02 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | Jonas Van Genechten of Belgium sprinted to win seventh stage of the Vuelta a Espana on Friday after Alberto Contador crashed near the finish line. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fsport%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654021.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/28/thumbs/P10-160828-311.jpg | en | null | Belgian wins Vuelta stage as Contador crashes near finish | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AP, PUEBLA DE SANABRIA, Spain
Jonas Van Genechten of Belgium sprinted to win seventh stage of the Vuelta a Espana on Friday after Alberto Contador crashed near the finish line.
Contador’s front wheel caught on another bike in a tight pack making a turn, sending him and other riders into the temporary barrier marking the course’s final kilometer. Contador was quickly back on his bike, but had several visible scratches and tears to his jersey as he slowly pedaled across the line.
The seven-time Grand Tour winner, including three Vuelta titles, said his Tinkoff-Saxo team would assess his health.
“I was hit by someone that likes braking a lot and crashed on my left side,” Contador said. “I took a big hit on my calf and my quad, and in general I have extensive superficial wounds on the entire left side of my body. It hurts a lot, but it seems that there is nothing broken.”
Colombian Darwin Atapuma held onto the overall lead of the Grand Tour, although Alejandro Valverde did chip into his advantage after picking up four bonus seconds for finishing third.
Van Genechten, 29, beat a group of sprinters to claim the 158.5km stage over three category-three climbs from Maceda to Puebla de Sanabria in 3 hours, 55 minutes, 44 seconds.
Van Genechten, who rides for IAM Cycling, called his first Grand Tour win the biggest victory of his career.
“At the Vuelta the chance for a win is very small, so we have to fight for every single chance,” he said. “This was one of my goals.” | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2016/08/28/2003654021 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/c37fe45207974ac3dffb00d3b5d1302dc92cc85e4a119fb38a308bc068c66d20.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:49:32 | null | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) plans to issue up to NT$23 billion (US$726.2 million) in debentures to meet regulatory capital reserves and coverage requirements as well as pay for cash dividends, its parent company said yesterday. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2F2003653926.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Taipei Fubon Bank plans bond issue to boost capital | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Ted Chen / Staff reporter
Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) plans to issue up to NT$23 billion (US$726.2 million) in debentures to meet regulatory capital reserves and coverage requirements as well as pay for cash dividends, its parent company said yesterday.
“Due to operating constraints, cash contribution from subsidiaries’ earnings is limited, and issuing unsecured debt will enable the company to raise cash without diluting its earnings per share,” Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) president Vivien Hsu (許婉美) told an investors’ conference in Taipei.
CONSUMER FINANCING
Fubon Financial’s board on Wednesday approved plans to spend 125 million yuan (US$18.7 million) to create an online consumer financing company in China with a local partner, pending regulatory approval in both countries.
“We hope to gain experience in China’s market for online financial services,” Hsu said, adding that the project is still in the early stage.
Plans for overseas expansion are still focused on China, as opposed to Southeast Asia, Hsu said, citing a lack of compelling targets in terms of price and shareholding limits in other countries.
LANDHOLDINGS
Hsu also addressed questions over Fubon Financial’s recent forays into the hotel business, saying the company does not expect any conflict of interest arising from utilization of its life insurance subsidiary’s landholdings.
Hsu was responding to accusations by independent board member Chen Jin-ji (陳錦稷) that a privately controlled hotel management consulting affiliate was seeking to profit from development projects built on land owned by Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽).
Hsu said Fubon Life has not begun evaluating development contracts for a number of prime land parcels it owns in Taipei.
She said the hotel management affiliate is controlled by a Fubon Financial shareholder and the company would meet all regulatory guidelines in declaring transactions and land lease agreements with an interested party.
In the first half of this year, Fubon Financial’s net income plunged 43.7 percent annually to NT$23.7 billion, or earnings per share of NT$2.32, but still topped its domestic peers.
Over the same period, its return on assets reached 0.79 percent, down from 1.53 percent a year ago, while return on equity slid to 11.79 percent from 21.25 percent last year.
With total assets of more than NT$6 trillion, the company is the nation’s second-largest financial group. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/27/2003653926 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/fdb514d861c08e9e03c2eaafef07d7c2e758c8310fc0c611b19011c07e1a6a5a.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:53:50 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | Tourist John Gleason crept through the grass, four small children close behind, inching toward a bull elk with antlers like small trees at the edge of a meadow in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2F2003654179.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/30/thumbs/P07-160830-305.jpg | en | null | Wild tourists bedevil US national parks | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AP, YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyoming
Tourist John Gleason crept through the grass, four small children close behind, inching toward a bull elk with antlers like small trees at the edge of a meadow in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
“They’re going to give me a heart attack,” said Gleason’s mother-in-law, Barbara Henry, as the group came within about 10m of the massive animal.
The elk’s ears then pricked up and it eyed the children and Washington state man before leaping up a hillside. Other tourists — likewise ignoring rules to keep 22m from wildlife — picked up the pursuit, snapping photographs as they pressed forward and forced the animal into headlong retreat.
Record visitor numbers at the nation’s first national park have transformed its annual summer rush into a sometimes dangerous frenzy, with selfie-taking tourists routinely breaking park rules and getting too close to Yellowstone’s storied elk herds, grizzly bears, wolves and bison.
Law enforcement records obtained by reporters suggest such problems are on the rise at the park, offering a stark illustration of the pressures facing some of the US’ most treasured lands as the US National Park Service marks its 100th anniversary.
From Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains to the Grand Canyon of Arizona, major parks are grappling with illegal camping, vandalism, theft of resources, wildlife harassment and other visitor misbehavior, according to the records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
In Yellowstone, rangers are recording more wildlife violations, more people treading on sensitive thermal areas and more camping in off-limit areas. The rule-breaking puts visitors in harm’s way and can damage resources and displace wildlife, officials said.
Recent events at Yellowstone grabbed national headlines: A Canadian tourist who put a bison calf in his SUV hoping to save it, ending with wildlife workers euthanizing the animal when they could not reunite it with its herd.
Three visitors from Asia cited on separate occasions for illegally collecting water from the park’s thermal features. A Washington state man killed after leaving a designated boardwalk and falling into a near-boiling hot spring.
The flouting of park rules stems from disbelief among visitors that they will get hurt, Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk said.
“I can’t tell you how many times I have to talk to people and say, ‘Step back. There’s a dangerous animal,’ and they look at me like I have three heads,” he said.
Beyond incidents that lead to citations are many more that result in warnings. More than 52,000 warnings were issued last year, up almost 20 percent from the year before.
Washington state resident Lisa Morrow’s son was among the children Gleason led toward the elk. Despite safety advisories — and numerous examples of visitors getting gored by bison, mauled by bears and chased by elk — Morrow declared herself unafraid of the park’s wildlife.
She said she was eager to see a grizzly up close.
“I want to see one right there,” Morrow said, pointing to a spot about 1m away. “I’d throw it a cookie.”
Wenk said the rise in popularity of social media complicates keeping visitors safe.
“You take a picture of yourself standing 10 feet [3m] in front of a bison, and all of a sudden a few hundred people see it, and it’s reposted — at the same time we’re telling everybody wildlife is dangerous,” Wenk said. “They get incongruous messages and then it happens. They get too close, and the bison charges.” | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/30/2003654179 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/989fc5c2ca1c76c27f7ed7a08b1415f3779394d098d1913bab61e611928e9b1a.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:49:42 | null | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | Baidu Inc (百度) has quietly removed advertising for bitcoin and all other forms of virtual currency from its online service, two of China’s largest bitcoin exchanges said, signaling a growing wariness over the proliferation of online scammers. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2F2003653931.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Baidu bans ads for bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Bloomberg
Baidu Inc (百度) has quietly removed advertising for bitcoin and all other forms of virtual currency from its online service, two of China’s largest bitcoin exchanges said, signaling a growing wariness over the proliferation of online scammers.
The country’s most popular search engine froze cryptocurrency ads from Thursday, according to local exchanges OKCoin and Huobi (火幣).
Huobi CEO Leon Li (李林) and OKCoin’s Jiang Anming, a member of its search engine marketing team, separately confirmed the ban to Bloomberg News.
The company declined to comment.
Baidu has weathered a storm of public criticism of late over paid ads featuring everything from gambling Web sites to unconventional medical treatments, the latter blamed for the death of a medical student this year.
The ban also reflects official sentiment. While China makes up more than 90 percent of global bitcoin trading, its central bank has said it is not a “real” currency.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), which is studying the prospect of issuing its own virtual currency, has taken steps to prevent bitcoin from becoming entrenched in the financial system.
Digital currencies gained prominence with the rise of bitcoin, which is mined with high-powered computers and operates with a distributed ledger that contains the payment history of every circulation.
Financial institutions are experimenting with that underlying technology, but its volatility — and episodes such as the highly publicized hacking of Hong Kong bitcoin exchange Bitfinex — have made regulators wary of its speculative nature.
In 2014, the PBOC established a research team to study digital currencies and applications.
In January, it said it has consulted experts from Citigroup Inc and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd, although it did not specify what technology it would be using to issue its digital currency or how it would work in relation to the yuan. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/27/2003653931 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/4b93d863f6b324e1398367992f49e6f0cb197db3b356475a358e0cd5647bbf57.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:50:35 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | Farmer Abelardo Ayala took a tough decision on his estate in San Juan Tepezontes, a traditional coffee-producing region of El Salvador: to swap his coffee trees for cocoa as a warming climate hit his crop. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003653994.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/28/thumbs/P15-160828-307.jpg | en | null | Hit by climate change, coffee growers get a taste for cocoa | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Nelson Renteria / Thomson Reuters Foundation, SAN SALVADOR
Farmer Abelardo Ayala took a tough decision on his estate in San Juan Tepezontes, a traditional coffee-producing region of El Salvador: to swap his coffee trees for cocoa as a warming climate hit his crop.
Ayala said his plantation — situated between 600m and 1,000m above sea level in the south-central department of La Paz — had been ideal for growing coffee. However, with rising temperatures, production became difficult.
In the past four years, recurring drought, a plague of coffee borer beetles and other problems linked to climate shifts put his coffee plantation on the ropes.
The farmer tried sowing varieties resistant to a widespread fungus called roya (coffee rust), which affects the leaves and harms bean production, but that failed to protect his harvest.
In low-lying areas, many producers have abandoned their crops, or sold their land to urban developers.
However, Ayala started to study the benefits of cocoa, including its low cost of production, good price on international markets and environmental value, such as protecting water basins and wildlife.
“People here are starting to cultivate cocoa in zones where before there was coffee,” the farmer told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Drought and climate change are making it impossible to work with coffee, so we produce cocoa now.”
Mexico and Central America, which together produce one-fifth of the world’s Arabica coffee beans, have been hit hard by roya and the volatility of coffee prices in the last few years.
“The situation has led many producers to change from coffee to cocoa. It is happening step by step,” Nicaraguan farmer Luis Moreno said, referring to growers in Jinotega department, one of the nation’s principal coffee regions.
“Where they have coffee, they get a harvest and then take out [the plant] — so now they are left only with cocoa cultivation,” he said.
Moreno is technical coordinator for the People’s Community Action Association, which has been giving cocoa plants and technical help to small producers since 2014. He says the program has been a success so far.
The farmers find it cheaper to grow cocoa because it needs fewer workers and about 40 percent less investment in inputs than coffee, while international prices are buoyant.
“It is more profitable,” Moreno said.
According to VECO, a Belgium-based non-governmental organization that works with small-scale farmers in developing countries, Central America has about 25,000 cocoa producers, spread across Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador, growing cocoa on about 12,700 hectares.
VECO estimates cocoa production will expand to about 25,500 hectares in 2019.
“Many studies prove that coffee production will move higher up because of global warming,” VECO regional director Karen Janssens said. “For this reason, cocoa could be an alternative for producers whose estates are in lower zones.”
When the Spanish arrived in Mesoamerica in the early 1500s, they observed that indigenous people used cocoa seeds like currency.
Cocoa is a species native to the region and was cultivated by the Aztec, Mayan and Pipil people until the 19th century when coffee was introduced from Africa, largely replacing cocoa.
Salvadoran National Indigenous Coordinating Council member Nestor Perez said indigenous communities began re-introducing cocoa trees on their lands in 2014. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/28/2003653994 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/f5b2cad2a7b610278e62699fc534b2dd3fbe3699ba3f504f6ee3834398000441.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:52:13 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | A team of high-school students won four gold medals at the International Earth Science Olympiad that ended yesterday in Japan’s Mie Prefecture, successfully defending the nation’s title as the contest’s top-ranking participant for the 10th consecutive year. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ftaiwan%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654035.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/28/thumbs/P02-160828-1.jpg | en | null | Four make history at Olympiad | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Sean Lin / Staff reporter
A team of high-school students won four gold medals at the International Earth Science Olympiad that ended yesterday in Japan’s Mie Prefecture, successfully defending the nation’s title as the contest’s top-ranking participant for the 10th consecutive year.
The team’s four members all claimed gold medals, with Taipei Municipal Fuxing Senior High School student Huang Chia-kuan (黃家冠), ranking No. 1 globally, being the team’s top performer.
The three other gold medalists are Taipei First Girls’ Senior High School student Liu Juo-yu (劉若愉), National Taichung First Senior High School student Chen Yun-chung (陳允中) and Tainan First Senior High School student Hsu Yu-lun (許育綸).
One hundred students from 26 nations participated in the competition.
This year’s questions were difficult, as they no longer follow the pattern in which they separately dealt with meteorology, oceanography, astronomy and geology, National Central University meteorology professor Lin Pay-liam (林沛練) said.
Rather, they focused heavily on Earth system science, which tested the students’ ability to solve interdisciplinary questions, Lin said.
South Korea used to be Taiwan’s greatest rival in the contest, but its ranking declined to third place this year, behind Japan, he said.
Lin, who has coached the national Earth Science Olympiad team for the past 10 years, said that the nation is frequently hit by earthquakes or typhoons, making Earth science a part of everyday life, which gives Taiwanese students an advantage.
This advantage, combined with training, helped the students achieve the remarkable results, he added.
The team members developed a camaraderie and often share knowledge and hold discussions among themselves, which is a rare attribute, Lin said.
Huang said the first thing he did after he learned that he won was call his parents.
He expressed his gratitude for his junior-high school Earth science teacher, whose animated teaching style aroused his interest in the subject.
It is important to know about the environment one lives in, Huang said, adding that he hopes to become a geologist.
Liu said that she reads astrology journals, which helped her developed a keen interest in the subject.
Female students are not different from their male counterparts in their abilities to learn Earth science, she said, but added that most female students lack confidence.
Liu said she would like to encourage more female students to participate in science competitions. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2016/08/28/2003654035 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/1519373eca8b6ca116e7418fe16096648b7831c70e625c9b77ccfd08cdf1832b.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:52:44 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday said that his bloody anti-drug campaign that has left nearly 1,800 people dead does not amount to genocide, but added that he is ready to go to jail to defend his men from lawsuits. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2F2003654173.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/30/thumbs/P06-160830-313.jpg | en | null | Deaths from Philippines’ war on drugs not genocide: President Rodrigo Duterte | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AP, MANILA
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday said that his bloody anti-drug campaign that has left nearly 1,800 people dead does not amount to genocide, but added that he is ready to go to jail to defend his men from lawsuits.
Duterte drew a line between the widespread killings sparked by his anti-drug war and the brutality under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the atrocities committed by the Islamic State.
“Genocide? Who did I kill? I did not kill any child. I did not drop barrel [bombs] just like Assad,” Duterte said in a speech to war veterans, ambassadors and top officials marking the Philippines’ National Heroes’ Day. “I’m fighting ... criminals.”
Referring to Islamic State militants, whom he called “idiots,” Duterte said: “I do not burn women because they refuse to have sex.”
At least 1,779 drug suspects have been killed in Duterte’s campaign, including 712 who were gunned down in clashes with police, with the rest being slain in still unclear circumstances, the national police chief told a Philippine Senate inquiry last week.
At least 3.7 million Filipinos have become addicted to methamphetamine, a prohibited stimulant known locally as “shabu,” with about 600,000 drug users and dealers surrendering to authorities, Duterte said.
Human rights groups have expressed alarm over the spate of killings, and UN-appointed human rights experts warned steps should be taken to halt the violence, adding that the government and police could be held responsible.
“Claims to fight the illicit drug trade do not absolve the government from its international legal obligations and do not shield state actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings,” UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions Agnes Callamard said in a statement this month.
Duterte, 71, built a name with his deadly crime-busting style as a long-time mayor of southern Davao city. He described his campaign against drugs as a harsh war that would involve the military, because the problem has worsened into a crisis and claimed the lives of law enforcers.
“We might still end up like the South American countries and their fractured governments. I am declaring war,” he told an audience at a national heroes’ cemetery that included ambassadors, war veterans and security officials.
The drug menace, “has infected every nook and corner of this country involving generals, mayors, governors, barangay [village] captains” and policemen, he said.
Pressing his campaign, Duterte announced bounties of 2 million pesos (US$43,044) for information that would help the government identify any police officer protecting drug syndicates.
He repeated his pledge to defend the police and military, but warned law enforcement against colluding with criminals.
“In the pursuit of law and order, pursuant to my directions, you do not have to worry about criminal liability,” he said. “I will go to the prison for you. I take full legal responsibility, you just do it according to the books.”
“But for those in government, the police, the corrupt police and the corrupt judges and the corrupt prosecutors, there will be a day of comeuppance, there will always be a day of reckoning,” Duterte said. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/30/2003654173 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/8f564ae87af2b1ecfa308d793afa247aee4d96bae4c4aff96ddb1a02fcf50ba2.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:03:38 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | The surf costume competition, which sees surfers donning superhero outfits, French maid corsets and what not while they try to catch waves, is back tomorrow for the third year in a row at Waiao Beach (外澳) in Yilan County (宜蘭). | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ffeat%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653877.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/26/thumbs/p14-160826-sea.jpg | en | null | Highlight: Surf Costume Competition Charity Event | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Dana Ter / Staff reporter
The surf costume competition, which sees surfers donning superhero outfits, French maid corsets and what not while they try to catch waves, is back tomorrow for the third year in a row at Waiao Beach (外澳) in Yilan County (宜蘭).
The NT$500 registration fee paid by competitors will be donated to the Eden Social Welfare Foundation (伊甸社會福利基金會), which helps underprivileged children.
While spectators need not pay an admission fee, donations to the charity, are, of course, welcome.
The competition will take place from 2pm to 4pm. Participants will be judged according to the following categories: best costume, best wipe out and best pose (as related to their costume).
The afternoon will be followed by the awards ceremony and live music by African Beach Beats, who will also be offering drumming lessons for NT$300. Again, if you’re just coming to watch the competition, there’s no need to don a costume, although that isn’t discouraged, either.
■ Tomorrow from 2:30pm to 8pm at Rising Sun Surf Inn by Waiao Train Station (外澳火車站). Take the bus from Taipei City Hall Bus Station (市府轉運站) to Jiaosi (礁溪) for NT$90, then the train three stops northbound to Waiao for NT$15. Total commute is slightly over an hour
■ Admission is free. For more information, visit: www.facebook.com/events/1763042870619665 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2016/08/26/2003653877 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/57e5059a284ad1313b7f958216ab207d408c668270e096447ab5038768af46a1.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:08:22 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | The National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) yesterday said that Nan Shan Life Insurance Co must contribute to its agents’ National Health Insurance premiums, after more than 100 members of the firm’s labor union protested outside the Executive Yuan. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ftaiwan%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653902.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/26/thumbs/p04-160826-aa1.jpg | en | null | Nan Shan ordered to pay life insurance premiums | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter
The National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) yesterday said that Nan Shan Life Insurance Co must contribute to its agents’ National Health Insurance premiums, after more than 100 members of the firm’s labor union protested outside the Executive Yuan.
Following a meeting between government officials and union representatives, union spokesman Chiu Chun-chi (邱俊祺) said the NHIA had agreed to fine the company if it failed to obey an order to begin contributing to premiums.
Chiu welcomed the NHIA’s decision, while calling for further steps to forgive previous government premium claims against workers, who had been liable for higher rates after the company refused to make contributions on the grounds that they were contracted workers rather than employees.
“The government should have enforced the law long ago, and they should re-examine why it was not applied sooner,” he said.
The NHIA’s decision followed a protest by more than 100 of the firm’s agents outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei, with union members raising their fists and accusing the government of “bouncing” electoral “checks” to address their situation.
Union members have been on strike since December last year over changes to evaluation procedures and benefits, following years of conflict and administrative lawsuits over how to define their employment status.
“[President] Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has to show the resolve to apply the law indiscriminately — there can be no separation of Labor Insurance and National Health Insurance,” union president Yan Ching-lung (嚴慶龍) said, adding that 1,700 of the union’s members were “orphans” in the National Health Insurance system, forced to apply through their vocational union because of the firm’s refusal to make contributions.
Whether the agents should be considered contracted workers or full-time employees entitled to Labor Insurance and National Health Insurance has been a long-standing point of contention, with Nan Shan being forced to pay Labor Insurance premiums beginning in 2011 after losing an administrative lawsuit, union supervisor Liu Wei-yu (劉惟裕) said.
He said agents are forced to pay 60 percent of their National Health Insurance premiums while receiving coverage under their vocational union, double the percentage they pay when receiving coverage under a corporation. Corporations are obligated pay 60 percent of employee premiums with the government making up the difference.
Taipei City Confederation of Trade Unions chairwoman Cheng Ya-hui (鄭雅慧) said Nan Shan’s refusal to pay National Health Insurance premiums while covering Labor Insurance premiums was unique and had the potential to set a precedent within the insurance industry.
“What is to prevent other insurance corporations from demanding the same treatment?” she said. “If Tsai feels that National Health Insurance is a basic right, she should force National Health Insurance and Labor Insurance to be considered together.”
Nan Shan Life Insurance Co said the union was “mixing up fish eyes and pearls” in its call for National Health Insurance and Labor Insurance to be considered together, adding that it is in the process of applying for a ruling on the constitutionality of the Supreme Administrative Courts determination that insurance agents were formal employees.
Additional reporting by Liao Chien-ying | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2016/08/26/2003653902 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/02a91fd0e08b21b5ef66ff9e831530c325257bb18c277f650e3934142694147d.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:12:48 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | North Korean leader Kim Jong-un supervised the test-firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile and declared it “the greatest success,” which puts the country in the “front rank” of nuclear military powers, official media reported yesterday. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653909.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Kim Jong-un declares missile launch ‘success’ | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Reuters, SEOUL
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un supervised the test-firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile and declared it “the greatest success,” which puts the country in the “front rank” of nuclear military powers, official media reported yesterday.
North Korea fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) on Wednesday that flew about 500km toward Japan.
The South Korean government and experts said the launch showed technical progress in the North’s SLBM program.
“A test-fire of strategic submarine-launched ballistic missile was successfully conducted under the guidance of supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army Kim Jong-un,” the North’s official KCNA news agency said.
“He appreciated the test-fire as the greatest success and victory,” KCNA said.
“He noted with pride that the results of the test-fire proved in actuality that the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] joined the front rank of the military powers fully equipped with nuclear attack capability.”
North Korea has conducted a spate of military technology tests this year, including a fourth nuclear test in January and numerous ballistic missile launches, in defiance of UN Security Council sanctions that were tightened in March.
North Korea said this year it had miniaturized a nuclear warhead to fit on a ballistic missile, but outside experts have said there is yet no firm evidence to back up that claim or show it had mastered the technology to bring a live warhead back into the atmosphere and guide it to strike a target.
North Korean state television yesterday showed video clips of the launch of a missile from underwater at dawn and photographs of Kim on the dock at a port as a large crane unloaded an object onto a submarine.
Kim is also seen jubilantly celebrating with military aides in photographs carried by the official Rodong Sinmun.
The Washington-based 38 North project said in a report that the missile was launched from the North’s sole experimental missile submarine and a satellite photograph taken on Monday showed final preparations, likely after the missile had already been loaded onto the submarine using a heavy construction crane.
The test showed the missile’s control and guidance systems, as well as the atmospheric re-entry of the warhead all met operational requirements, KCNA said.
The South Korean and US militaries said the missile was fired from near the coastal city of Sinpo, which has a submarine base.
Japan said the missile reached its air defense identification zone.
The UN Security Council on Wednesday met behind closed doors at the request of the US and Japan to discuss the launch.
Deputy Russian ambassador to the UN Petr Iliichev said the US would circulate a draft press statement.
The meeting came after the Security Council was unable to condemn a missile launch by the North earlier this month that landed near Japan because China wanted the statement to also oppose the planned deployment of a US missile defense system in South Korea.
China on Wednesday said that it opposes the North’s nuclear and missile programs.
It had been angered by what it views as provocative moves by the US and South Korea on the decision to deploy an anti-missile system in South Korea. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/26/2003653909 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/1edd0058325d5ff91aca27663cee2f6abaa7b4302b955f9215018b6be205b92f.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:13:20 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | To stop wild elephants from rampaging through their produce, farmers in Thailand put up electric fences, set off firecrackers and even switched their crops from pineapples to pumpkins, which the pachyderms do not relish much. Nothing worked, so the villagers decided on Plan Bee. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653906.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/26/thumbs/P05-160826-307.jpg | en | null | Thai farmers turn to bees to stop elephants | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AP, PANA, Thailand
To stop wild elephants from rampaging through their produce, farmers in Thailand put up electric fences, set off firecrackers and even switched their crops from pineapples to pumpkins, which the pachyderms do not relish much. Nothing worked, so the villagers decided on Plan Bee.
In a pilot scheme run by the Thai Department of National Parks, farmers are deploying bees as a new line of defense, exploiting elephants’ documented fear of bee stings.
The idea to play on the phobia came out of Oxford University research and has been used successfully for several years in Africa. It is now gaining a toehold in Asia.
The problem is quite severe in the eastern province of Chanthaburi, which has thick forests near farming communities that grow rice, cassava, pineapple and rubber.
There are an estimated 3,000 wild elephants in Thailand, according to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. As farmers push into forests for agriculture, elephants have been forced to venture out of their shrinking habitats in search of food.
“Starting two years ago, elephants have come and destroyed farmers’ crops almost every day,” said Prasit Sae-Lee, the head of the local administration. “Elephants travel in a herd, a big herd, razing everything to the ground everywhere they go. The ground is flattened so much so that a 10-wheeled truck can drive through after they had gone.”
Government officials suggested farmers stop growing pineapples, which elephants love.
“The latest suggestion is for us to grow pumpkins,” Prasit said. “But it didn’t solve anything. They destroyed pumpkins. They pulled roots out and stepped on them and even ate them.”
Help for the residents of the remote Pana village came from a government wildlife research station, which is helping them raise bees. It is a simple technique. Traditionally beehives are placed on the ground, but here researchers raise them on stilts, putting them at eye level for the elephants.
Beehive boxes are connected with a rope to create a fence. When the elephants try to enter, they push at the ropes and shake the beehives, causing the bees to swarm out in a fearsome cloud of buzz and venomous sting that the animals are unlikely to forget.
“At first I thought it would not work. Even the forestry officials did not think it would work,” said Boonchu Sirimaha, 66, whose family became the first in the village to participate in the research project. “But after we put the beehives up [two months ago], it worked. The elephants were stung by the bees and they have not been back since.”
The downside of the project is that it is not feasible on large farms because that would require thousands of beehive boxes, which would prove to be expensive. Each box has about 10,000 bees and costs 4,000 baht (US$115).
However, it is a good solution for small farms, and for people like Boonchu who want to protect their homes, which can be ring-fenced by beehives.
“They will have to figure out ways that are cheap for everyone to use,” said Tony Lynam of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society. “Methods they can set up by themselves such as fences with bells, and guard posts ... firecrackers, beehives, all of these things can be used together but any one of those methods by itself won’t be a solution,” he said.
Boonchu’s daughter, Dararath, is happy with the bee strategy. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/26/2003653906 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/9e6527d1d953bad54aebc9121ef71d11514c205323ac53cf22ff2c693461e7ce.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:50:13 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | US rail operator Amtrak on Friday awarded a US$2 billion deal to French manufacturer Alstom SA to supply new trains for its key Acela service between Washington, New York and Boston. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003653988.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/28/thumbs/P16-160828-312.jpg | en | null | Amtrak awards Alstom US$2bn fast-trains deal | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, WILMINGTON, Delaware
US rail operator Amtrak on Friday awarded a US$2 billion deal to French manufacturer Alstom SA to supply new trains for its key Acela service between Washington, New York and Boston.
The landmark deal for 28 new passenger trains is to boost Amtrak’s speed and capacity along its most heavily used and profitable route, with more than 3.5 million passengers a year, from 2021.
The trains are to carry more than 400 passengers, about one-third more than the existing Acela northeastern corridor express service, with a maximum speed of 300kph, although normal speeds are to hover near 260kph.
In the deal, Alstom, which makes France’s famed TGV trains, agreed to manufacture most of the new equipment for Amtrak, dubbed its Avelia Liberty line, at its plant in Hornell, New York.
The new trains, which would also serve Baltimore, Philadelphia and other key cities on the 730km route, would be able to run faster than current trains in part due to the use of Alstom’s Tiltronix system allowing the trains to lean more deeply into curves, avoiding sharp slowdowns.
US Vice President Joe Biden, a strong advocate of high-speed rail, said at a ceremony that strengthening the Acela service is crucial, as it serves one of the most densely populated and economically important regions of the country.
“This area from Boston to Washington is home to one out of every seven Americans,” he said, calling the northeast corridor “fundamentally important” to the economy.
Amtrak and Alstom said prototypes for the new trainsets will be ready in 2019, and enter commercial service two years later.
The revamp of the Acela fleet will also be matched by upgrades to stations and the rail line, Amtrak said. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/28/2003653988 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/7c318b852fa627b1c178e8d0163250e3a3df2a5397091760c715d7a18dad178e.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:51:13 | null | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | Three opinion polls released yesterday by the Taiwan Thinktank and the Chinese-language Apple Daily and China Times newspapers saw President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) approval ratings drop below 50 percent ahead of her 100th day in office today, while her disapproval ratings rose. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ffront%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2F2003653948.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/27/thumbs/P01-160827-3.jpg | en | null | Polls show drop in President Tsai’s approval ratings | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter
Three opinion polls released yesterday by the Taiwan Thinktank and the Chinese-language Apple Daily and China Times newspapers saw President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) approval ratings drop below 50 percent ahead of her 100th day in office today, while her disapproval ratings rose.
According to the Taiwan Thinktank poll, 48.5 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with Tsai’s performance, down 0.6 percentage points from last month. The percentage of people who said they were unsatisfied with her performance rose 2.4 percentage points from last month to 38.4 percent.
Premier Lin Chuan’s (林全) disapproval rating surpassed his approval rating, at 41 percent and 39.6 percent respectively, Taiwan Thinktank polling director Chou Yung-hong (周永鴻) said.
There was no significant change in Tsai’s approval rating, but her disapproval rating increased noticeably, Chou said.
Among people who expressed dissatisfaction with Tsai’s administration, issues they disagreed with most were the employees’ leave policy (42.1 percent), the cross-strait policy (30.5 percent) and pension reform (20.1 percent), Chou said.
The three most popular policies among respondents who said they approved of the administration were the handling of ill-gotten party assets (29.7 percent), pension reform (27.3 percent) and employees’ leave policy (21.5 percent), he said.
In the Apple Daily poll, Tsai’s approval and disapproval ratings were 43.59 percent and 50.49 percent respectively, while Lin had an approval rating of 38.12 percent and a disapproval rating of 53.17 percent.
The disapproval ratings rose 20 percentage points for Tsai and 15 for Lin from June, according to the poll.
Respondents said they were most dissatisfied with the administration’s cross-strait policy (49.5 percent), economic policy (49.04 percent) and labor policy (48.76 percent).
In the China Times poll, 41.4 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with Tsai’s performance, and 40.4 percent said they were dissatisfied, while for Lin, 36.7 percent said they were satisfied and 47.2 percent expressed dissatisfaction.
The China Times poll showed that 48.6 percent of respondents said the government has to dedicate the most effort to developing the economy, followed by education reform (9.7 percent) and pension reform (9 percent).
“Although Tsai’s administration has clear reform goals, its actions are confusing, which explains the rise of Tsai’s and Lin’s disapproval ratings,” New Power Party Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said.
In terms of labor policy, the administration over a short period of time put forward different schemes for holidays, such as a five-day workweek with a mandatory day off and a flexible “rest day”; a policy that entitles employees to one mandatory day off every seven days; and a proposed increase in annual leave, Hsu said.
“The inconsistency of those schemes confused the public, which was worsened by the discord between the administrative and legislative branches,” he said.
“It is most important for the government to propose policies relevant to the public, or the government will have a hard time regaining trust,” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) said.
Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said the office respected all the poll results and will continue to carry out reforms and improve its management. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2016/08/27/2003653948 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/4c5db84af10affd5273916b3c1ed13b9779281be9234f78902c27dd1ac14f30b.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:53:24 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | The Executive Yuan yesterday formed a supervisory task force to facilitate an investigation into a breach of US money laundering rules by Mega International Commercial Bank’s (兆豐銀行) New York branch. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ffront%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2F2003654207.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/31/thumbs/P01-160831-4.jpg | en | null | Cabinet task force to probe Mega Bank | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter
The Executive Yuan yesterday formed a supervisory task force to facilitate an investigation into a breach of US money laundering rules by Mega International Commercial Bank’s (兆豐銀行) New York branch.
The task force, consisting of legal and finance experts — including lawyer Chen Chuan-yueh (高涌誠), former Judicial Reform Foundation director Kao Yung-cheng (高永成), former Bank of Taiwan chairman Lu Chieh-cheng (呂桔誠), former First Commercial Bank (第一銀行) chairman Michael Chang (張兆順) and former Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行) chairmen Tsai Jer-shyong (蔡哲雄) and Wu Fang-chih (吳藩志) — is to gauge public opinion regarding the case and facilitate probes by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) and the Ministry of Justice.
“The Executive Yuan will get to the bottom of the case and hold accountable all of the people responsible,” Premier Lin Chuan (林全) told a news conference.
The FSC interviewed 28 Mega Bank officials, while the ministry is looking into suspicious accounts at the New York branch, Lin said, although little was revealed about the progress of the investigation.
The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) on Aug. 19 announced that the New York branch agreed to pay a US$180 million penalty for breaching US money laundering regulations.
There are 73 suspicious accounts and 174 suspicious transactions involved, but no money laundering activity has been detected so far, Lin said.
Lin reaffirmed the appointment of Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) chairman Hsu Kuang-shi (徐光曦) amid criticism that Lin should be held accountable for appointing someone who was responsible for the branch’s flawed practices, as suspicious transactions between Mega Bank’s New York and Panama branches occurred during Hsu’s term as the bank’s general manager.
“Although Hsu was not totally blameless, he did not bear a large share of responsibility” in failing to report suspicious account activity to US authorities, Lin said.
Hsu was appointed as chairman after the branch was fined because he has experience dealing with a similar crisis, in which the bank’s Australian branch was not fined for breaching Australia’s money laundering regulations, Lin said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was also informed of the appointment, Lin said.
Hsu is in the US to learn more about the New York branch’s operations and will prepare a formal report for the DFS, Lin said.
The FSC and the ministry are also looking into the New York branch’s practices instead of allowing Mega Bank officials to direct the investigation, Lin said in response to accusations that Hsu might cover up the branch’s activities.
The DFS was originally going to impose a bigger fine, but central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) helped facilitate negotiations between Mega Bank and US authorities to reduce the fine to US$180 million, Lin said, confirming a rumor about Peng’s intervention.
Peng, who is Hsu’s brother-in-law, helped Mega Bank connect with the US Federal Reserve to negotiate with the DFS, Lin said.
The sum of the original fine cannot be revealed due to an agreement with the US, Lin said.
The case also shows that the FSC’s supervision of Taiwanese banks’ foreign branches has to be improved, Lin said.
“We have learned a painful lesson. There is apparently much room for improvement in terms of money laundering prevention and legal compliance,” Lin said. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2016/08/31/2003654207 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/d8ec5b60ce5a4c26abb8018722aa59f7a5fa735aace6dd7b4593c34915c494ab.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:51:46 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | The Council of Aboriginal Affairs’ plans for delineating traditional Aboriginal lands represent a step back from the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民族基本法), an Aboriginal rights campaigner said yesterday, calling for the delineation authority to be returned to individual Aboriginal communities. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ftaiwan%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654033.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Council of Aboriginal Affairs’ plans for delineating lands a step back: advocate | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Abraham Gerber / Staff Reporter
The Council of Aboriginal Affairs’ plans for delineating traditional Aboriginal lands represent a step back from the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民族基本法), an Aboriginal rights campaigner said yesterday, calling for the delineation authority to be returned to individual Aboriginal communities.
“While new delineation regulations are based on the definition of traditional areas included in the Basic Act, when you look at how they intend to implement it, you see a complete contradiction,” said Indigenous Peoples’ Action Coalition of Taiwan secretary-general Omi Wilang, an Atayal Aborigine, who, with other campaigners, held a news conference opposing regulations earlier this week at the Legislative Yuan.
The council published draft delineation regulations early this month, with plans to officially delineate traditional lands by November.
While the Basic Act grants Aboriginal communities rights over resources within “traditional lands” comprised of “reserved lands” and new “traditional areas,” implementation has been delayed for more than 10 years because of the failure of the Legislative Yuan or the ministries to define the scope of “traditional areas.”
Newly announced draft regulations call for an executive committee of government officials to investigate and delineate traditional areas, with final lines subject to approval by Aboriginal communities and several governmental bodies.
“Allowing the government to make the delineation would amount to returning to the concept of ‘reserved lands’ with identical application procedures,” Omi said, calling for Aboriginal communities to be granted the authority to delineate their own traditional areas, with overlapping claims to be settled through negotiations between Aboriginal communities.
“The draft regulations might be a different ‘broth,’ but it is the same old medicine — a temporary settlement which is completely contrary to any idea of Aboriginal sovereignty,” he said, adding that “reserved lands” were still largely based on 240,000 hectares of land set aside by the Japanese colonial government after it annexed about 1.64 million hectares of traditional Aboriginal lands along the nation’s central mountain range.
The council said that it will take the objections into consideration before publishing final regulations, adding that any delineation would primarily serve as a parameter for discussions centered around the viewpoints of individual villages. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2016/08/28/2003654033 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/bf5251c4d51727317cbd50f3b88d1188dd77965e75dba9f90e83d002fd0969e1.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:49:44 | null | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | A senior executive at South Korea’s Lotte Group was found dead yesterday, a suspected suicide, hours before he was to be questioned by prosecutors conducting a criminal probe into the family-run conglomerate. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2F2003653930.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/27/thumbs/P10-160827-306.jpg | en | null | Lotte Group vice chairman found dead | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Reuters, SEOUL
A senior executive at South Korea’s Lotte Group was found dead yesterday, a suspected suicide, hours before he was to be questioned by prosecutors conducting a criminal probe into the family-run conglomerate.
Lotte Group, in a text message to reporters, said it confirmed the death of vice chairman Lee In-won through police and other sources. It did not give the cause of death.
Yonhap News Agency, citing unnamed sources, reported a body believed to be Lee’s was found on a walking path outside Seoul yesterday morning.
Police were trying to confirm the body was Lee’s, it said, adding that a suicide note was found in his car.
Lee had been with the group since 1973 and was the top executive outside the Shin family that controls the conglomerate. He was a longtime CEO of Lotte Shopping Co, one of the group’s biggest businesses.
“When I arrived after the call, the deceased was lying down, crouched here,” said Seojong precinct police station chief Hyung Dae-ryong, who was first to respond to a report of a body found under a tree along the hiking trail.
The deceased, wearing shorts and a black windbreaker, appeared to have hung himself from a tree with a necktie, Hyung told reporters.
A maroon umbrella with the Lotte logo was found nearby.
Lee was the top lieutenant of chairman Shin Dong-bin, who last year fended off a bitter challenge from his older brother for control of the group founded by their 94-year-old father, Shin Kyuk-ho.
“He oversaw Lotte Group’s overall housekeeping and core businesses, and accurately understood the minds of chairman-in-chief Shin Kyuk-ho and chairman Shin Dong-bin to be carried out well in subsidiary companies,” Lotte Group said in a statement.
Lee was also engaged in finding new growth opportunities for Lotte, the group said.
Prosecutors raided Lotte offices in June, looking into a possible slush fund, as well as breach of trust involving transactions among the group’s companies, sources said at the time.
Lee, 69, had been scheduled to appear before prosecutors yesterday morning, a Lotte official said.
Park Ju-gun, head of corporate analysis firm CEO Score, said Lee’s death was likely to hamper the investigation.
“Lee’s standing within Lotte was almost on par with that of the owner family members,” he said.
A South Korean prosecutor, who declined to be identified by name, expressed condolences for Lee’s death and said prosecutors planned to reconsider the schedule for the ongoing probe.
The investigation into Lotte had already exacted a devastating toll on its business, which ranges from hotels to retail to chemicals. Its Hotel Lotte unit was forced in June to shelve an initial public offering to raise up to 5.7 trillion won (US$5.12 billion), which would have made it the world’s largest this year.
Also in June, its Lotte Chemical Corp unit withdrew from bidding for US-based Axiall Corp, citing its difficulties in South Korea. Rival Westlake Chemical Corp ended up with a US$2.33 billion deal for Axiall. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/27/2003653930 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/c4e6c21f4e98f1c8db9fa94557c6a1ab3a68e6a9060f5a3b55c2eb6cfa352101.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:04:43 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and other Taipei officials should decline to attend next year’s Taipei-Shanghai Forum, which is to be hosted by Shanghai, given what transpired at this year’s meeting in Taipei. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Feditorials%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653867.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | EDITORIAL: Time to end the forum farce | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and other Taipei officials should decline to attend next year’s Taipei-Shanghai Forum, which is to be hosted by Shanghai, given what transpired at this year’s meeting in Taipei.
The actual conference on Tuesday was so embarrassing for Taipei that it could only be described as a debacle.
The announcement made almost two weeks ago that the forum would be held for a sixth year, after weeks of uncertainty, made Ko look good in the media. With all official cross-strait ties suspended in the wake of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) inauguration in May, people had begun speculating whether Ko could be the answer to the stalemate in cross-strait exchanges.
Unfortunately, any hope that the majority of Taiwanese who resist the so-called “1992 consensus” and unification with China had for Ko evaporated shortly after the forum began, when Shanghai Municipal Committee United Front Work Department Director Sha Hailin (沙海林) — the most senior member of the Chinese delegation — began talking about the “consensus.”
Sha’s comments were largely unexpected, given that Taipei Deputy Mayor Teng Chia-chi (鄧家基) had just days before told reporters that it was unlikely that Sha would attempt to push China’s political views.
Wrong. Sha made an all-out effort to do just that.
Sha’s speech was filled with rhetoric propagandizing unification, such as the “consensus” being the bedrock for cross-strait exchanges and the cliches that both sides of the Taiwan Strait are brothers of blood thicker than water and that the Zhonghua minzu (中華民族, “Chinese ethnic group”) should thrive together to achieve prosperity.
Beijing’s intention to impress and entice Taiwanese with China’s robust economy was manifest in Sha’s speech, especially when he boasted about the number of jobs being created annually by the Shanghai Municipal Government and the number of Taiwanese entrepreneurs who have established businesses in Shanghai.
One must give Sha credit: The head of Shanghai’s United Front Work Department excels at his craft.
However, for people who hope to maintain the “status quo” across the Strait and those who support Taiwanese independence, Sha’s speech was excruciating.
One would have thought that Ko — who famously said that former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) endorsement of the “consensus” during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore last year suggested that Ma had suffered “brain damage” — would offer a strong counterargument to Sha’s blatant interference, as he had promised.
However, when asked to comment on Sha’s speech, all Ko did was equivocate and shun questions, repeating his hollow words about promoting “respect” and “understanding” between Taiwan and China like a broken record.
However, while Ko is undoubtedly disappointed many with his actions and words at the forum, perhaps he does not deserve to bear the brunt of the public’s frustration.
If all that the forum is good for is to offer China yet another platform to impose its “one China” framework on Taiwan, why should Taipei continue to participate?
China, as tiny-minded as always, had been craving an opportunity to teach Tsai — and all those who dared to challenge it by refusing to acknowledge the “consensus” — a lesson, and the forum provided the perfect opportunity.
The impasse in cross-strait dialogue should be resolved by leaders on both sides of the Taiwan Strait demonstrating wisdom and sincerity, rather than by local government leaders, who should never have been put in a position to deal with matters beyond their purview. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2016/08/26/2003653867 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/8b69f02fb854f508373cdb4d1f7014d2785032b3cf29dcb118beea2ab1cb1726.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:51:10 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | Three top officials of Kenya’s Olympic committee have been arrested in Nairobi as investigators dig into a series of scandals and embarrassments at the Rio Games, police sources said. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fsport%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654018.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Three Kenyan Olympic officials arrested | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, NAIROBI
Three top officials of Kenya’s Olympic committee have been arrested in Nairobi as investigators dig into a series of scandals and embarrassments at the Rio Games, police sources said.
Francis Paul, secretary-general of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK), was arrested on Friday, one of the police sources said on condition of anonymity.
His deputy James Chacha and Stephen Arap Soi, who headed the Kenyan delegation to Rio, were both arrested at Nairobi airport as they returned from the Brazil Games, he added.
The arrests are “part of the investigation into the Rio scandal, and the poor management of the team for the entirety of the Games,” he said.
Another police source said the men are being held at a police station in northeastern Nairobi, and that they are due to be charged tomorrow for their chaotic management and alleged theft of official sports gear.
The Kenyan government on Aug. 18 ordered a probe into the allegations.
The officials’ embarrassing performance had a direct impact on the Kenyan athletes — who nonetheless clocked up their best Olympics yet with 13 medals, including six golds, putting them in 15th place overall, the best in Africa by far.
Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Culture and the Arts Hassan Wario on Thursday announced the disbanding of the Kenyan Olympic committee after the allegations surfaced.
However, Paul, who is now in custody, claimed that Wario did not have the legal competence to disband the NOCK, which is overseen by the International Olympic Committee, not the Kenyan government.
Wario himself has faced calls for resignation, and on Wednesday he too was questioned in connection with the probe.
Kenya’s Olympic team captain, marathon runner and elected lawmaker Wesley Korir, welcomed the NOCK officials’ arrest.
“Someone should pay the price,” he said, as he called on Wario to resign. “If you are the head of an organization and you do not even know what is going on, my friend you are supposed to go home.”
PASSPORTS RETURNED
Reuters, RIO DE JANEIRO
A Rio de Janeiro court will return the passports of three members of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) and they will be allowed to leave Brazil, a source in the Rio state security services said on Friday.
The passports were seized by Brazilian police, along with computers, mobile phones and unused tickets as part of an investigation into allegations of an illegal Olympics ticketing scam.
OCI treasurer Kevin Kilty, secretary-general Dermot Henihan and executive director Stephen Martin have collaborated with the police in the investigation and would be able to return to Ireland, said the source, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
“There is no longer the necessity to keep them here,” the source said.
Pat Hickey, former head of Ireland’s Olympic council, is still being held in a Rio prison complex.
Police allege Hickey is implicated in a scam involving Ireland’s official Games ticket reseller, Dublin-based PRO10 Sports Management, and an international sports hospitality company, THG Sports.
They accuse PRO10 of funneling tickets to THG Sports, which sold them illegally at inflated prices. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2016/08/28/2003654018 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/58fb080dbeb4d8d8fcb52da6cf9486ca6a641134f6ae6d23ac48727fc85f44a3.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:49:47 | null | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | STOCK MARKET | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2F2003653929.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Taiwan Business Quick Take | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Staff writer, with agencies
STOCK MARKET
TWSE announces changes
Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TWSE, 台灣證券交易所) has asked listed firms to disclose sensitive information earlier than was previously required to give investors quicker access to it and help them make more informed investment decisions. Because block trading starts at 8am every day before the market opens at 9am, listed companies are being asked to disclose sensitive information at least two hours before the market’s opening, compared with only one hour at present, the TWSE said. The new disclosure requirements will be implemented from next month, it said. Meanwhile, if a listed company faces an emergency, but cannot apply for a suspension in trading by the deadline, it must submit the suspension application by 7am the next day, TWSE said.
FINANCE
Deal scuttles ‘not political’
The cancelation of investment deals between China CITIC Bank Corp Ltd (中信銀行) and Taiwan’s CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) was mainly due to financial regulation and commercial reasons and had nothing to do with politics, Reuters reported yesterday, citing the president of the Chinese bank. Neither side could find an agreement after two years of discussions, Sun Deshun (孫德順) told a news conference in Beijing, according to Reuters. The two sides had earlier announced in separate statements that they had agreed to end the contract signed more than a year earlier, which includes China CITIC Bank Corp’s plan to buy a stake in CTBC Financial and CTBC Financial’s acquisition of China CITIC Bank International (China) Ltd (中信銀行國際中國).
AVIATION
CAL awaits new aircraft
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) yesterday said that it would take delivery of its first Airbus A350 aircraft this quarter, as the assembly of the A350-900 XWB (Extra Wide Body) jet airliner, including cabin furnishings and engine installation, has been completed at an Airbus plant in Toulouse, France. Ground trials and a test flight are to be conducted early next month and delivery is scheduled for the end of the month, CAL said. CAL, the first carrier in Taiwan to include the wide-body A350s in its fleet, has ordered 14 of that model and is expected to take delivery of another three by the end of the year. The new aircraft are to operate initially on regional routes — such as Taiwan to Hong Kong — and later will be used for long-haul flights to Amsterdam, Vienna, Rome and other European destinations, it said.
BREWERS
Merger to prompt job losses
The world’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, says it expects to cut about 3 percent of its total workforce — equivalent to thousands of jobs — once it completes its huge merger with its closest rival, SABMiller PLC. The company, headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, says it has about 150,000 workers, while London-based SABMiller claims to have about 70,000. That would put the estimated job losses at about 6,600. However, AB Inbev yesterday said the estimate does not include its sales and front-office supply departments, for which integration plans are not completed. It expects losses at SABMiller’s current headquarters, as the new company will be based in Leuven and New York. The ￡79 billion (US$104 billion) merger deal has received backing from SABMiller’s board, but awaits approval from the company’s shareholders. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/27/2003653929 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/a83590620af2f9a85bb6113a2aaeb7b52d3eb9c09e1355635e468384b71b30f2.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:02:23 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | Contemporary | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ffeat%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653875.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/26/thumbs/p14-160826-ChangLee.jpg | en | null | Events and entertainment listings | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Noah Buchan / Staff reporter
Contemporary
Hong Kong’s math rock band tfvsjs will play tomorrow from its recently released album, zoi, tomorrow at the The Wall (這牆), a prominent venue for indie rock artists. On Sunday it is the Anidoujin Music Fest with Japanese heavy metal singer Eizo Sakamoto, the former frontman for 1980s-era band Anthem, Rakion and Taiwan’s funk/blues/alternative band Iron Punch (鐵擊). It is a night of techno and house music tonight with DJ Yen, The Toxic Twins, Hypnic Jerk and resident DJ Al Burrow at Korner, a club located inside The Wall. Tomorrow James Ho, klueflux, Hassan Raphael, and others will serve up a mixture of drum ‘n’ bass, future bass, glitch hop and dubstep.
■ B1, 200, Roosevelt Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路四段200號B1), tel: (02) 2930-0162. On the Net: thewall.tw
■ Shows at Korner start at 11:50pm; tomorrow’s show at The Wall starts 8pm and Sunday’s show starts at 7pm
■ Tickets for Korner cost NT$200; The Wall tickets cost NT$1,100 tomorrow and NT$1,700 on Sunday, available online through thewall.tw
It’s a night of new age electric, rap and hip-hop with Nine Point Eight (自由引力), Barry Chen, Dj Ray Ray and rock band Whateverplay (輕草森樂團) tonight at APA Mini (小地方展演空間). Cat in the Case, Sloth Machine and I Mean Us play some indie and shoegaze tomorrow.
■ B1,147, Hangzhou S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市杭州南路一段147號B1), tel: (02) 2327-8658. On the Net: www.facebook.com/apamini
■ Show starts at 8pm tonight and 7pm tomorrow
■ Admission is NT$400 tonight and tomorrow, available through www.indievox.com
Acid rock, puck, psychedelic rock and dream pop are on the menu tonight at indie rock club Revolver as Fwends (THA), Acidy Peeping Tom (微酸的偷窺狂), U.TA (屋塔) and B.B. Bomb (BB彈) take the stage. Tomorrow, the club will have two shows. The first performance, beginning at 7:30pm, features grindcore, post-hardcore, black pop and raw black metal with Ashen, Obsequial Joy, Armed Judas and Japanese act Asunojokei. At 11:30pm, it’s an MC battle, with some hip-hop and rap thrown in for good measure. On Sunday, it’s indie rockers Yellowback (野樂派), nu-metal group No Promise and Numbers. Wednesday features a night of live music with pop act Rusty Rifles (佬步槍) and LFI.
■ 1-2, Roosevelt Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路一段1-2號), tel: (02) 3393-1678. On the Net: www.facebook.com/revolver.taipei
■ Show starts at 9:30pm tonight, 7:30pm and 11:30pm tomorrow, 8:30pm on Sunday and 9:30pm on Wednesday
■ Admission is NT$300 tonight, NT$400 for each show tomorrow and NT$300 for Sunday and Wednesday
The latest edition of Know Stage Sessions at Pipe Live Music, a major venue for indie music and parties, is on Wednesday and features folk rockers Chang and Lee (張三李四).
■ 1 Siyuan Rd, Taipei City (台北市思源路1號), tel: (02) 2364-8198. On the Net: www.pipemusic.com.tw
■ Show starts at 8pm
■ Admission is NT$600, available at www.indievox.com, pipemusic.kktix.cc and at FamilyMart (全家) FamiPort kiosks
Tony Taylor and the Rocket will play their version of rock and blues tonight at Bobwundaye (無問題), a small pub in Taipei.
■ 77, Heping E Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市和平東路三段77號), tel: (02) 2377-1772
■ Shows start 10pm
■ Admission is NT$300
Electric bass player Ping (莊平) will take the stage tonight with his jazz band at Witch House (女巫店), an intimate coffeehouse-style venue in the National Taiwan University area. Five-piece indie act Boycany and grunge rockers Slack Tide will play tomorrow. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2016/08/26/2003653875 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/5e8f57745d5e390ca17acd7cb192a88f7532c7057f44e70837286324dc01680c.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:53:48 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has reshuffled top provincial-level Chinese Communist Party posts as he seeks to place his men in key positions ahead of a five-yearly congress next year, and more new appointments are likely soon. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2F2003654170.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Xi consolidates provincial power | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Reuters, BEIJING
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has reshuffled top provincial-level Chinese Communist Party posts as he seeks to place his men in key positions ahead of a five-yearly congress next year, and more new appointments are likely soon.
The party congress, expected to be held next autumn, will see Xi further cement his hold on power by appointing close allies into the party’s ruling inner core, the 25-member politburo and the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee.
Xi, who doubles as party and military chief, is ranked No. 1 in the Politburo Standing Committee — the apex of power in China.
The year leading up to that will focus on Xi appointing more new people into major provincial party and government positions, sources with ties to the leadership said.
In a brief dispatch on Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency named two people with whom Xi had previously worked as the new party chiefs in strategically located southwestern Yunnan Province and populous southern Hunan Province.
Provincial party chiefs outrank governors.
In Yunnan, bordering Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, Chen Hao (陳豪) replaced Li Jiheng (李紀恆), while in Hunan, Du Jiahao (杜家豪) assumed the party’s top job, Xinhua said.
Both Chen and Du worked with Xi when he ran China’s commercial capital, Shanghai, as its party chief for a year in 2007, according to their resumes.
“Xi is close to both of them due to their time together in Shanghai,” a source with ties to the leadership told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Tibet, considered one of the country’s most politically sensitive positions due to periodic anti-Chinese unrest in the devoutly Buddhist Himalayan region, also has a new party chief, named by Xinhua as Wu Yingjie (吳英杰).
Wu has spent almost his entire career in Tibet, according to his official resume, having previously served as a deputy governor and propaganda chief, among other roles.
Wu, like his predecessor Chen Quanguo (陳全國), belongs to China’s majority Han Chinese ethnic group.
Xinhua said Chen would be taking another position, without giving further details.
China says its rule has brought prosperity and stability to Tibet, rejecting claims from Tibetan exiles and rights groups of widespread repression.
The source said Chen would likely go to Xinjiang, another unruly part of the country, due to what the government says is a concerted campaign of violence in a region with a large ethnic minority Muslim population.
The current party boss, Zhang Chunxian (張春賢), is expected to move to Beijing to take over a senior role in a party building committee that Xi is overseeing as part of his efforts to instill greater discipline in the corruption-racked party, the source added.
A second source said the governor in Shanxi, a coal-rich northern province beset by corruption scandals, would move to Beijing to take over as minister of transport.
Li Xiaopeng (李小鵬) is the son of former Chinese premier Li Peng (李鵬), who was deeply involved in the military crackdown on student-led demonstrations around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.
The second source said Xi ally Lou Yangsheng (樓陽生), currently a deputy party boss in Shanxi, would be named acting provincial governor, pending approval by the local legislature.
Xi and Lou worked together when Xi was party boss in the eastern Zhejiang Province from 2003 until early 2007. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/30/2003654170 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/69b83f2785015341d841230264bfc4a7467bd532d77282695d508ce5602a043b.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:52:55 | null | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | A: My dog has no energy. He doesn’t want to go for walks and he’s off his food. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Flang%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2F2003654047.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | EVERYDAY ENGLISH | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | A: My dog has no energy. He doesn’t want to go for walks and he’s off his food.
B: What breed is he?
A: He’s a Husky.
B: Oooh. Huskies aren’t meant for this climate. I bet he’s really suffering in this heat. Best only walk him in early mornings and late evenings.
A：我的狗精神欠佳，既不想到外面遛遛，也沒什麼食慾。
B：是哪種狗？
A：哈士奇。
B：喔，哈士奇不適合這種天氣啦。天氣太熱，牠會受不了。最好只在清晨或傍晚帶牠去散步。
English 英文:
Chinese 中文: | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2016/08/29/2003654047 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/3b31f959a1011e6abb7a84059c4e0dbc99d0c14da5bdd4fe8f7b8492d641bb61.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:52:48 | null | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | Pedicab driver Reyjin dives into a neighbor’s house for a quick methamphetamine fix, fearful of taking a bullet to the head in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on drugs but unable to quit. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2F2003654108.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/29/thumbs/P04-160829-315.jpg | en | null | Filipino ‘shabu’ addict risks being shot for a fix | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, MANILA
Pedicab driver Reyjin dives into a neighbor’s house for a quick methamphetamine fix, fearful of taking a bullet to the head in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on drugs but unable to quit.
More than 2,000 people have died violent deaths since Duterte took office two months ago and immediately implemented his ruthless plans to eradicate drugs, ordering police to shoot dead traffickers and urging ordinary citizens to kill addicts.
The bloodbath has seen unknown assailants kill more than half the victims, according to police statistics, raising fears that security forces and hired assassins are roaming through communities and shooting dead anyone suspected of being involved in drugs.
Armed police constantly circle in Reyjin’s Manila slum community, but he continues to smoke the highly addictive methamphetamine known as “shabu” that Duterte has warned is destroying the lives of millions of poor Filipinos.
“It’s scary because I could be next,” said the gaunt, gap-toothed 28-year-old, speaking to reporters on the condition that his identity not be revealed for security reasons.
The father-of-three said two masked motorcycle gunmen riding in tandem on a motorcycle had shot dead a woman who sold small amounts of drugs to him and other residents.
“She was sitting in the alley when she took two bullets to the head,” he said.
Such riding-in-tandem murders are one of the most common forms of killings by the shadowy assassins.
Often a piece of cardboard, with “drug peddler” or “drug addict” written on it, is placed on the corpse.
This has led to the war on crime becoming known as “cardboard justice.”
Meanwhile, police have reported killing 756 people they have branded drug suspects.
Philippine National Police Chief Ronald de la Rosa has repeatedly defended his officers, insisting they only kill when their own lives are in danger.
However, two policemen have been charged with murder over the jailhouse deaths of a father and son, who autopsies showed to have been beaten so badly before being shot that their limbs were broken.
The UN, the US government and human rights groups have expressed alarm at the bloodshed, with some critics warning the Philippines is in the midst of a reign of terror as authorities act with no regard for the law.
Duterte and Dela Rosa have repeatedly said that they are acting within the boundaries of the law, while accusing their critics of siding with the drug traffickers and ignoring the devastating consequences of what they describe as a national shabu crisis.
They say most of the unexplained deaths are being carried out by drug syndicates waging war on each other.
Yet on the day he was sworn into office, Duterte gave a speech to a crowd in a Manila slum in which he called on them to kill drug addicts in their own community.
In an address to a group of drug addicts who had surrendered to police last week, Dela Rosa called on them to kill their suppliers and burn down their homes. Dela Rosa later apologized for the comments, saying they were made because he was angry, but they nevertheless added to an atmosphere of a dramatic breakdown in the rule of law.
In Reyjin’s Manila slum community, the violence and security presence has slowed the drug trade and made shabu more expensive.
However, lots is still available, in what could be a worrying sign for Duterte who vowed during the election campaign that he could completely wipe out the trade within six months. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/29/2003654108 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/6a94a065a38bf4579fe42f992c3dba0f25fd066039d6d63bbad80eeacc18603e.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:51:59 | null | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | Olympic champion Ruth Jebet broke the women’s 3,000m steeplechase world record by six seconds at the Diamond League meeting in Paris on Saturday, while Kendra Harrison won the 100m hurdles without beating her own record. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fsport%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2F2003654077.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Jebet snaps 3,000m steeplechase world record | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AP, PARIS
Olympic champion Ruth Jebet broke the women’s 3,000m steeplechase world record by six seconds at the Diamond League meeting in Paris on Saturday, while Kendra Harrison won the 100m hurdles without beating her own record.
The 19-year-old Jebet, born in Kenya and running for Bahrain, clocked 8 minutes, 52.78 seconds at the Stade de France.
The previous record was 8:58.81 by Gulnara Samitova-Galkina of Russia at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
“I tried many times to beat the world record,” Jebet said. “I was not expecting such a big difference with the record.”
Jebet’s performance was so dominant that she beat Diamond League rival Hyvin Kiyeng of Kenya by nearly 10 seconds, and Emma Coburn of the US by almost 20 seconds.
Harrison won in 12.44 seconds ahead of US countrywoman Dawn Harper-Nelson (12.65).
“I felt alright, even though I kicked a few hurdles, which made me a bit upset,” Harrison said. “The start wasn’t that great. Now I have a few days off, so I’m really looking forward to Zurich [on Thursday].”
Dutchwoman Dafne Schippers won the 200m in 22.13, and the US’ Natasha Hastings won the 400m in 50.06.
Ben Youssef Meite of the Ivory Coast won the 100m in 9.96 seconds ahead of South African Akani Simbine and Dutchman Churandy Martina.
Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre, the Olympic bronze medalist in the 200m, pulled out after feeling a twinge when warming up.
“I didn’t feel well,” Lemaitre said. “There’s no point tempting the devil and getting injured.”
Kenyan Nicholas Bett won the men’s 400m hurdles ahead of the US’ Kerron Clement, while Kenyan Alfred Kipketer won the 800m.
Meanwhile, 19-year-old Kenyan Yomif Kejelcha won the men’s 3,000m in 7:28.19, the fastest time this year.
Olympic silver medalist Renaud Lavillenie of France won the pole vault with an effort of 5.93m, Czech Jakub Vadlejch won the javelin, and the US’ Chris Carter won the triple jump in 16.92m, with Cuban Alexis Copello second in 16.9m.
Tom Walsh of New Zealand just beat Ryan Crouser of the US, the Olympic champion, by 1cm in the shot put.
Britain’s Laura Muir set the leading time this year to win the 1,500m in 3:55.22.
“I couldn’t believe the time, especially since I didn’t do one track session since Rio,” Muir said. “I knew I had to dig in and hold on during the third lap.”
Serbian Ivana Spanovic won the long jump; Spaniard Ruth Beitia won the high jump and Croatian Sandra Perkovic clinched the discus. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2016/08/29/2003654077 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/8b483ff58e9c3f7f54045491029a89adf38bd6d1ec001a58f3ec61acb93fa272.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:09:43 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | Taiwanese culture and cuisine are to be showcased at the 17th Taiwanfest in Toronto, at the Harbourfront Center on Lake Ontario, from today to Sunday. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ftaiwan%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653903.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Taiwanfest Canada to present culture, cuisine for 17th year | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
Taiwanese culture and cuisine are to be showcased at the 17th Taiwanfest in Toronto, at the Harbourfront Center on Lake Ontario, from today to Sunday.
Musicians, entertainers, performers, films and Taiwanese food are to feature at the event, which will also take place in Vancouver from Sept. 3 to Sept. 5, Canadian Trade Office in Taipei officials said.
“Since it began in 1990, Taiwanfest has become one of the largest and most popular cultural events in Canada,” said Charlie Wu (吳權益), who is head of the main organizers of the event, the Asian-Canadian Special Events Association (ACSEA).
“We had more than 150,000 visitors last year. It has been evolving with time and we have added more programs and special themes,” Wu said.
“This year we are introducing ‘dialogues’ with other cultures,” he added.
This year’s theme is “A Cultural Tango With Hong Kong,” Wu said.
A symphony concert in memory of late Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng (鄧麗君), who was beloved by Taiwanese and Chinese the world over, is to be performed, Wu said.
The Hong Kong focus will be on iconic movie star Leslie Cheung (張國榮), Wu said.
There is also a panel discussion with Taiwanese political and cultural commentator Chang Tieh-chih (張鐵志) on his observations on development trends in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
“Canada has a diverse immigrant population and the [Canadian] government has an official policy on multiculturalism,” Wu said, adding that a pan-Asian culinary invitational, in which chefs from Taiwan, Canada and Hong Kong are invited to compete for the “Best Cut” title, has been included on the program.
The festival also gives people the chance to play mahjong and Chinese chess and eat a Taiwanese-style banquet. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2016/08/26/2003653903 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/29eb53cf015df57986d6681b6e63f7f4062d4561682c42c1d5c7be8be0603eea.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:50:53 | null | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | The Philippines’ police chief condoned killing drug traffickers and burning their homes, but later attributed the comments to anger. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ffront%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2F2003653949.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/27/thumbs/P01-160827-317.jpg | en | null | Kill drug lords: Philippine police chief | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, MANILA
The Philippines’ police chief condoned killing drug traffickers and burning their homes, but later attributed the comments to anger.
“Why don’t you give them a visit, pour gasoline on their homes and set these on fire to register your anger?” Ronald dela Rosa said in a speech aired on television yesterday.
“They’re all enjoying your money, money that destroyed your brain,” Dela Rosa said. “You know who the drug lords are. Would you like to kill them? Go ahead. Killing them is allowed, because you are the victim.”
Dela Rosa was speaking on Thursday to several hundred drug users who had surrendered in the central Philippines.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte previously offered security officials bounties for the bodies of drug dealers and when he took office on June 30, he told a crowd in Manila: “If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful.”
Dela Rosa and Duterte have insisted they are working within the law and their aides have dismissed some of their comments as merely “hyperbole” meant to scare drug traffickers.
Later yesterday, Dela Rosa apologized for his remarks and described them as due to an “emotional outburst.”
“Yesterday [Thursday], I said that because I felt so bad. I was in front of those poor people, pushers and users, they looked like zombies. I was so mad, that’s why I said that,” he told reporters.
“I’m sorry if I said something unpleasant. Many people are reacting. I am very sorry. I am just a human being who gets mad,” he said.
Elsewhere, soldiers killed at least 11 Abu Sayyaf militants in an assault yesterday following the beheading of a captive whose family was too poor to pay ransom, the Philippine military said.
Regional military commander Major Filemon Tan said 17 soldiers were wounded when hundreds of army troops surrounded a vast jungle area in Sulu province’s mountainous Patikul town.
Among the 11 dead militants was Amah Maas, a long-time commander of the group who had severed arms and had been implicated in ransom kidnappings, including of European tourists.
Duterte ordered the troops to destroy the militants in their jungle bases after they beheaded a Filipino teenager, Patrick James Aldovar, on Wednesday.
“The order of the president is to search and destroy the Abu Sayyaf,” Tan said.
“So that’s what we are doing,” he said. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2016/08/27/2003653949 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/c91b16f89b52fe813863700768fb9dbe75b9d4276132bd0208b9cfdda44a4f12.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:51:59 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | DENMARK | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2F2003654199.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | World Business Quick Take | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Bloomberg
DENMARK
Growth forecasts cut
The government yesterday cut its growth forecasts for this year and next as Scandinavia’s smallest economy struggles to cope with international headwinds exacerbated by Britain’s decision to leave the EU. GDP will expand 0.9 percent this year, compared with a May forecast for 1.1 percent, according to government documents. GDP next year will grow 1.5 percent, versus the 1.7 percent predicted just three months ago. “Overall, the growth outlook for the international economy has been downgraded slightly following the prospect of slightly slower growth in Europe in 2017 due to Brexit,” the government said in the outlook. To deal with the economic slowdown, the minority government of Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen is planning to cut taxes across income brackets, according to a posting on his Facebook page released late on Monday.
AIRLINES
China Southern’s profits fall
China Southern Airlines Co (中國南方航空) said its profits were dented by the yuan’s depreciation while two of China’s largest private carriers reported an increase in earnings amid a surge in travel. China Southern, Asia’s biggest by passengers, also said late on Monday that it would consider breaking away from a decade-old policy of not hedging for fuel to revive earnings as nimbler and private low-fare carriers raise competition in China, where three-government owned airlines have dominated the market. A weaker yuan following the surprise devaluation in August last year cost the Guangzhou-based carrier 1.5 billion yuan (US$225 million) in currency losses, a tenfold surge. Hainan Airlines Co (海南航空) and Spring Airlines Co (春秋航空) — China’s largest budget airline — both reported an increase in profit.
TRANSPORTATION
Uber, rival halt UAE services
Ride-hailing companies grounded their services in Abu Dhabi after reports police arrested drivers and impounded cars. Uber Technologies Inc and its Middle East competitor, Careem Networks, suspended services in the capital of the United Arab Emirates for a fourth day. Police arrested 50 drivers working for limousine companies and impounded 70 cars, Abu Dhabi-based The National reported late on Sunday. Mohamed al-Qamzi, general manager of TransAD, the city’s taxi regulator, said the companies had on occasion contravened regulations by offering trips at a lower price than licensed limousines, the newspaper reported. Uber and Careem described the suspension as temporary, without providing a reason for the halt. Uber said none of its drivers were arrested.
AVIATION
AirAsia to sell leasing unit
AirAsia Bhd expects to sell its aircraft-leasing unit as early as December as the largest customer for Airbus Group SE’s single-aisle jets aims to net as much as US$1 billion from the transaction and pare debt. Proceeds from the sale may be used to reduce debt or pay a dividend, chief executive officer Tony Fernandes said yesterday in a Bloomberg Television interview with Yvonne Man. AirAsia’s board approved the sale process for all or a substantial part of the unit, Asia Aviation Capital Ltd, the carrier said in a filing on Monday. “Depending on who’s the buyer, and there seems to be tremendous interest, we’ll likely divest all or maybe keep a minority interest for a period and sell out,” Fernandes said. The company named RHB Investment Bank Bhd, Credit Suisse Group AG and BNP Paribas SA as advisers for the transaction. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/31/2003654199 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/57504b2fd6aff4710a6f3dad52b1f6e2ea09297901c666afbe8e7a79dde6b013.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:51:36 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | Heineken NV’s expansion of its production in Vietnam by taking over a brewery from rival Carlsberg A/S highlights growing interest by global beer brands to quench the thirst of about 70 million locals in one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2F2003654129.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Foreign firms eye Vietnam’s beer market | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Bloomberg
Heineken NV’s expansion of its production in Vietnam by taking over a brewery from rival Carlsberg A/S highlights growing interest by global beer brands to quench the thirst of about 70 million locals in one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
With a thriving street-side cafe and bar culture, young population and rising middle class, Vietnam is luring brewers such as Heineken, Thai Beverage PCL and Asahi Group Holdings Ltd to expand in the country.
Interest is also being piqued by the government’s plans to offload lucrative assets, with Carlsberg in line to more than double its stake in state-run Hanoi Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp, or Habeco.
“The Vietnamese beer market is of great interest to other international players, such as those from Japan and Thailand,” said Dominic Scriven, chairman of Dragon Capital, which manages about US$1.5 billion of investments.
“This in general is reflective of greater strategic interest across many sectors from foreign investors,” he said.
Beer consumption in the Southeast Asian country jumped about 40 percent last year from 2010, according to the Vietnam Beer Alcohol Beverage Association.
Vietnamese guzzlers are expected to consume more than 4.04 billion liters of beer this year, the most in the region and up from 3.88 billion liters last year, according to Euromonitor International.
Economists predict Vietnam will be among the world’s fastest-growing economies this year as it benefits from a manufacturing industry that has grown in importance over the years.
Its citizens of legal drinking age, 18 and above, is expected to increase to 72.4 million by 2021 from 68.7 million this year, according to Euromonitor.
“The growth of the beer market in Vietnam over the past few years is nothing short of amazing, and it shows no sign of slowing down,” said Andy Ho, who oversees US$1.5 billion as the managing director of VinaCapital in Ho Chi Minh City.
Heineken last month acquired Carlsberg Vietnam Brewery-Vung Tau in the south Vietnam port city.
Carlsberg chief executive officer Cees’t Hart said the sale of the facility would allow the Danish brewer to concentrate on its existing territory in the northern part of the country, according to a Bloomberg transcript of an Aug. 17 earnings call.
Amsterdam-based Heineken, which is the second-biggest brewer in Vietnam, has seen its shares rise 0.5 percent year to date, while Carlsberg, headquartered in Copenhagen, rose 2 percent.
The Vietnam Stock Index rose 17 percent over the period.
“We have a footprint, which we would like to improve,” Hart said, referring to Habeco, based in Hanoi, in which Carlsberg is awaiting the government’s go-ahead for it to raise its 17 percent stake to 30 percent.
“With regards to Vietnam, indeed, we focus on the territory where we are,” he said.
Another attraction of Vietnam’s beer market is that it is less dominated by local brewers compared with Asian countries such as Japan and Thailand, where home-grown brands take up about 90 percent of volume, Euromonitor analyst Andrea Lianto said.
By contrast, Vietnamese brewers accounted for 63 percent total volume shares last year, giving foreign companies room to grow, she said.
Still, there is risk for foreign investors as Vietnam is being hit by the worst drought in 30 years and falling oil revenue, making the country’s target for growth of 6.7 percent this year “hard to reach,” National Assembly Economic Committee head Vu Hong Thanh said last month. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/30/2003654129 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/71677cf0d2e626dc606b2b9ec9114cccc52712dc04f90d89fcf31b817b688982.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:10:25 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said it would investigate allegations of sexual harassment against a senior Turkish envoy after it was determined that he does not have diplomatic immunity. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ftaiwan%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653893.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Taipei to probe sex allegations against Turkish envoy | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Staff writer, with CNA
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said it would investigate allegations of sexual harassment against a senior Turkish envoy after it was determined that he does not have diplomatic immunity.
Halil Ibrahim Dokuyucu, deputy head of the Turkish Trade Office in Taipei, on July 3 allegedly fondled a woman at a bar in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) and scuffled with police, who were called in after the incident.
During questioning at a police station, Dokuyucu said that he had diplomatic immunity.
However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it has determined that Dokuyucu does not have that privilege, and the same holds true for Taiwanese representatives in Turkey, under the terms of a bilateral agreement.
That information has been conveyed to the Ministry of Justice, Taiwan’s representative office in Turkey and Turkey’s representative office in Taipei, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Eleanor Wang (王珮玲) said.
Upon receipt of the information, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said it would investigate the allegations against Dokuyucu, which include sexual harassment and obstruction of police officers in the discharge of their duties.
The woman, a project manager at a technology firm, said she was pressing charges against Dokuyucu and would seek NT$1 million (US$31,576) in damages.
In a newspaper interview on Wednesday, the woman said that if she won the suit, she would donate the money to two charity groups that assist victims of sexual harassment.
Over the past few weeks, the foreign ministry sought to verify the status of Taiwanese and Turkish envoys in regard to immunity, but Turkish authorities have not responded to its inquiries, Wang said.
To date, there have been no comments on the issue from the Turkish Trade Office in Taipei and the local media have been unable to contact Dokuyucu, who is said to be on vacation and not in Taiwan. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2016/08/26/2003653893 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/f3581d6404a488f54362e0e02b484ce4946fe207d97dc15d5ee0b30d2e6d943c.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:50:33 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | INTERNET | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654002.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | World Business Quick Take | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Agencies
INTERNET
UK to monitor WhatsApp
Britain’s data privacy regulator on Friday said it will monitor how popular messaging service WhatsApp shares data with parent Facebook Inc under a new privacy policy. The Information Commission’s Office said while some users might be concerned by the lack of control provided by the updated privacy policy, others might consider it a positive. WhatsApp, which has more than 1 billion users, on Thursday said it would start sharing users’ telephone numbers with Facebook, allowing for more relevant advertisements and friend recommendations on the social media network.
RESTAURANTS
Cashing in on Pokemon
A Sydney restaurant is capitalizing on an appetite for all things Pokemon Go by selling a limited number of burgers based on characters from the blockbuster smartphone game. Sydney’s Hashtag Burger and its pop-up restaurant Down N’ Out Burgers are offering 100 “Pokeburgs” a day until Saturday next week, with long queues of people lining up on Friday to get a taste of a yellow Pikachu, pink Charmander or green Bulbasaur burger. Staff said the Pikachu burger with corn chip ears had proved the most popular, but the restaurant had decided that customers could not choose which character they get.
MEDIA
Qataris buy Turkish pay TV
Qatar’s beIN Media Group on Friday announced that it had completed the “largest deal in its history” by buying Turkish satellite sports and entertainment company Digiturk. “This acquisition represents the largest deal in the history of our group and a major milestone in our global expansion,” beIN chairman Nasser aTerl-Khelaifi said. He said that the Qatari group’s expansion into the Turkish market was an “essential step” for beIN. The Turkish pay TV broadcaster has more than 3 million customers and specializes in sport.
AUTOMAKERS
Mazda recalling SUVs
Mazda Motor Corp is recalling more than 190,000 CX-7 sport utility vehicles (SUVs) because of a potentially dangerous steering control defect. The recall involves vehicles made from Feb. 14, 2006, through May 9, 2012. Last year, the company recalled more than 190,000 CX-9 SUVs made between 2007 and 2014 because of concerns over steering control loss. In the latest recall, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that water might enter the front suspension ball joint fittings, which could eventually result in a loss of steering control.
INTERNET
Rackspace to go private
Cloud storage and management company Rackspace on Friday announced that it will take its public company private again in a US$4.3 billion deal with equity firm Apollo Global Management. Going private could take pressure off quarterly financial performance and allow Rackspace to focus on its long-term strategy. Rackspace cofounder and board chairman Graham Weston said the transaction will provide the company with more flexibility to manage the business. Rackspace agreed to be acquired by Apollo for US$32 per share in what was said to be a 38 percent premium on the closing stock price on Aug. 3. The deal needs to get the approval of shareholders and regulators. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/28/2003654002 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/752dc0d08b12dc57eda10eafdc265a839bc134ff97dce6e59d4bf3d76be16b01.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:50:49 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | With a new US president and Congress taking office just six months from now, the time has come to rethink the government’s programs aimed at helping the nation’s poor. The current election season has reflected widespread concern about the issue of inequality. Reducing poverty, rather than penalizing earned success, is the right focus for dealing with it. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Feditorials%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654008.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | US must aim to reduce poverty, not penalize earned success | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Martin Feldstein
With a new US president and Congress taking office just six months from now, the time has come to rethink the government’s programs aimed at helping the nation’s poor. The current election season has reflected widespread concern about the issue of inequality. Reducing poverty, rather than penalizing earned success, is the right focus for dealing with it.
The US government now spends more than US$600 billion per year on programs to help the poor. That is about 4 percent of the US’ total GDP. Half of those outlays are for health programs, including Medicaid and the health-insurance subsidies under the 2010 Affordable Care Act — so-called Obamacare. The other half are for a complex range of programs including food stamps, housing subsidies, the Earned Income Tax Credit and cash relief.
To put that 4 percent of GDP in perspective, the federal government’s total revenue from the personal income tax is less than 9 percent of GDP, implying that nearly half is spent on these means-tested programs. Spending on these programs also exceeds that for defense (3.3 percent of GDP) and the 3.3 percent of GDP spent on all other nondefense discretionary programs.
However, despite this large expenditure, the proportion of Americans living in poverty is officially estimated at 15 percent, about the same as it was 50 years ago, but experts agree that the government’s poverty measure does not correctly reflect the progress that has occurred, because official statistics focus only on cash income and ignore almost all of the government’s transfer payments.
Many of those who are poor, or would otherwise be poor, are also aided by Social Security benefits for retirees and survivors, and by Medicare for the disabled and those over age 65. Because eligibility for benefits under these programs does not depend on income or wealth, the amounts spent for these programs are not included in outlays targeted at the poor.
The existing approach to helping the poor needs reform. Myriad overlapping programs with different eligibility rules are difficult for the poor to navigate, create bad work incentives and are unnecessarily costly to taxpayers.
The largest of the 10 major means-tested programs is the food subsidy program, now called SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). About 46 million people, or one-seventh of the US population, receive monthly benefits totaling US$75 billion per year. Despite its widespread use, the government estimates that only about 70 percent of those who are eligible receive benefits.
Eligibility to receive SNAP benefits is limited to households with incomes below 130 percent of the poverty level, about US$1,700 per month for a family of three. Because a decision by a second adult to work could eliminate eligibility, the program discourages employment and reduces earned incomes.
Although SNAP is described as a nutrition program, the average benefit of US$130 per month is far less than these low-income households spend on food. The program is thus really equivalent to a cash transfer. As such, it dominates the program launched by former US president Bill Clinton to provide cash assistance with significant restrictions.
When Clinton declared in 1996 that he would “end welfare as we know it,” he worked with Congress to create the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which requires recipients to work and limits their lifetime eligibility to 60 months. As a result of these conditions, the US$17 billion program has declined in scale and has a participation rate of less than 50 percent of eligible households. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2016/08/28/2003654008 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/82ec808bb0d8c775df6da69ac40e590399a3eca52becf419238b5450f4c0e674.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:51:37 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | Sub-Saharan Africa loses about US$95 billion a year due to gender inequality, jeopardizing the continent’s efforts for economic growth, according to a UN report launched on Sunday. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2F2003654130.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Gender bias costing sub-Saharan Africa billions | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AP, NAIROBI
Sub-Saharan Africa loses about US$95 billion a year due to gender inequality, jeopardizing the continent’s efforts for economic growth, according to a UN report launched on Sunday.
Deeply rooted structural obstacles such as unequal distribution of resources and political power, combined with social institutions that sustain inequality are holding back African women, and the continent, the Africa Human Development Report 2016 by UN Development Programme (UNDP) said.
If gender gaps are closed in labor markets, education and health, it will accelerate the eradication of poverty and hunger, UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said.
The report was launched during the two-day Tokyo International Conference of African Development in Kenya.
Kenya’s civil society is pushing parliament to ensure that a third of elected posts are occupied by women in accordance with the 2010 constitution.
Parliament rejected a government-sponsored bill seeking to turn the constitutional requirement into law.
Rwanda is the most gender equal country in Africa and sixth out of 145 countries, according to the 2015 Global Gender Gap Index, by the World Economic Program.
While 61 percent of African women are working they still face economic exclusion as their jobs are underpaid and undervalued, and are mostly in the informal sector, the UNDP report states.
“Social norms are a clear obstacle to African women’s progress, limiting the time women can spend in education and paid work, and access to economic and financial assets,” it said.
“For instance, African women still carry out 71 percent of water collecting translating to 40 billion hours a year, and are less likely to have bank accounts and to access credit,” the report said.
African women’s health is also severely affected by harmful practices such as under-age marriage and sexual and physical violence, and high maternal mortality, it said. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/30/2003654130 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/b23ca1da38fce530eca2ce11854105cf173876ac7319631a8a28c0b3d1e92f44.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:51:37 | null | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | For all the talk about measures to boost the nation’s economy, the government appears to have acknowledged that achieving a substantial increase in domestic investment is the key to improving employment, wages and corporate profits. The Executive Yuan on Thursday announced plans to spend NT$340 billion (US$10.7 billion) on infrastructure and public works and encourage private investment to spur economic growth. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Feditorials%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2F2003654062.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | EDITORIAL: A stimulus package with a plan | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | For all the talk about measures to boost the nation’s economy, the government appears to have acknowledged that achieving a substantial increase in domestic investment is the key to improving employment, wages and corporate profits. The Executive Yuan on Thursday announced plans to spend NT$340 billion (US$10.7 billion) on infrastructure and public works and encourage private investment to spur economic growth.
This stimulus package proposed by the National Development Council means that state-run enterprises and government entities would control public-sector investment. Incentives for private-sector investment would include a two-year waiver on rent for land in industrial zones, an average 8.99 percent reduction in science park rental fees and shortening the useful life of fixed assets.
Council Deputy Director Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on Thursday said that government investment has continued to decline in recent years and state-run companies’ investment has slowed.
Kung said injecting fresh momentum into the nation’s meager private investment is necessary, as real growth of private investment this year is estimated to be 1.15 percent, the lowest in the past three years.
Private investment increased 3.17 percent year-on-year in 2014 and 2.75 percent last year, Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics data show.
On the contrary, increases in outbound investment (excluding to China) is predicted to more than double this year, following annual growth rates of 39.40 percent in 2014 and 47.30 percent last year, reflecting deteriorating investment conditions, Taipei-based agency China Credit Information Service Ltd said last week.
Given that Taiwan is an export-led economy, the nation’s investment demands are highly dependent on its export performance. Hence, sluggish progress in domestic investment has not only seriously affected growth potential, but also become one of the major sources of drag on innovation, further threatening the nation’s long-term competitiveness.
However, to what extent can the stimulus package boost domestic demand and contribute to GDP growth?
Recovery momentum remains weak, according to a mixed bag of economic data released recently. Last week the government reported weaker-than-expected export orders and industrial production data for last month, while its business monitoring system turned “green” — an indication of steady growth — for the first time in 17 months.
Furthermore, considering a global economic environment that promises scant sustainable growth in the coming months or years, coupled with China’s focus on technological advancement and its transformation to a consumer-led economy, things could get very tough for Taiwan over the next few years.
While the council is expecting another “green” light this month on the back of a good export outlook and accelerated public investment in the second half of the year, the question is whether Taiwan’s exports can gain market share because the nation is becoming more competitive or simply because local manufacturers have the right product mix for the product cycle.
In the absence of structural reform and effective policy implementation, Taiwan could continue to lose its export market share due to declining competitiveness, which would further constrain employment and wages. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2016/08/29/2003654062 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/be9ec462836e224f8b714882b96fbb0ac67bd7e6079e3b9d5dc033a7a66b2404.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:53:02 | null | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | The Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) will ink their landmark peace deal officially late next month, authorities said on Saturday. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2F2003654111.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Colombia, FARC to ink peace deal late next month | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, HAVANA
The Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) will ink their landmark peace deal officially late next month, authorities said on Saturday.
“The solemn date of the signing will be between Sept. 20 and Sept. 26, depending on the schedules and the dignitaries who will be in attendance,” Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas said.
Villegas did not say who would attend the official signing, nor did he give its venue.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has said it could be at UN headquarters, in Bogota or in Cuba.
The announcement came three days after Colombian and FARC negotiators presented a final peace accord following about four years of arduous negotiations in Cuba, putting an end to their half-century civil war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
Santos ordered a definitive ceasefire from today with the FARC rebels and the guerrillas are expected to make a similar announcement shortly.
Ahead of the final signatures, FARC rebel leaders will convene in the middle of next month to ratify the historic peace agreement signed with the Colombian government this week, the guerrilla group also announced on Saturday.
FARC said its leaders would convene for “the last conference of our organization while it still has its arms, endorse the peace accords and make way for the transformation of the FARC into a legal political movement.”
The Sept. 13 to Sept. 19 conference of 200 FARC delegates — including 29 members of its central committee — is to be open to 50 international guests as well as the press, an unusual move for the guerrillas.
“Given the historical significance of this event, the people of Colombia and the world must learn first-hand about the conference’s developments and decisions,” the FARC said.
The guerrillas will hold the conference in San Vicente del Caguan in southern Colombia, once a FARC stronghold.
The fate of the FARC-government peace accord comes down to a decisive yes-or-no vote on Oct. 2.
Santos, who has staked his legacy on the peace process, faces a tough political battle to win the referendum. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/29/2003654111 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/59b24ac56aa887e512b6220efb840b688b119369b55fec170c4806cd7d5d9ddb.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:53:05 | null | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | A man suspected of stabbing two nuns to death in their rural Mississippi home confessed to the killings on Saturday, police said. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2F2003654110.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Man confesses to killing two nuns, police say | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | NY Times News Service
A man suspected of stabbing two nuns to death in their rural Mississippi home confessed to the killings on Saturday, police said.
Rodney Earl Sanders, 46, was arrested on Friday and charged with two counts of capital murder in connection with the deaths of Sister Margaret Held and Sister Paula Merrill, 68, whose bodies were discovered on Thursday at their shared home in Durant, Mississippi, a town of 3,000 people that had gone years without a murder.
“Sanders was developed as a person of interest early on in the investigation,” State Bureau of Investigation Director Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Jordan said in a statement.
Sanders has a history with the police. In 1986 he served six years in prison for an armed robbery in Mississippi and last year he was convicted of a felony driving under the influence of alcohol.
He had been on probation since September last year, Mississippi Department of Corrections spokeswoman Grace Simmons Fisher said.
An officer went to the women’s home around 10am on Thursday for a wellness check after they did not report for work at the Lexington Medical Clinic near Durant.
The door to the one-story home was open and the officer found the bodies inside.
The authorities said they believed Sanders stole the victims’ car, a blue Toyota Corolla, before abandoning it about 1km away in Holmes County, about 105km north of Jackson, Mississippi.
Sanders, from Kosciusko, Mississippi, lived about 48km from where the murders occurred.
Merrill was from the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, based in Kentucky.
Held was from the School Sisters of St Francis, in Milwaukee, which said it thanked local and state law enforcement, but had many unanswered questions.
“There is still much we do not know about the suspect and the circumstances that led to this brutal and senseless crime,” the order said in a statement.
Willie March, the Holmes County sheriff, said late on Saturday that Sanders had confessed after an extensive interrogation. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/29/2003654110 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/ea7cdfdd9a729eca2341726b0abd40c85cfbd8b94dbe2421b11327fb580ad341.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:50:52 | null | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | Some prominent investors are worried about China’s debt. George Soros sees an “eerie resemblance” between conditions in China now and those in the US leading up to the financial crisis in 2008. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2F2003654054.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | China’s growing debt poses risks | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Bloomberg
Some prominent investors are worried about China’s debt. George Soros sees an “eerie resemblance” between conditions in China now and those in the US leading up to the financial crisis in 2008.
“It’s similarly fueled by credit growth and an eventually unsustainable extension of credit,” Soros told the Asia Society in New York in April.
BlackRock chief executive officer Laurence Fink was asked about China’s mounting debt on Bloomberg TV in May.
“We all have to be worried about it,” Fink said, adding that he remains bullish on China’s economy in the long term.
And in June a Goldman Sachs report said that the country’s large and unaccounted-for shadow-banking activities raised concern “about China’s underlying credit problems and sustainability risk.”
RAPID GROWTH
Despite that rapid growth, household debt in China is far below levels in the US before the subprime crisis. At its 2007 peak in the US, household debt reached almost 100 percent of GDP. What is more, in China household savings are twice as large as debt. Deposits were about 55 trillion yuan (US$8.2 trillion) at the end of last year, while debt was 27.4 trillion yuan.
Another big difference between China today and the US during the subprime bubble is that Chinese residential properties are typically purchased with significant down payments.
According to the China Household Finance Survey, the average household debt in urban areas amounted to only 11 percent of home value in 2012. Mortgage debt remains comparatively rare.
That showed up in the survey data: The median household debt was 0 percent. The same survey also found that if housing prices were to decline 50 percent, less than 14 percent of mortgages would exceed the value of the properties. Given China’s high savings rate and low leverage, it seems unlikely that households would cause a financial crisis.
If overwhelming debt does trigger a crisis in China, it is more likely the spark would come from corporations and their main creditors, the banks. China’s bond market has shown signs of growing stress, including 17 defaults through June 30, almost triple the number last year. That and a series of delayed payments prompted rising credit spreads and cancelations of new issues.
Leverage problems are not evenly spread across Chinese corporate sectors. Energy and materials companies have the lowest ability to service debt. Among Chinese energy companies last year, the median earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) was less than one times total interest expense, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
At materials companies, the median EBIT was twice the interest expense. By contrast, Chinese healthcare companies have median earnings of more than nine times interest expense.
Information technology and telecommunications services companies generate earnings that are more than five times interest expenses.
While certain industries and enterprises have a lot of debt, Chinese companies’ average leverage is not high, according to a recent IMF working paper.
Since 2006, listed companies that are not state-owned have reduced median liabilities to 55 percent of common equity.
However, at state-owned enterprises median leverage has been unchanged at about 110 percent. Leverage has increased at the tail end of the distribution, driven by rising debt at companies in construction, mining, real estate and utilities. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/29/2003654054 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/22a88e948eba968cca31539b8fd0b67903b1eef9a8153e3b8f052d26f05eadcb.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:51:16 | null | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | UNITED STATES | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2F2003653978.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | World News Quick Take | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Agencies
UNITED STATES
Lummi totem tour begins
A Pacific Northwest tribe has begun a 4,800km road trip with a 6.7m-tall totem pole in tow. The Lummi Nation embarked on its fourth “totem journey” since 2012 to galvanize opposition to coal and crude oil projects it says could imperil native lands. The US Army Corps of Engineers denied a permit for the Cherry Point project earlier this year over concerns it would affect the Lummi Nation’s treaty-protected fishing rights. This year, the focus is on the Millennium coal export terminal proposed for Longview, Washington, along the Columbia River. It would be the largest such terminal in the US.
UNITED STATES
Boy buys police lunch
A five-year-old boy in New Jersey has picked up the lunch tab for his police department. William Evertz Jr saved up his allowance for seven months and went to a Subway restaurant on Wednesday to get sandwiches for officers in Winslow Township, a suburb of Philadelphia. His mother said he told her he wanted the officers to rest so they could protect the town. Police made the boy an honorary officer and gave him a special shirt and badges. He also got a ride home in a police car with lights and siren.
ARGENTINA
General sentenced to life
A retired general has received another life sentence for killings, kidnappings and torture committed during the crackdown on leftists decades ago. Eighty-nine-year-old Luciano Benjamin Menendez is already serving several other life sentences for human rights violations. Thursday’s verdict is for 282 disappearances, 52 homicides, 260 kidnappings and multiple cases of torture at a clandestine military base in Cordoba. The repression of suspected leftists began under former president Isabel Martinez de Peron and continued during the 1976 to 1983 military dictatorship. Former Army Captains Hector Pedro Vergez and Ernesto Barreiro also were sentenced to life. They directly oversaw the La Perla-La Ribera torture center.
RUSSIA
Cat adopts squirrel monkey
A Russian cat has adopted a baby squirrel monkey after he was abandoned by his mother at a zoo, comforting the little primate by letting him cling to her back for warmth. Tatyana Antropova, the director of the zoo in the Siberian city of Tyumen, said she took the newborn monkey home three weeks ago after his mother refused to carry him on her back. To Antropova’s surprise, her 16-year-old cat Rosinka accepted the baby, who is called Fyodor. By now, though, the elderly cat is getting a bit tired of the little monkey because he “is getting naughty” and “has started biting and pinching her.” The cat just has to hold out for another month, when Fyodor will go back to the zoo to live with other squirrel monkeys.
NEPAL
Bus crash into river kills 20
At least 20 people were killed and 17 hurt yesterday, when a bus drove off a highway in Nepal and plunged into a river, police said. Police officials said the bus rolled about 100m down the slope early yesterday and crashed into the fast-flowing Trishuli River near Chandibhanjyang, about 120km west of Kathmandu. Police and villagers were helping the injured and pulling the dead from wreckage, which was mostly submerged in the river. Police are investigating the cause of the pre-dawn accident. Earlier this month, an overcrowded bus veered off a mountain trail in eastern Nepal, killing at least 33 people and injuring 28. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/27/2003653978 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/dd69c85ee18283a8a41c8d08c2e73d1392eaf9691923059d141f97886c14823d.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:51:47 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | AUSTRALIA | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654045.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | World News Quick Take | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Agencies
AUSTRALIA
Teen completes global flight
A teenager yesterday made history by becoming the youngest person to complete a solo circumnavigation of the world in a single-engine aircraft. Lachlan Smart, from Queensland, touched down at Sunshine Coast Airport, from where he took off on July 24. At 18 years, 7 months and 21 days, Smart is a year younger than the previous record holder, Matt Guthmiller of the US. “What a welcome,” Smart said after landing to cheers from supporters. “To actually be here, having flown around the world, for over 24,000 nautical miles [44,448km] is just a great relief.” The teenager stopped in 24 locations and 15 countries during his seven-week trip. He said the weather and communicating with foreign air traffic controllers were his biggest challenges.
MICRONESIA
Stranded sailors rescued
The US Coast Guard said two stranded mariners were rescued on Friday after crews saw their “SOS” in the sand on an uninhabited island in Micronesia, Hawaii News Now reported. A US Navy aircraft crew spotted the pair on the beach and gave their location to the coast guard in Guam. Hawaii News Now said the two, who had no emergency equipment, were picked up and taken to a patrol boat. The coast guard received a report about the couple’s 18-foot vessel going missing on Aug. 19. Hawaii News Now said the two departed Weno Island on Aug. 17, and they were expected to arrive at their destination, Tamatam Island, the next day. Hawaii News Now said that on Wednesday, a ship noticed flashing lights from the uninhabited Chuuk State island where the two were later found. The navy was alerted and spotted the survivors on the beach.
UNITED STATES
Postal workers to face trial
Federal prosecutors in southern California have charged dozens of postal workers and others with theft, fraud and other crimes — including a mail carrier who allegedly hoarded 48,000 pieces of mail. The US attorney’s office on Friday announced that it has charged 33 people with theft, possession of stolen mail, conspiracy, embezzlement, bank fraud, making false statements and use of stolen credit cards. One case alleges that a former Mail Handlers Union executive stole more than 150 mobile phones at a distribution center in the Moreno Valley and traded them through a Web site. Another charges that a Los Angeles mail carrier was involved in a scheme that created prepaid PayPal debit cards using stolen identities. Prosecutors said the scheme caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.
UNITED STATES
People hold up falling ride
Fire officials said several bystanders held up a children’s roller coaster that had begun to collapse in Georgia, allowing six children and one adult to escape. Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner spokesman Glenn Allen said the group on Thursday evening held the Oriental Express roller coaster in place until wood or cement blocks could be put in place to stabilize it. A video posted on social media shows more than a dozen people holding up the roller coaster at the Bartow County Fair in Cartersville. Allen said there were no injuries, and a track malfunction is likely what caused the accident. The ride has been dismantled. Allen said Florida-based company Carol Stream operated the fair’s rides. The company did not immediately respond to a telephone call. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/28/2003654045 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/dfba9da294d4f370a816c3d4c1f0b41b6a2972a5d10f9c681030622e5b479a66.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:12:57 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | On its many voyages through space, the starship Enterprise has endured bridge-shaking blasts from enemy ships and infiltration by scheming aliens. Now it is being invaded by tourists. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653915.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/26/thumbs/P07-160826-315.jpg | en | null | Fan-made ‘Star Trek’ sets become NY tourist attraction | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AP, TICONDEROGA, New York
On its many voyages through space, the starship Enterprise has endured bridge-shaking blasts from enemy ships and infiltration by scheming aliens. Now it is being invaded by tourists.
Sets mimicking those of the 1960s TV series Star Trek — including Captain Kirk’s bridge, sick bay and engine room — were built by fans for an Internet film series produced in this Adirondacks mountain town and are now open to paying customers who just cannot get enough of the 50-year-old franchise.
“The entire set ... how close it is to the actual TV show, you feel like you’re really there,” said 16-year-old Tiffany Schubert of Peru, New York. “It makes you just want to be in the show and have the same experience — being attacked by aliens, as bad as that is.”
Schubert wore a red Starfleet shirt during a guided tour on a recent Star Trek convention weekend with her father, who came dressed as Spock. They heard a red alert, stood on transporter pads (dad gave a live long and prosper hand sign) and poked around the bridge. The sets are doppelgangers of the originals down to each blinking light and 3D chess piece.
James Cawley, a 50-year-old Elvis impersonator, began the years-long process of building the sets in 1997 after inheriting a copy of the original Enterprise blueprints from a costume designer on the original show.
Cawley and fellow fans released their first Star Trek: New Voyages Web film in 2004, with Cawley portraying Kirk. Cast members call what they do “playing Star Trek,” but the production values became quite high, with some episodes involving up to 200 people and attracting original Star Trek actors George Takei and Walter Koenig (reprising their roles of Sulu and Chekov, respectively.)
“It was a fun little lark, and it just exploded,” said Cawley, who produced 11 full-length episodes, which have so far garnered more than 1 million views.
They were pioneers in the flourishing culture of Star Trek fan films. However, the atmosphere in their little universe chilled in December last year after Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the makers in California of a planned fan film that raised more than US$1 million on crowdsourcing Web sites.
Six months later, the companies — calling themselves “big believers in reasonable fan fiction” — released guidelines on how fan filmmakers can avoid objections, such as not raising more than US$50,000 and keeping individual episodes to under 15 minutes.
Although he was never sued, Cawley felt it was a good time to move on.
“I just thought at that point: ‘Why have I been making these films?’” he said. “Basically, I’d been making these films because I enjoy the people that come from all over the world that love the same thing that I do.”
Opening the sets to visitors became a way to keep the fans coming. He obtained a license from CBS Consumer Products and opened the doors of a former dollar store this month. Adult admission is US$24.30.
Ticonderoga, near the Vermont border, is far from a big city, but Cawley hopes to benefit from seasonal tourism in the Adirondacks, historic Fort Ticonderoga and nearby Lake George.
Marybeth Ritkouski, a fan-film veteran working as a tour guide, said visitors have had emotional reactions after they walk through the sliding doors and onto the set. One man actually wept. She thinks people still connect so deeply with the show dating to 1966 because it was so hopeful. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/26/2003653915 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/64228c86cf4d418c0528088c6c52c98aeddd9c71d19cc9aa45af358b11190752.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:50:27 | null | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | Two Taiwanese tennis stars faced each other at the WTA Connecticut Open yesterday, with Chuang Chia-jung defeating Hsieh Su-wei and gaining a measure of revenge for her untimely exit from the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fsport%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2F2003653953.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/27/thumbs/P16-160827-1.jpg | en | null | Taiwan’s female tennis stars face off in US match | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
Two Taiwanese tennis stars faced each other at the WTA Connecticut Open yesterday, with Chuang Chia-jung defeating Hsieh Su-wei and gaining a measure of revenge for her untimely exit from the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.
In their women’s doubles quarter-final at the Connecticut Tennis Center in New Haven, Chuang and Katerina Bondarenko of Ukraine defeated Hsieh and Andrea Petkovic of Germany 7-5, 1-6, 11-9.
Chuang and Bondarenko next face Hungary’s Timea Babos and Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova in the semi-finals.
Taiwan’s media played up the match between Chuang and Hsieh, billing it as a game of “former friends turned adversaries,” after their relationship reportedly deteriorated following Hsieh’s decision to withdraw from the Rio Olympics.
Hsieh, who was Chuang’s doubles partner for the Games, announced her withdrawal from the Olympics following a row with officials from the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee on Aug. 4.
Hsieh’s unilateral decision meant Chuang was unable to compete. She too was forced to withdraw and sat on the sidelines of the competition.
The situation led to reports of Chuang’s resentment toward Hsieh, which was confirmed when they split up their doubles partnership.
At the time, Chuang told reporters that Hsieh could have informed her of the decision earlier so that she could have time to pair up with another player for the women’s Olympic doubles.
After the match in New Haven yesterday, Hsieh explained her decision to pull out of the Rio Olympics in a post on her Facebook page.
Hsieh later removed the post, and replaced it with a new post congratulating Chuang on her win.
In related news, Taiwan’s top male player, Lu Yen-hsun, ended his good run when he was beaten by Roberto Agut of Spain 3-6, 2-6 in the quarter-finals of the ATP Winston-Salem Open.
Lu had won three straight in earlier rounds, with a triumph over Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko 7-6, 6-3, a win over Portugal’s Joao Sousa 6-2, 6-4, and knocking off Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman 6-4, 6-0.
It was the fourth consecutive year that Lu had advanced into the Winston-Salem quarter-finals. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2016/08/27/2003653953 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/c9121c262376c8612d0f1d597e5c7397ca945ca43d9d8b24da48c161b3788703.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:53:14 | null | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | Bolivian authorities accused the president of a mining federation and two of his top officials of the killing of deputy interior minister Rodolfo Illanes amid a bitter strike, officials said on Saturday. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2F2003654109.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Mining leader accused in Bolivia killing | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AP, LA PAZ, Bolivia
Bolivian authorities accused the president of a mining federation and two of his top officials of the killing of deputy interior minister Rodolfo Illanes amid a bitter strike, officials said on Saturday.
Illanes was kidnapped and beaten to death by striking mine workers on Thursday after going to the town of Panduro, 130km south of La Paz, to mediate in the dispute over mining laws and dwindling paychecks.
Three protesters have been killed in clashes with riot police, stoking tensions.
The striking miners had armed themselves with dynamite and seized several highways, stranding thousands of vehicles and passengers.
Bolivia’s Attorney General’s Office has detained 40 miners, among them protest leader Carlos Mamani, president of the National Federation of Mining Cooperatives of Bolivia.
On Saturday afternoon, Mamani and two other federation officials were accused by the Public Ministry in Illanes’ death.
An autopsy found that Illanes died from trauma to the brain and thorax.
The blockaded highway in Panduro was clear on Friday as the miners returned to their camps. A funeral Mass was held for Illanes in La Paz.
Illanes’ murder underscored how Bolivian President Evo Morales, a former coca growers’ union leader, has increasingly found himself at odds with the same kind of popular social movements that fueled his rise to power and have made up his political base.
The leftist president called the beating death of the deputy minister “a conspiracy” to overthrow him.
Bolivia’s informal miners number about 100,000 and work in self-managed cooperatives producing primarily zinc, tin, silver and gold.
They want to be able to associate with private companies, which promise to put more cash in their pockets, but are prohibited from doing so.
The government says that if they associate with multinational companies they would no longer be cooperatives.
Bolivia has seen increased social agitation as a financial slowdown hit an economy heavily dependent on natural gas and minerals, which account for more than 70 percent of foreign export sales. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/29/2003654109 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/1d60d60e369eff10c664d9dc73d55093513dcb3ad1dbf25ad0f49ad727e1ef8c.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:52:08 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | Bangladeshi police yesterday stormed a militant hideout outside of Dhaka, shooting dead three Muslim extremists, including the suspected mastermind of an attack on a cafe that killed 22 mostly foreign hostages last month. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654040.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Bangladesh police raid kills extremists | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, DHAKA
Bangladeshi police yesterday stormed a militant hideout outside of Dhaka, shooting dead three Muslim extremists, including the suspected mastermind of an attack on a cafe that killed 22 mostly foreign hostages last month.
“We can see three dead bodies here,” senior police officer Sanwar Hossain told reporters.
“Tamim Chowdhury is dead. He is the Gulshan attack mastermind and the leader of JMB [Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, a domestic militant outfit],” he said.
Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi-Canadian citizen, had earlier been named by police as the suspected mastermind of the attack on the cafe in Gulshan, an upscale Dhaka neighborhood.
The bodies were retrieved after police staged an hour-long gun battle with extremists in Narayanganj, a city 25km south of Dhaka, Hossain said.
“The operation went on for an hour. We can see three dead bodies. They did not surrender. They threw four, five grenades at police and fired from AK-22 rifles,” Bangladesh Police Inspector General A.K.M. Shahidul Hoque told reporters. “Three extremists were killed. Among them, one of the dead persons looked exactly like the photo of Tamim Chowdhury that we have.”
Bangladesh’s government has blamed the JMB for the July 1 cafe attack in which 20 hostages, including 18 foreigners, were killed along with two policemen.
Police say Chowdhury, 30, who returned from Canada in 2013, has been leading a faction of the militant group, also said to be behind scores of murders of members of religious minorities.
“We heard that Tamim Chowdhury is among the dead. [His] physical appearance shows that it was Tamim Chowdhury, but we need to be 100 percent sure,” Bangladeshi Minister of Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters.
Police on Aug. 2 announced a 2 million taka (US$25,519) reward for information leading to the arrest of Chowdhury, who disappeared after allegedly masterminding the cafe attack.
Together with their elite security force, the Rapid Action Battalion, the police have carried out a series of raids on suspected militant hideouts.
In June, more than 11,000 people were arrested in a bid to quash a spate of brutal murders of secular writers, gay rights activists and religious minorities.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Gulshan attack, releasing photographs from inside the cafe during the siege and of the five men who carried out the deadly assault and were shot dead at its finale.
Bangladeshi authorities have rejected the claim, saying international extremist networks have no presence in the world’s third-largest Muslim majority nation.
Bangladesh has been reeling from a deadly wave of attacks over the past three years, including on foreigners, rights activists and members of the country’s religious minorities.
Both the Islamic State and a branch of al-Qaeda have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks.
Critics say Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s administration is in denial about the nature of the threat posed by Muslim extremists and accuse her of trying to exploit the attacks to demonize her domestic opponents. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/28/2003654040 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/fa95869f5e35a82703b0842becff99964746d9f7360fe24123defbf2c329c018.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:52:44 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | Colombia’s Nairo Quintana regained the Vuelta a Espana leader’s red jersey with a stunning ascent to win Monday’s 10th stage. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fsport%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2F2003654214.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/31/thumbs/P16-160831-318.jpg | en | null | Quintana storms back into Vuelta lead with victory | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, LAGOS DE COVADONGA, Spain
Colombia’s Nairo Quintana regained the Vuelta a Espana leader’s red jersey with a stunning ascent to win Monday’s 10th stage.
Chris Froome battled back after being dropped early in the 12.2km special category climb to the end of the 188.7km ride from Lugones to Lagos de Covadonga to finish third on the stage and move up to third in the general classification, 58 seconds behind Quintana.
Alejandro Valverde, in second, is just one second ahead of Froome in the general classification.
Quintana crossed the line in a time of 4 hours, 50 minutes, 31 seconds ahead of the Netherlands’ Robert Gesink, who finished 24 seconds back, and just a second ahead of Froome.
“A day like this gives me great confidence to continue,” Quintana told a Spanish TV station. “We have a deserved day’s rest, then we will prepare well and continue on the same road.”
Three-time Vuelta winner Alberto Contador suffered another damaging blow to his chances of a record fourth win on home soil as he finished 1 minute, 5 seconds behind Quintana to fall nearly three minutes adrift in fifth overall.
Overnight leader David de la Cruz slipped to seventh in the general classification.
Froome’s chances of becoming the first man in 38 years to win the Tour de France and Tour of Spain in the same year looked to be fading as he slipped behind his rivals, falling nearly a minute behind Quintana at one point.
However, Froome surged through the chasing pack over the final 5km, passing Contador and Valverde on his way to limiting the damage from Quintana.
Quintana insists Froome’s superior time-trial ability means he remains the favorite, with a 37km race against the clock to come on stage 19.
“He continues to be very close given what is to come,” Quintana said, adding that he would only be comfortable with a three-minute lead ahead of the time trial.
“We have to look to continue what we have done until now to distance ourselves from him, because if he stays at this time he is still the favorite,” he said.
Quintana had failed to challenge Froome’s procession to a third Tour de France win last month, but looks in much better shape having skipped the Olympics to concentrate on landing the second Grand Tour title of his career.
The Movistar rider made his first move, along with Contador, 7km from the end. However, Contador could not keep up with Quintana’s acceleration when he kicked for home 3.5km from the finish.
Gesink was alone at the front of the race at that stage as the sole survivor from a 16-man breakaway.
He was quickly pulled in by Quintana, who surged to victory to add 10 bonus seconds to the time he made on the day over the chasing pack. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2016/08/31/2003654214 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/49c5f49d3e4ae82c1ed104372eb7cfd8dd012155e3cd54dc4b6aae09bc4a9fee.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:07:27 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | Belgian Gianni Meersman won stage five of the Vuelta a Espana on Wednesday, his second victory after triumphing on stage two, both wins coming on flat terrain. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fsport%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653887.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/26/thumbs/P16-160826-323.jpg | en | null | Meersman grabs his second win at Vuelta a Espana | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, LUGO, Spain
Belgian Gianni Meersman won stage five of the Vuelta a Espana on Wednesday, his second victory after triumphing on stage two, both wins coming on flat terrain.
Meersman won the sprint finish in the 171.3km stage from Viveiro to Lugo in a time of 4 hours, 16 minutes and 42 seconds, while Colombian Darwin Atapuma retained the overall lead.
Etixx-Quick Step rider Meersman finished ahead of Luxembourg’s Fabio Felline of Trek-Segafredo in second and France’s Kevin Reza of FDJ in third after being set up well by his team and sprinting fastest on the uphill run to the line.
Because of a crash in the last kilometer, overall leader Atapuma lost more than a minute and the stage results had Spain’s Alejandro Valverde first, but the 3km rule was applied and the Colombian kept his red jersey, leading by 29 seconds.
“I was scared a little because the fall was in front of me, but luckily it did not involve me and I was able to continue without problems,” Atapuma said. “For my sporting career and the team, this is a great happiness. I came to the tour with good feelings and we will keep fighting, with the help of my team.”
Meersman said on Eurosport: “I was very happy with the first win, it gave me a lot of confidence and I started today with no stress. The lead-out from [Zdenek] Stybar was incredible and when I saw the 200 meters to go sign I just went because I knew if I stopped the others would come from behind. In the end nobody passed me and I am very happy.”
BMC’s Philippe Gilbert and Cannondale-Drapac’s Simon Clarke made a late attack with the peloton chasing, but due to tricky narrow roads there were various incidents.
Steven Kruijswijk of LottoNL-Jumbo went down and had to receive medical attention, while another crash nearly involved Chris Froome, who eventually finished in 14th place. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2016/08/26/2003653887 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/90fe4593f5135bfc992c8fe5a5eca33d85705ee39f5b05549d9547698de33670.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:49:48 | null | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | Volkswagen AG (VW) has reached a tentative deal with its US dealers to compensate them for losses they said they suffered as a result of the company’s emissions cheating scandal, attorneys for the carmaker and dealers told a federal judge on Thursday. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2F2003653933.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | VW, dealers reach tentative deal in cheating scandal | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AP, SAN FRANCISCO
Volkswagen AG (VW) has reached a tentative deal with its US dealers to compensate them for losses they said they suffered as a result of the company’s emissions cheating scandal, attorneys for the carmaker and dealers told a federal judge on Thursday.
The value of the settlement with the roughly 650 dealers was not disclosed, although Volkswagen said in a statement later that it would include cash payments.
“We believe this agreement in principle with Volkswagen dealers is a very important step in our commitment to making things right for all our stakeholders in the United States,” Volkswagen North America chief executive Hinrich Woebcken said in the statement.
Details of the settlement were still under discussion. US District Court Judge Charles Breyer gave the attorneys until the end of next month to submit a final proposal. The deal would require Breyer’s approval.
Volkswagen previously reached an agreement with attorneys for car owners. That deal calls for it to spend up to US$10 billion buying back or repairing about 475,000 vehicles involved in the scandal and paying their owners an additional US$5,100 to US$10,000 each.
Details about the vehicle repairs have not been finalized.
The settlement also includes US$2.7 billion for unspecified environmental mitigation and an additional US$2 billion to promote zero-emissions vehicles.
Breyer gave the deal preliminary approval last month.
It does not cover about 85,000 more-powerful Volkswagens and Audis with 3-liter engines also caught up in the emissions scandal.
Volkswagen attorney Robert Giuffra said the company was prepared to submit a fix for some of those vehicles by early November that would bring them into compliance with clean energy laws.
Any fix proposed by Volkswagen would have to be approved by government regulators before it could be implemented. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/27/2003653933 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/b02c3d25736675a9714b67af29ca01c2ffdd952e12cc052bbc192782e11c220e.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:00:07 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | The Chinese government on Wednesday imposed limits on lending by peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms to individuals and companies in an effort to curb risks in one part of the loosely regulated shadow-banking sector. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653858.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Beijing imposes limits for borrowing from P2P sites | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Bloomberg
The Chinese government on Wednesday imposed limits on lending by peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms to individuals and companies in an effort to curb risks in one part of the loosely regulated shadow-banking sector.
The China Banking Regulatory Commission said an individual can borrow as much as 1 million yuan (US$150,245) from P2P sites, including a maximum of 200,000 yuan per site.
Corporate borrowers are capped at five times those levels. China’s authorities are concerned about defaults and fraud among the nation’s more than 2,300 online lenders, the commission said.
“The P2P crackdown is part of a broad tightening to curb risks and cut leverage in banking, insurance and brokerage sectors, as regulators deal with problems from last year’s loosening,” said Dai Ming (戴明), a fund manager at Hengsheng Asset Management Co (恆盛資產管理) in Shanghai.
“The crackdown will likely kill 70 to 80 percent of the P2P companies,” he said.
The same day, the People’s Bank of China sold 50 billion yuan of 14-day reverse-repurchase agreements, its first offering of anything with a tenor other than seven days since February, spurring speculation officials want to curb leverage in the bond market by making it less profitable for investors borrowing to buy 10-year debt, according to Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (華僑銀行) and Haitong Securities Co (海通證券). For Natixis SA though, the move should not be interpreted as anything other than an effort to build out a short-term yield curve.
The monetary authority continued its cash injections yesterday, offering 140 billion yuan of seven-day repos and 80 billion yuan of 14-day contracts, according to two traders at primary dealers required to bid at the auctions. Accounting for maturing repos, the operations added a net 170 billion yuan to the banking system.
Market News International yesterday said the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is trying to add long-term money to the market, adding that it considers maturities of more than 14 days if needed. The central bank met with lenders on liquidity management and is trying to reduce maturity mismatches, MNI said, without citing any sources.
The lack of an official statement from China’s central bank is at odds with a recent drive to boost market communication.
The PBOC has issued a relative flurry of statements this month, saying on Aug. 15 that investors must not focus too much on short-term concerns. Days earlier, after data showed the weakest increase in credit in two years, PBOC research bureau chief economist Ma Jun (馬駿) said that the slump has not hurt growth.
“Investors are waiting for further signals from the central bank,” First Capital Securities Co (第一創業證券) said.
“It seems the PBOC wants to warn investors not to get excessively leveraged, but on the other hand, it wants to keep the measure moderate to avoid panicking the market,” it said.
In the past 12 months, China has seen markets from stocks to commodities and property overheat as the central bank eased monetary policy, while weaker-than-estimated data suggest the extra liquidity is failing to benefit the broader economy.
Regulators might impose curbs on lending to developers and homebuyers in an effort to damp prices, said the people who asked not to be identified because the plans have not been publicly disclosed.
Regulators will talk about increasing down payments to 50 percent for first-time residential buyers, and to 70 percent for buyers with previous borrowing records, according to the people, who said the plans have not been finalized. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/26/2003653858 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/26d55a97a7045670c8efe69fae4271a720c379115b931bf33ed11fb3c8c94338.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:54:10 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | China is to crack down on social and entertainment news that promotes improper values and “Western lifestyles,” the country’s broadcasting regulator said, the latest effort at censorship in an already strictly regulated media environment. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2F2003654239.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | China to curb news that favors ‘Western lifestyles’ | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Reuters, BEIJING
China is to crack down on social and entertainment news that promotes improper values and “Western lifestyles,” the country’s broadcasting regulator said, the latest effort at censorship in an already strictly regulated media environment.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has embarked on an unprecedented drive to censor media that do not reflect the views of Chinese Communist Party leaders. Authorities have already issued rules limiting “foreign-inspired” TV shows and put tougher penalties on the spread of rumors via social media.
Social and entertainment news must be dominated by mainstream ideologies and “positive energy,” Xinhua news agency reported late on Monday, citing China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.
IMPROPER
News content should not make improper jokes, defile classics, or “express overt admiration for Western lifestyles,” the regulator said in a circular, according to Xinhua.
“They should also avoid putting stars, billionaires or Internet celebrities on pedestals” and not advocate overnight fame or hype family disputes, Xinhua said.
China’s legislature this week is also reviewing a draft law that would require film industry workers to maintain excellent “moral integrity,” after recent cases in which celebrities had been arrested for drug offenses and prostitution, Xinhua said in a separate report.
Xi has been explicit that media outlets must follow the party line, uphold the correct guidance on public opinion and promote “positive propaganda.”
The term “positive energy” is a catch phrase that has been favored by China’s propaganda and internet authorities under Xi, referring to content that is morally uplifting and patriotic.
CENSORS
The government aggressively censors the internet, blocking many foreign Web sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, which it deems a potential challenge to party rule or a threat to stability.
Regulators say such controls are necessary in the face of growing security threats, and are done in accordance with law.
Despite government controls, foreign TV shows are widely available in China as illegal downloads or on pirated DVDs. Many are also available legally online through distribution deals with domestic Web sites. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/31/2003654239 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/dcc13fe62c1255edf96b99473f11fc8955bd0886304a9a2c835625c5bd7f90b4.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:06:22 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | To say that the eurozone has not been performing well since the 2008 crisis is an understatement. Its member countries have done more poorly than the EU countries outside the eurozone, and much more poorly than the US, which was the epicenter of the crisis. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Feditorials%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653872.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Reform or divorce: examining the eurozone’s performance | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Joseph Stiglitz
To say that the eurozone has not been performing well since the 2008 crisis is an understatement. Its member countries have done more poorly than the EU countries outside the eurozone, and much more poorly than the US, which was the epicenter of the crisis.
The worst-performing eurozone countries are mired in depression or deep recession; their condition — think of Greece — is worse in many ways than what economies suffered during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The best-performing eurozone members, such as Germany, look good, but only in comparison; and their growth model is partly based on beggar-thy-neighbor policies, whereby success comes at the expense of erstwhile “partners.”
Four types of explanation have been advanced to explain this state of affairs. Germany likes to blame the victim, pointing to Greece’s profligacy and the debt and deficits elsewhere. However, this puts the cart before the horse: Spain and Ireland had surpluses and low debt-to-GDP ratios before the euro crisis. So the crisis caused the deficits and debts, not the other way around.
Deficit fetishism is, no doubt, part of Europe’s problems. Finland, too, has been having trouble adjusting to the multiple shocks it has confronted, with GDP last year about 5.5 percent below its 2008 peak.
Other “blame the victim” critics cite the welfare state and excessive labor-market protections as the cause of the eurozone’s malaise. Yet some of Europe’s best-performing countries, such as Sweden and Norway, have the strongest welfare states and labor-market protections.
Many of the countries now performing poorly were doing very well — above the European average — before the euro was introduced. Their decline did not result from some sudden change in their labor laws or from an epidemic of laziness in the crisis countries. What changed was the currency arrangement.
The second type of explanation amounts to a wish that Europe had better leaders, men and women who understood economics better and implemented better policies. Flawed policies — not just austerity, but also misguided so-called structural reforms, which widened inequality and thus further weakened overall demand and potential growth — have undoubtedly made matters worse.
However, the eurozone was a political arrangement, in which it was inevitable that Germany’s voice would be loud. Anyone who has dealt with German policymakers over the past third of a century should have known in advance the likely result. Most important, given the available tools, not even the most brilliant economic czar could have made the eurozone prosper.
The third set of reasons for the eurozone’s poor performance is a broader right-wing critique of the EU, centered on eurocrats’ penchant for stifling, innovation-inhibiting regulations.
This critique, too, misses the mark. The eurocrats, like labor laws or the welfare state, did not suddenly change in 1999, with the creation of the fixed exchange-rate system, or in 2008, with the beginning of the crisis. More fundamentally, what matters is the standard of living, the quality of life. Anyone who denies how much better off we in the West are with our stiflingly clean air and water should visit Beijing.
That leaves the fourth explanation: The euro is more to blame than the policies and structures of individual countries. The euro was flawed at birth. Even the best policymakers the world has ever seen could not have made it work. The eurozone’s structure imposed the kind of rigidity associated with the gold standard. The single currency took away its members’ most important mechanism for adjustment — the exchange rate — and the eurozone circumscribed monetary and fiscal policy. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2016/08/26/2003653872 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/2258bf1a328cee6c8d437c6a5c9a25451f6b9b1f9356f91767e3b88c0fcd8023.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:53:38 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | Six scientists have completed a year-long Mars simulation in Hawaii, where they lived in a dome in near isolation. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2F2003654177.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | US scientists exit Hawaii dome after simulated Mars trip | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AP, HILO, Hawaii
Six scientists have completed a year-long Mars simulation in Hawaii, where they lived in a dome in near isolation.
For the past year, the group in the dome on a Mauna Loa mountain could go outside only while wearing spacesuits.
On Sunday the simulation ended and the scientists emerged.
French crew member Cyprien Verseux said the simulation shows a mission to Mars can succeed.
“I can give you my personal impression which is that a mission to Mars in the close future is realistic. I think the technological and psychological obstacles can be overcome,” Verseux said.
German crew member Christiane Heinicke said the scientists were able to find their own water in a dry climate.
“Showing that it works, you can actually get water from the ground that is seemingly dry. It would work on Mars and the implication is that you would be able to get water on Mars from this little greenhouse construct,” she said.
Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) principal investigator Kim Binsted said the researchers are looking forward to getting in the ocean and eating fresh produce and other foods that were not available in the dome.
“HI-SEAS is an example of international collaborative research hosted and run by the University of Hawaii. So it’s really exciting to be able to welcome the crew back to earth and back to Hawaii after a year on Mars,” Binsted said.
NASA funded the study run through the University of Hawaii. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/30/2003654177 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/3de757749b577a5cd29d7821d9b429ae5099b5bf5c6b80e9deb56847a9aaa853.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:51:35 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | Engineers responded to motorists’ concerns over cracks in the Hsuehshan Tunnel, with one saying that the tunnel is safe, but measures should be taken to prevent a possible collapse. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ftaiwan%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654036.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Tunnel safe, but needs attention, engineer says | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Chien Hui-ju and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Engineers responded to motorists’ concerns over cracks in the Hsuehshan Tunnel, with one saying that the tunnel is safe, but measures should be taken to prevent a possible collapse.
Some motorists said they saw cracks as long as 2m in the tunnel, which is 10 years old.
One Yilan resident, surnamed Lin (林), said that while sitting in traffic last week he noticed that the cracks were so pervasive in some areas of the tunnel that they resembled spiderwebs.
Lin said he initially thought that the cracks were isolated to one area of the tunnel, but was surprised to discover that the full 12.9km length of the passage was affected by them.
“Some cracks are very long and as wide as half a centimeter. They seem to be mostly concentrated around the northbound 25km highway mark. There is a lot of traffic that goes through the tunnel and I am concerned about the possibility of a collapse,” Lin said.
Another motorist, surnamed Chen (陳), said: “Both the northbound and southbound sections of the Hsuehshan Tunnel are filled with cracks, and Pengshan Tunnel is similarly affected. Alhough I have not yet seen water leaking through the cracks, I am afraid that once the situation reaches that level it will be too late to save people. I hope the tunnel engineers will not play with people’s lives.”
Chen added that the cracks do not appear to be from construction work, but rather seem to be new cracks that might have appeared between construction projects.
National Taiwan University civil engineering professor Huang Tsan-hui (黃燦輝), who specializes in tunnel engineering, said the cracks are a sign of deformation, adding that a thorough inspection should be conducted.
Huang said there are many possible causes for cracks, such as tectonic activity.
“The tectonic plates under Taiwan are very active. Every year they move at least 1cm or 2cm. If the tunnels are affected by that tectonic activity, it is very possible they will change shape,” Huang said.
Huang said that the concrete walls of the tunnel are approximately 40cm thick and that 1cm to 2cm cracks at the surface will not affect structural integrity.
However, engineers should take measures to prevent the cracks from spreading further, he said.
The National Freeway Bureau said that there are records for keeping track of cracks at the tunnel, adding that regular inspections are being conducted and there are no concerns over the tunnel’s structural integrity.
The bureau’s chief engineer, Hsu Cheng-chang (許鉦漳), said the bureau has already investigated the width, length and depth of the cracks and will continue to conduct regular inspections in the tunnel.
“Some of the cracks are due to contraction of the concrete following construction work, while some are from earthquakes or pressure from the mountain,” he said. “There is no threat to motorists using the tunnel — the cracks are still within the scope of what is safely permissible. There has been no deformation at the tunnel.” | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2016/08/28/2003654036 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/5e8c9b00020f23659faa41cbd3e2fefa1ca27ce9402c6dc71607d54cee48dbce.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:58:47 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | Cosmos Hotel & Resorts Group (天成飯店集團) has opened a new hotel in Chaiyi, unfazed by the soft economic environment and a drastic fall in the number of Chinese tourists. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653855.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Betting on strategy, Cosmos Hotel group opens Chiayi hotel | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter, in Chaiyi
Cosmos Hotel & Resorts Group (天成飯店集團) has opened a new hotel in Chaiyi, unfazed by the soft economic environment and a drastic fall in the number of Chinese tourists.
The Sun Dialogue Hotel on Daya Rd, adjacent to Lantan Reservoir (蘭潭水庫), aims to attract family travelers who might be interested in the city and its local cuisine, in addition to nearby Alishan (阿里山) and the recently opened National Palace Museum Southern Branch.
“We are optimistic that the new venture will prove a success like the Cosmos Hotel Taipei (台北天成大飯店) and the Taipei Garden Hotel (台北花園大酒店),” the group’s assistant marketing director Blythe Chao (趙芝綺) said.
Cosmos Hotel Taipei and Taipei Garden Hotel ranked first and third among peers in terms of occupancy, boasting rates of 96.26 percent and 89.35 percent respectively during the January-to-June period.
The group spent NT$200 million (US$6.32 million) remodeling the Sun Dialogue Hotel, which offers 71 rooms from NT$7,200 to NT$26,000 per night.
The Sun Dialogue Hotel is the latest addition to the group’s budget facilities marketed under the Cosmos Creation (天成文旅) brand, Chao said.
The hotel is the group’s first foray outside northern Taiwan, and is part of its plan to expand across the nation, she added.
The group operates five hotels and one independent restaurant. It has sought to expand under a multi-brand strategy, offering a range of accommodation to suit clients with varying budgets and needs, she said.
The group plans to open a hotel in Taichung later this year near Fengjia Night Market (逢甲夜市) and a luxury resort hotel in Hualien County’s Ruisui Township (瑞穗) next year, she added. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/26/2003653855 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/989ef71d90ff7d01da2465f1dc3d7ecf578dc45b4e6d43005b96331a17a14946.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:56:16 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | Foreign e-commerce operators might soon have to pay business taxes for their sales in Taiwan after participants at government-sponsored meetings all lent support to draft regulations to oversee the industry, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653856.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Tax eyed for foreign e-commerce firms | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter
Foreign e-commerce operators might soon have to pay business taxes for their sales in Taiwan after participants at government-sponsored meetings all lent support to draft regulations to oversee the industry, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
The ministry is to draw up a bill by the middle of next month that would require cross-border e-commerce operators to register in Taiwan if their annual revenues meet a taxable threshold, National Tax Administration Deputy Director-General Joan Wang (王?忠) said.
“All the firms expressed their willingness to comply with Taiwan’s tax rules,” Wang said, adding that representatives from ride-hailing provider Uber Technologies Inc and US consumer electronics giant Apple Inc took part in the final meeting yesterday.
The ministry has organized five meetings on the issue and welcomes more participation from interested parties when the changed tax regulations go into operation, Wang said.
The ministry has yet to set the taxable thresholds. Under current rules, domestic operators must submit tax statements if their monthly sales exceed NT$80,000 and service charges surpass NT$40,000.
Many participants agreed that the threshold should be the same for onshore and offshore operators, Wang said, adding that the taxable base is likely to be set at NT$480,000 in terms of annual revenue.
According to a survey conducted by research firms Accenture PLC and AliResearch, cross-border business-to-consumer e-commerce could grow from an industry worth US$230 billion in 2014 to US$1 trillion in 2020.
That would translate into a yearly compound growth rate of 27.4 percent for global e-commerce, the survey showed.
However, foreign e-commerce operators, which have gained significant revenue by selling products or services to Taiwanese consumers, have long been criticized for failing to pay taxes in Taiwan.
Because foreign e-commerce operators do not have to set up a physical office in Taiwan, they can dodge taxes by running their business through a digital platform overseas.
Only a handful of foreign e-commerce operators have established companies in Taiwan and they claim they just provide services to their parent companies to lighten tax burdens.
“The ministry will make the issue its top priority for the fall legislative session so the levy might be put into place next year,” Wang said.
Foreign e-commerce operators might hire local accounting firms to help with registration and taxation issues, she said.
When the proposed tax passes the legislature, there should be a grace period during which e-commerce operators would be free from penalties, tax official Weng Pei-yu (翁培祐) said.
It is up to the Cabinet to decide the length of the grace period and other technical details, Weng said. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/26/2003653856 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/9d08a4327b54deff6fe832e0edab47d0c742d6ac63e0f6d187b37cd233968568.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:52:31 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | Novak Djokovic on Monday night double-faulted, then shook his right arm and grimaced. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fsport%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2F2003654212.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/31/thumbs/P16-160831-313.jpg | en | null | Djokovic manages to win despite pain | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AP, NEW YORK
Novak Djokovic on Monday night double-faulted, then shook his right arm and grimaced.
Seconds later, a weak serve produced a wince from the US Open’s defending champion, followed by a missed forehand that gave away a set — the first set dropped by Djokovic in the first round of any Grand Slam tournament since 2010.
While he managed to emerge with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Jerzy Janowicz of Poland, there were plenty of signs of trouble, starting with a visit from a trainer who massaged Djokovic’s bothersome arm after only five games.
Asked about his health during an on-court interview, Djokovic deflected the question, saying: “I don’t think it’s necessary to talk about this now. I’m through. I’m taking it day by day.”
When the subject arose at his news conference, Djokovic again avoided addressing the topic, saying the trainer’s visit “was just prevention; it’s all good.”
During the match, Djokovic hit first serves of about 161kph, sometimes slower — 40kph or so below what is normal for him. He hit second serves of about 130kph.
He flexed that right arm, the one he has used to wield a racket on the way to 12 Grand Slam titles, and appeared generally unhappy, covering his head with a white towel at changeovers.
Djokovic’s coach, Boris Becker, gnawed on his fingernails, looking nervous as can be.
All in all, Djokovic’s issues figure to loom large as the tournament progresses, and therefore amounted to the most noteworthy development at Flushing Meadows, even if there were results of interest elsewhere.
Those included No. 8-seeded Madison Keys’ 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 comeback victory over 60th-ranked Alison Riske in the last match of the night. It finished at 1:48am, well after Keys took a medical timeout while a trainer worked on her right shoulder in the second set, and extended Riske’s Grand Slam losing streak to 10 matches.
That was one of three intriguing all-US contests on Monday. The others were 20th-seeded John Isner’s comeback from two sets down to edge 18-year-old Frances Tiafoe before a rowdy, standing-room-only crowd at the new Grandstand, and 26th-seeded Jack Sock’s five-set victory over another 18-year-old, Taylor Fritz.
A first-round loss by Rio Olympics gold medalist Monica Puig and French Open champion Garbine Muguruza’s complaints about having trouble breathing after dropping the first set of a match she would go on to win in three added more drama.
This was No. 1-ranked Djokovic’s first match at a major since losing to Sam Querrey in the third round of Wimbledon, which ended the Serb’s bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam after titles at the Australian Open and French Open. He exited the Rio Olympics in the first round, then sat out the Cincinnati Masters because of a sore left wrist.
“After all I’ve been through in the last couple of weeks, it’s pleasing, of course, to finish the match and win it,” said Djokovic, who lost to his next opponent, Jiri Vesely, at Monte Carlo in April. “Look, each day presents us some kind of challenges that we need to overcome, accept and overcome.”
The wrist appeared to be just fine against Janowicz, a former top-20 player who reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 2013 and is now ranked 247th after his own series of injuries.
Earlier in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Rafael Nadal stood near the net after winning his first Grand Slam match in three months — 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 against Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin — and unraveled the thick wrap of white tape protecting his all-important left wrist. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2016/08/31/2003654212 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/a388df0f9f9299800457660650d3e9044de70b8d77651204e2045b5baba85165.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:51:31 | null | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | The two most powerful Palestinian political movements in Gaza — Hamas and Fatah — are slugging it out in a social media war that is pitting video against video and hashtag against hashtag ahead of municipal elections in the Palestinian territories slated for October. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Feditorials%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2F2003654066.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/29/thumbs/p07-160829-7A.jpg | en | null | Gaza becomes social media war zone ahead of Palestinian elections | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Peter Beaumont / The Guardian, Gaza City
The two most powerful Palestinian political movements in Gaza — Hamas and Fatah — are slugging it out in a social media war that is pitting video against video and hashtag against hashtag ahead of municipal elections in the Palestinian territories slated for October.
The widespread use of social media for the first time in Palestinian elections has seen both sides locked in a conflict of narratives over conditions in the coastal strip ruled by Hamas since 2007, which has lived through three devastating conflicts with Israel in the past eight years.
The battle of words and images was triggered by a series of slick videos posted on YouTube representing Hamas’ pitch for the municipal elections — not least in Gaza City, one of the three most important and populous Palestinian cities.
The message, after years emphasizing Israeli occupation, siege and resistance, is relentlessly upbeat, featuring two key phrases that have also been deployed as hashtags on Twitter and Facebook: “Thank you, Hamas” and “Gaza is more beautiful.”
The online battle has continued as the Israeli military last week launched about 50 strikes against targets in Gaza. The attacks by jets and Israeli tanks were in response to a missile, claimed by a militant group, that hit the nearby Israeli community of Sderot.
The Hamas videos, featuring drone shots, pop music and stylized production, depict a Gaza at odds with the grinding reality of high unemployment, frequent power cuts and war-damaged buildings.
Instead, the scenes flit from the new sea-side corniche to artfully lit office blocks and an amusement park opened by Hamas, to universities, municipal laborers hard at work and lifeguards on the beaches.
In reply, Fatah — the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which governs on the West Bank — has re-edited the videos to show what it believes is the reality of almost a decade of Hamas rule, saying they will reconstruct a battered Gaza.
In the Fatah version — using the same hashtag “thank you Hamas,” but this time ironically — Israeli bombs are depicted exploding over the rooftops. Neighborhoods heavily damaged in the last conflict in 2014, such as Shuja’iya, are shown as a gray patchwork of rubble.
Hamas police are seen beating women on the street or fighting Salafists in a Rafah mosque.
Most horrifying of all is the inclusion of shots of dead Palestinian children from recent conflicts.
It has not only been the rival videos that have been struggling for attention, but associated hashtags too, often mirroring each others’ messages: Hamas asserting it is “ready to rule” with Fatah saying it is “able to rule.”
The original hashtags are already becoming the punchline for jokes among opponents of Hamas, while a shot-by-shot deconstruction of Hamas’ first video has been widely shared on Facebook.
Among other things it claims that many of the achievements Hamas is claiming credit for were either built when Fatah was in power or were paid for — like the Gaza Strip’s refurbished central north-south road — with foreign money from places such as Qatar and Turkey or by private investors including Gaza’s Capital Mall.
The impetus for the campaigns on both sides is the recognition that, with 90,000 young people eligible to vote for the first time, old methods of electioneering may not suffice to grab attention in a battered and weary Gaza where both Fatah and Hamas are regarded with distrust by a sizeable section of the 1.8 million population. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2016/08/29/2003654066 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/a0bd89683314b01aee5e17c52b1db7629a5a10e7781f8b82a0ec459c069a5208.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:51:50 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | The majority of healthcare practitioners said that they have been treated rudely by patients or patients’ relatives, a survey conducted by 1111 Job Bank revealed. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ftaiwan%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654037.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Healthcare workers face ill-treatment by patients | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
The majority of healthcare practitioners said that they have been treated rudely by patients or patients’ relatives, a survey conducted by 1111 Job Bank revealed.
According to the survey, which collected valid questionnaires from 611 healthcare practitioners between Aug. 10 and Wednesday, 91 percent of healthcare professionals said they have been treated “unreasonably.”
The most common types of “unreasonable” treatment were abusive or insulting remarks, having complaints filed against them and rudeness, the respondents said.
Fifty-nine percent of those who faced such treatment said they usually choose to ignore it rather then reporting it to hospital management, as most of the reports are met with comforting words, a request to apologize to the patient or their relatives, or the promise that the managers would communicate with the patient or their relatives, the survey showed.
The job bank said some practitioners have also been sexually harassed at work, citing as an example a nurse at a dialysis center in New Taipei City who said a patient pinched her buttocks while she was treating another patient, adding that sexual harassment of nurses occurs almost on a daily basis.
The survey showed that practitioners at psychiatry departments were treated unreasonably most often, followed by those working in emergency rooms and rehabilitation departments, while there were relatively fewer cases in otolaryngology departments.
Physicians at psychiatry departments have higher chances of encountering irrational people with unpredictable behavior, and emergency rooms often have patients and their relatives who are relatively emotional due to the urgent nature of the situation, Job Bank vice president Daniel Lee (李大華) said.
Rehabilitation departments often treat people with chronic illnesses or people who need long-term care, so the patients or their family members might be in relatively low spirits, he said.
The practice rate of nursing students is only 61 percent in Taiwan, because many of them leave theirs jobs due to low salaries and welfare benefits, as well as frequent cases of medical disputes and violent behavior toward healthcare practitioners, Taiwan Union of Nurses Association secretary-general Tzeng Seu-Yi (曾修儀) said. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2016/08/28/2003654037 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/5f53dc4a8cb03a638e165e05893c25301ad606902c788f711dac15af6069b10c.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:51:44 | null | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | Top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska declared it mission accomplished after clinching a 6-1, 7-6(1) victory over Elina Svitolina in the final of the Connecticut Open in New Haven on Saturday. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fsport%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2F2003654083.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/29/thumbs/P11-160829-326.jpg | en | null | Radwanska ready for US Open after Connecticut win | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Reuters
Top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska declared it mission accomplished after clinching a 6-1, 7-6(1) victory over Elina Svitolina in the final of the Connecticut Open in New Haven on Saturday.
Radwanska accepted a wild card into the event because she wanted to tune up for the US Open, and the 27-year-old Pole will head to Flushing Meadows brimming with confidence after collecting her 19th career WTA title.
“Thank you so much ... for giving me that wild card,” Radwanska said during her winner’s speech. “I definitely appreciate it and I will be back next year for sure.”
Radwanska rattled through the first set in less than 30 minutes as Svitolina struggled on serve.
The Ukrainian 10th seed raised her game in the second with some precise groundstrokes and had three set points to level the match, but was unable to convert before being overrun in the tiebreak.
In the doubles final, India’s Sania Mirza and Romania’s Monica Niculescu defeated the Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko and Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung 7-5, 6-4. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2016/08/29/2003654083 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/7b226591c00d8bb1241480bb6d5b753dd741c026efe7afaf3eadbfcb2044e194.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:50:54 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | Yesterday was the 100th day since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was inaugurated on May 20. In Western countries that is generally used as an opportunity to look back as well as to look forward. While in her meeting with the media in Taipei on Aug. 20, Tsai herself cautioned against hasty conclusions and counseled people to maintain a long-term perspective, we do want to briefly take stock and assess how her first 100 days as president have evolved. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Feditorials%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654005.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Tsai’s first 100 days: so far so good | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Gerrit van der Wees
Yesterday was the 100th day since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was inaugurated on May 20. In Western countries that is generally used as an opportunity to look back as well as to look forward. While in her meeting with the media in Taipei on Aug. 20, Tsai herself cautioned against hasty conclusions and counseled people to maintain a long-term perspective, we do want to briefly take stock and assess how her first 100 days as president have evolved.
The first overall conclusion is “so far, so good”: While from the start of her administration there were several unexpected developments, her government was able to deal with them in a pragmatic, evenhanded manner, reflecting her own low-key and balanced approach.
Two such unexpected events were the accidental firing of a missile from a Taiwanese navy vessel at Zuoying Naval Base, which hit a Taiwanese fishing boat near Penghu, killing the skipper, and the accident on Aug. 16 when a tank returning from an exercise malfunctioned and rolled into a river, killing four soldiers on board.
The two incidents did enable Tsai’s administration to start a number of much-needed reforms in a military that had grown perhaps too lax over the past eight years.
A second conclusion is that Tsai was able to move decisively on a number of reconciliation processes aimed at redressing past wrongs and bridging the gaps between various sectors of the population.
The two main elements of this were her apology to Aborigines on Aug. 1, and the truth and reconciliation effort related to the 228 Massacre in 1947 of about 28,000 ethnic Taiwanese by Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) troops and the subsequent White Terror era.
The apology to Aborigines — who make up 2.3 percent of the population, comprising 16 different peoples — seeks to address the disadvantaged social and economic position Aborigines have been pushed into during four centuries of influx of immigrants from the Chinese coastal provinces.
A key element in this effort is that for the past five decades Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼), the home of the Tao community, also known as the Yami, has been used aa a depository for nuclear waste. In her Aug. 15 visit to the island, Tsai promised that removal of the nuclear waste was a high priority.
The truth and reconciliation effort related to the 228 Massacre and the White Terror era of the KMT’s repressive rule received a major boost on July 25, when the Legislative Yuan passed the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例) and the government set up a committee headed by lawyer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to deal with the issue of illegal party assets.
The assets issue has long plagued Taiwan’s political landscape, as the many valuable properties and organizations controlled by the KMT during four decades of one-party rule gave the party an unmatched advantage in terms of resources. This imbalance is now coming to an end.
However, Tsai did encounter major opposition in a related area — judicial reform. While she was moving the pieces into place for the establishment of a judicial reform committee, she also — too hastily perhaps — nominated two candidates, Public Functionary Disciplinary Sanction Commission Chief Commissioner Hsieh Wen-ting (謝文定) and Judicial Yuan Secretary-General Lin Chin-fang (林錦芳), for the positions of Judicial Yuan president and vice president respectively. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2016/08/28/2003654005 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/9d244ad9f7c4f95e352cb4976aa8a55944286d7b6d68eeb4b54e181c6c2c043d.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:49:00 | null | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has summoned former Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) chairman Mckinney Tsai (蔡友才) for questioning on Sunday, amid allegations that Mega International Commercial Bank’s (兆豐銀行) New York branch might have been involved in money laundering. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2F2003653925.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/27/thumbs/P12-160827-320.jpg | en | null | FSC to question former Mega Financial chairman | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Ted Chen / Staff reporter
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has summoned former Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) chairman Mckinney Tsai (蔡友才) for questioning on Sunday, amid allegations that Mega International Commercial Bank’s (兆豐銀行) New York branch might have been involved in money laundering.
FSC Chairman Ding Kung-wha (丁克華) yesterday said that Tsai, who no longer works in the financial sector, could clarify claims that the New York branch was involved in money laundering.
“Tsai has nothing to worry about, as the FSC is not a judicial body and is focused on learning the truth about the case,” Ding said, while speaking at a cooperative education event, which promises to provide 7,000 internship positions at financial firms.
Until Mega Bank resolves the problems associated with the money-laundering allegations, it will be barred from opening any new branches overseas, Ding said.
The commission, which plans to send a delegation to New York and Panama next week to examine Mega Bank’s operations there, yesterday said it respects a decision by the Panamanian government to launch an investigation into the bank, as the Central American country has jurisdiction over banks operating within its territory.
The decision by the Superintendency of Banks of Panama (SBP) to investigate Mega Bank’s branch in Panama came after the New York Department of Financial Services accused Panama of serving as a high-risk jurisdiction for money laundering.
By conducting an investigation into the Mega Bank matter, the SBP is seeking to disprove the department’s allegations and clear Panama’s reputation, FSC Vice Chairman Kuei Hsien-nung (桂先農) said.
Separately, Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) yesterday announced that its board of directors had unanimously voted to appoint Catherine Lee (李紀珠) to fill the long-vacant position of president.
Lee is the chairperson of state-run Taiwan Financial Holdings (台灣金控). Her term is to conclude at the end of this month.
Having served as a government official as well as in the banking, securities and insurance sectors, Lee will be tasked with developing new horizons in digital finance, as well as optimizing current operations, Shin Kong said in a statement.
Additional reporting by CNA | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/27/2003653925 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/e1e7cb1c5e2c613be4a5ee24fe7dfec6ff8b376fd8b15668ec87995f3b2b57f5.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:51:51 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | LUXURY GOODS | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2F2003654134.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | World Business Quick Take | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Agencies
LUXURY GOODS
Prada shares rise
Prada SpA shares yesterday rose as much as 15 percent in Hong Kong after chairman Carlo Mazzi forecast that the Italian luxury-goods maker will return to growth in sales and earnings next year, helped by cost-cutting and online expansion in Asia. This year “is a turning point and we are now firmly on the path to sustainable growth in revenues and earnings from as early as 2017,” Mazzi said on Friday in an conference call after the Hong Kong market closed. First-half earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization fell 25 percent to 330 million euros (US$370 million), dropping slightly less than analysts estimated. Prada said it aims to double its e-commerce sales in each of the next three years by increasing the number of categories it offers online, particularly shoes, and expanding its social media activities. The company plans to offer online sales across China, Hong Kong and Singapore by the end of next year, Mazzi said.
CHINA
Inspectors to push target
The State Council has launched a nationwide inspection to make sure this year’s economic growth target will be met, even as it presses ahead with structural reforms, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday. Some regions and government departments are not coordinating their policies well and some officials are lazy in their work, Xinhua said. Inspectors have been sent to the provinces, focusing on areas of maintaining steady economic growth, implementing major policy measures and “supply-side structural reforms,” as well as supporting investment projects and innovations, Xinhua said. The inspection, the third of its kind in recent years, aims to “keep economic growth within a reasonable range and ensure the main objectives and tasks of this year’s economic and social development will be completed” it said. The government set an annual economic growth of between 6.5 percent and 7 percent this year.
TRADE
EU-US talks ‘dead’: Berlin
German Vice Chancellor and Minister of Economics and Labor Sigmar Gabriel on Sunday said that negotiations on a massive trade deal between the EU and the US were effectively dead in the water. “The talks with the US have de facto failed because we Europeans of course must not succumb to American demands,” he told public broadcaster ZDF. “Nothing is moving forward.” Negotiators from the US and the EU are in talks to finalize the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which would create the world’s largest free-trade area. However, the negotiations have been bogged down over the terms of the agreement as well as Britain’s shock vote to leave the EU and rising opposition to the deal in France and Germany.
MANUFACTURING
Fiat flirts with Samsung
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne is looking into a tie-up with Samsung Electronics Co, as automaker widens its search for a technology partner to gird against being left behind in the race to develop self-driving cars. “We have a very good relationship with Samsung, both as a supplier and as a potential strategic partner,” Marchionne said late on Saturday in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Rome. Samsung is in advanced talks to buy some or all of Fiat’s car-parts unit Magneti Marelli, people familiar with the matter said. Samsung is particularly interested in Marelli’s lighting, in-car entertainment and telematics business, the people said. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/30/2003654134 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/49f47aa0a22809423196aecdb1358f77c18313311fcb8642ae5537e284e900f7.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:50:11 | null | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said that the ministry’s Special Investigation Division (SID) — set up by former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to investigate major corruption and economic crimes — will be abolished. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Feditorials%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2F2003653938.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | SID’s dissolution is long overdue | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Wu Ching-chin 吳景欽
Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said that the ministry’s Special Investigation Division (SID) — set up by former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to investigate major corruption and economic crimes — will be abolished.
Prosecutor-General Yen Ta-ho (顏大和) has questioned whether the District Prosecutors’ Office will be able to take over the unit’s tasks — given the department’s staff and resources — whether it will be able to counteract corruption and crime among top-level officials and whether it will be able to resist political interference, saying that these require careful consideration. The evidence suggests that if district prosecutors are insufficiently independent, even the SID will be unable to avoid coming under the thumb of politicians.
According to Article 63-1 of the Organic Act for Courts (法院組織法), targets of SID investigations and prosecutions should include not only large-scale economic crimes or activities harmful to social order, but also corruption or negligence involving high-level public officials, such as the president, vice president or the directors of the five government branches — legislative, executive, judicial, control and examination — in addition to cases of electoral fraud involving the president and legislators.
These types of cases, if they do not involve individuals in key government positions, invariably involve wealthy businesspeople. If a new special investigation unit is set up under the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, since the prosecutor-general’s term in office is fixed at a single term of four years, the prosecutor-general would therefore be well-positioned to carry out investigations without fear of consequences. In addition, due to the pooling of resources, the unit would be able to investigate and prosecute large criminal cases more efficiently and quickly.
It is impossible, through examining past cases, to prove whether the SID has more investigatory powers than the District Prosecutors’ Office. For example, taking the recent investigation into alleged financial irregularities at CTBC Financial Holding Co, this kind of economic crime is not committed overnight, but the SID only issued subpoenas in June to gather evidence and question people in connection to the case.
Whether investigators missed a golden window of opportunity to collect evidence is a question that has caused a great deal of discussion. The SID even waited two months before reopening the investigation, which has led some observers to question the professionalism and effectiveness of the organization.
Furthermore, the only real “success” that the SID can be said to have had to date is the corruption case involving former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Indeed, to investigate and prosecute a former president after he left office was not only in accordance with the original aims of the unit, but also helped to assert the supremacy of the system, while establishing the impartiality of the SID.
However, eight years on, despite the SID having brought a large number of charges against Chen, in how many of these was Chen found guilty and in how many was he found innocent? How many are still in the process of being heard or even still being investigated? A thorough examination of the outstanding charges against Chen is required.
Moreover, during the course of the judicial process against Chen, there were rumors of witnesses having criticized prosecutors for inciting and pressuring them to commit perjury to secure a conviction. Such a serious flaw in the judicial process reflects badly on the SID, and it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that there was some political interference in the proceedings. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2016/08/27/2003653938 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/f73be24ae4f194632921107e4fa4dac634b6fc17256c316ed2724826abee0e92.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:51:52 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | Italy yesterday prepared for an emotional day of mourning with flags across the country to fly at half-mast in honor of the 284 victims of a devastating earthquake. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654041.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/28/thumbs/P05-160828-314.jpg | en | null | Italy mourns 284 killed in quake as search continues | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, AMATRICE, Italy
Italy yesterday prepared for an emotional day of mourning with flags across the country to fly at half-mast in honor of the 284 victims of a devastating earthquake.
Grieving families on Friday began burying their dead as rescue workers combing the rubble said they had found no new survivors in the remote mountain villages in central Italy blitzed by Wednesday’s powerful pre-dawn earthquake.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Italian President Sergio Mattarella yesterday attended a funeral service in the city of Ascoli-Piceno for some of the 46 people who died in the mountain villages of Arquata del Tronto and Pescara del Tronto.
A local gymnasium was transformed into a chapel, where bereaved relatives prayed in front of 30 coffins, including a small, white casket for Giulia, nine, whose body protected her sister, Giorgia, five — one of the last people to be pulled from the rubble alive in Pescara del Tronto.
The first funerals were held on Friday in Pomezia, south of Rome, home of six of the victims, including an eight-year-old boy.
According to the most recent official toll, at least 388 people have been hospitalized with injuries, but no one has been pulled alive from the piles of collapsed masonry since Wednesday evening.
“We will go on searching and digging until we are certain there is no one left,” said Luigi D’Angelo, an Italian Civil Protection officer working in the town of Amatrice, where the death toll stands at 224.
Italian State Forestry Corp officer Valerio Checchi said he expected rescuers to soon start using mechanical diggers to move debris in a sign virtually all hope of finding survivors has gone.
“We will still use thermal devices that can detect the presence of human bodies,” Checchi said.
As powerful aftershocks closed winding mountain roads and made life dangerous for more than 4,000 professionals and volunteers engaged in the rescue effort, survivors voiced dazed bewilderment over the scale of the disaster that struck their sleepy communities.
“I have been through earthquakes before, but this was not a quake, it was an apocalypse,” 66-year-old Anacleto Perotti said.
Perotti, a resident of the tiny hamlet of St Lorenzo Flaviano, has gone back to his house, which survived the eartquake, but he is sleeping in an armchair.
“It is too scary in bed. After a quake comes fear, depression takes you over from the inside,” he said.
Renzi has declared a state of emergency for the regions affected by Wednesday’s earthquake, which occurred in an area that straddles Umbria, Lazio and Marche.
Renzi also released an initial tranche of 50 million euros (US$56 million) in emergency aid.
More than 2,000 people who spent the night in hastily erected tented villages were shaken by a magnitude 4.8 aftershock just after 6am on Friday morning.
More than 900 aftershocks have rattled the region since Wednesday’s earthquake, which had a magnitude of 6-6.2 and triggered the collapse of hundreds of old buildings across dozens of tiny communities playing host to far more people than usual because of the summer holiday.
Earthquake experts estimated that the cost of short-term rescue efforts and longer-term reconstruction could exceed 1 billion euros.
There are also fears of a negative impact on an already stagnating Italian economy, with tourism — which accounts for 4 percent of GDP — certain to take a hit. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/28/2003654041 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/4ff1ccc9d033e7c1d5752f15970e474833197a32fd2241f200c7336d80ae6472.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:52:00 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | Taiwanese sports officials and fans were dismayed by the news that the Japan Table Tennis Association allegedly issued an order to prohibit Olympic bronze medalist Ai Fukuhara from marrying her Taiwanese boyfriend, Chiang Hung-chieh (江宏傑), who is also an Olympic table tennis player. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ftaiwan%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654038.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/28/thumbs/p03-160828-chiang.jpg | en | null | Table tennis star told not to marry boyfriend: report | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
Taiwanese sports officials and fans were dismayed by the news that the Japan Table Tennis Association allegedly issued an order to prohibit Olympic bronze medalist Ai Fukuhara from marrying her Taiwanese boyfriend, Chiang Hung-chieh (江宏傑), who is also an Olympic table tennis player.
Fukuhara and Chiang, both 27, have been in a relationship for more than a year, and it was reported that they planned to get married.
However, Josei Jishin magazine reported that Japanese table tennis officials ordered Fukuhara to put off the plans, because they wanted her to concentrate on her training and lead the Japanese women’s table tennis team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The report said Japanese officials also had objections over Fukuhara marrying Chiang, because it would be a “status-gap marriage,” a Japanese term referring to a couple having significant disparity between their incomes, social status and personal values.
Other Japanese media outlets said that Fukuhara is the nation’s top female table tennis player, who was once the world’s No. 4 player, with an annual income estimated at ￥100 million (US$982,318), while Chiang is on a much lower level with a world ranking of 49, and was eliminated in the first round at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and only has an estimated annual income of ￥4 million.
Many Taiwanese sports fans were angered at the perceived slight against Chiang. Some fans posted messages condemning Japanese sports officials, saying they have no right to interfere in people’s affairs, adding that it is appalling to dictate a young woman’s choice of a marriage partner.
In response to queries from Taiwanese media on Friday, Chiang said: “I cannot say anything about this matter. Whatever I say would not be right at this time.”
Fukuhara tried to dispel the speculation by posting a photograph on Facebook showing two cantaloupes filled with ice cream, tagged with Chiang’s name, whereby he responded with: “I will take you there after finishing my competition.”
Taiwanese sports officials were also alarmed, as they want to see the marriage go ahead, saying that Fukuhara could be granted Taiwanese citizenship to enable her to compete in table tennis matches for Taiwan at the Olympics, an idea which does not sit well with Japanese authorities.
The relationship between Fukuhara and Chiang was also covered by Chinese media outlets, since Fukuhara can write and speak Mandarin due to her training in China by top coaches from an early age and she is viewed as a celebrity there. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2016/08/28/2003654038 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/71c5d8e9df99c94e290a8da31ae2ea554b913e87e21c0827e4814a078cebab39.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:52:11 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | Ligue 1 | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fsport%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2F2003654154.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | SOCCER SHORTS | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Agencies
Ligue 1
PSG’s perfect start ends
Reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain suffered their first defeat under new coach Unai Emery on Sunday, going down 3-1 to a rampant AS Monaco at the Stade Louis II. Joao Moutinho put Monaco ahead before a Fabinho penalty doubled their lead just before halftime. Edinson Cavani pulled a goal back in the second half, but a Serge Aurier own-goal late on secured a deserved win for the home side. PSG are in fifth place after seeing their perfect start to the campaign ended in the principality. “If we had controlled the start of the match things would have been different,” Emery said. Earlier, AS Saint-Etienne drew 0-0 with Toulouse at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, while Girondins de Bordeaux edged a tight encounter with Nantes 1-0 thanks to a Diego Rolan goal in the first half.
BUNDESLIGA
Hertha score late for win
Julian Schieber scored the second of two injury-time goals to give Hertha BSC a dramatic 2-1 win over promoted SC Freiburg, while RB Leipzig secured a 2-2 draw on their Bundesliga debut on Sunday. Freiburg captain Nicolas Hoefler thought he had salvaged a draw for his side on their return to the Bundesliga when he scored with a header from a corner in the 93rd minute, but there was still time for Schieber’s winner from a difficult angle after Genki Haraguchi’s initial effort was blocked. Later on Sunday, Marcel Sabitzer struck in the last minute to earn a 2-2 draw for Leipzig at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. Mark Uth looked to have won it for the home side when he scored in the 83rd after a breakaway led by captain Sebastian Rudy, but Benno Schmitz crossed for Sabitzer at the far post to claim Leipzig’s first point.
La Liga
Barca withstand pressure
Ivan Rakitic’s first-half header maintained Barcelona’s 100 percent start to the La Liga season as the champions withstood a wave of late pressure to win 1-0 at Athletic Bilbao on Sunday. Despite their perfect starts to the campaign, Real Madrid and Barca trail UD Las Palmas at the top of the table after the Canary Islanders smashed Granada 5-1 with new signing Kevin-Prince Boateng again on target. Sevilla failed to match their thrilling 6-4 win over RCD Espanyol last weekend, but picked up a valuable point in a 0-0 draw at Villarreal. Deportivo Alaves remain unbeaten after a 0-0 stalemate with Real Sporting de Gijon.
Serie A
Inter draw 1-1 at home
Inter showed signs of improvement in a 1-1 draw with US Citta di Palermo on Sunday in their home opener at San Siro. While Inter dominated the first half, it was another difficult game as Andrea Rispoli put Palermo ahead three minutes after the break with the visitors’ first shot on goal. However, Inter’s prized striker Mauro Icardi equalized in the 72nd, heading home a cross from newly-signed Antonio Candreva. Genoa came back from a goal down to defeat Portogruaro-Crotone 3-1, while US Sassuolo, last season’s revelation with a sixth-place finish, beat promoted Delfino Pescara 1936 2-1. UC Sampdoria overcame Atalanta BC 2-1 with goals from Fabio Quagliarella and Edgar Barreto, while ACF Fiorentina defeated AC Chievo Verona 1-0 with a goal from Colombia midfielder Carlos Sanchez, who is on loan from Aston Villa. Also, it was: Torino 5, Bologna 1; and Udinese 2, Empoli 0. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2016/08/30/2003654154 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/ed4af6a3fc8d09e2d09008ce05a5b8083d2513e72d9f153e44d65be73641e40a.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:54:25 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | Gene Wilder, who delighted audiences with his comic turns in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Mel Brooks classics, including Blazing Saddles and The Producers, died on Monday at age 83. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2F2003654245.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/31/thumbs/P07-160831-304.jpg | en | null | ‘Willy Wonka’ star Gene Wilder passes away at 83 | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, LOS ANGELES
Gene Wilder, who delighted audiences with his comic turns in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Mel Brooks classics, including Blazing Saddles and The Producers, died on Monday at age 83.
The actor died of complications from Alzheimer’s, holding hands with family members and taking his last breath as Ella Fitzgerald’s Somewhere Over The Rainbow played on a speaker, his nephew Jordan Walker-Pearlman said.
“It is with indescribable sadness and blues, but with spiritual gratitude for the life lived, that I announce the passing of husband, parent and universal artist Gene Wilder, at his home in Stamford, Connecticut,” Walker-Pearlman said in a statement. “It is almost unbearable for us to contemplate our life without him.”
He was acclaimed for his turn as The Waco Kid in Brooks’ third film, the spoof Western and box-office smash Blazing Saddles.
The 1974 movie shot down the myths perpetuated about the American West, pouring light on closeted racism, but it is also stacked full of gags and is often listed among critics’ top 10 comedy films.
Brooks and Wilder joined forces on their Oscar-nominated script for the director’s next film, Young Frankenstein, which poked fun at the Universal horror pictures of the 1930s.
“Gene Wilder — One of the truly great talents of our time. He blessed every film we did with his magic & he blessed me with his friendship,” Brooks said on Twitter.
The Milwaukee native, known for his impeccable timing and frizzy hair, got his break in the 1961 off-Broadway production of Arnold Wesker’s Roots and followed with his Broadway debut as the comic valet in Graham Greene’s The Complaisant Lover.
His other Broadway credits include One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, alongside Kirk Douglas, and a production of Mother Courage and Her Children a year later, in which he co-starred with Anne Bancroft.
Bancroft was dating Brooks — her future husband — and introduced the pair, who hit it off immediately.
The director showed Wilder an early script, entitled Springtime for Hitler, which would eventually become The Producers.
Wilder won the first of his two Oscar nominations for his portrayal of Leopold Bloom in the film — his first major role.
However, it was his portrayal of eccentric candy impresario Willy Wonka in the 1971 musical fantasy based on Roald Dahl’s 1964 book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that turned him into a superstar.
His last major role was in a TV film version of Alice in Wonderland in the late 1990s, which also starred Ben Kingsley and Martin Short. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/31/2003654245 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/2a4ecd185e1665b2b0101ffe3688164a965952b564d98bba6605bc92689aecda.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:13:15 | null | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | A: Funny how I’m fine with cicadas flying in the house, but I can’t stand cockroaches. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Flang%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F2003653851.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | EVERYDAY ENGLISH | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | A: Funny how I’m fine with cicadas flying in the house, but I can’t stand cockroaches.
B: Cicadas are cool, but they don’t half make a racket.
A: Roaches seem to have a sixth sense. They stop in their tracks the second you spot them.
B: Just keep your house clean. They’re just on the lookout for food.
A：很奇怪，如果蟬在屋子裡亂飛，我不會覺得怎麼樣；但如果是蟑螂，我就受不了。
B：蟬酷斃了！但牠們也超吵的！
A：蟑螂似乎有第六感，只要你一盯著牠看，牠就會停住不動。
B：把房間打掃乾淨就沒這個問題了，牠們只是要找食物。
English 英文:
Chinese 中文: | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2016/08/26/2003653851 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/5f3ba5783b91f5efaffa674c13c369a908a410827f4cd0ce0c101f83826d5568.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:50:21 | null | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | Brazilian authorities have charged US swimming star Ryan Lochte with making a false statement about being robbed at gunpoint during the Olympics, police said on Thursday. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fsport%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2F2003653951.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/27/thumbs/P16-160827-308.jpg | en | null | Lochte charged over Rio robbery claim | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, RIO DE JANEIRO and LOS ANGELES
Brazilian authorities have charged US swimming star Ryan Lochte with making a false statement about being robbed at gunpoint during the Olympics, police said on Thursday.
The 32-year-old gold medalist risks a jail sentence, Brazilian media quoted a police official as saying, although the judicial authorities had yet to confirm that.
“Ryan Lochte was charged with the crime of falsely reporting a crime,” police said in a statement, adding that the case had been referred to the courts.
The police statement said they had recommended the courts issue a summons for Lochte to be questioned.
“Once he is summoned, whether he turns up or not, the penalty is the same: one to six months’ prison,” the news Web site G1 Rio quoted police official Clemente Braune as saying.
“If he is summoned and does not turn up to the hearing, the trial will go ahead in the accused’s absence until the final sentence is given,” Braune said.
VANDALISM
Lochte apologized last week for saying that he and three teammates had been mugged on their way back from an all-night party by robbers pretending to be police.
Rio police chief Fernando Veloso later told a news conference that the swimmers were not robbed, but detained when they tried to flee after vandalizing a gas station bathroom.
The tale humiliated first the Brazilian hosts of the Games and later Lochte’s own Team USA after police contested his story.
Top sponsors such as Speedo and Ralph Lauren abandoned Lochte this week.
“I’m taking full responsibility for it,” Lochte said in an interview broadcast on Saturday last week. “I over-exaggerated that story and if I had never done that, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
DRUNKEN URINATION
Lochte had earlier issued a written apology that was widely ridiculed online as half-hearted.
In the later NBC interview, he also admitted he was still intoxicated when he gave his initial account of the incident, adding: “I let my team down.”
Following the incident, Lochte flew back to the US, while the other three swimmers — Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen — stayed in Brazil.
Police last week released closed-circuit television footage and other evidence about the events at the gas station.
The athletes, who appeared intoxicated, stopped in a taxi at the gas station to use the bathroom during the early hours of the morning.
Lochte and the others then vandalized the area near the bathroom and, according to the manager, urinated on the walls.
Confronted by a security guard, they tried to leave. When the confrontation escalated, the security guard took out his pistol and made them sit on the ground.
After paying about US$50 in compensation for the damage, they left unharmed and returned to the Olympic Athlete Village.
“There was no robbery of the kind reported by the athletes,” Veloso said.
Lochte’s claims embarrassed the Olympic authorities, highlighting security worries at the Olympics.
Brazil had deployed 85,000 police and soldiers to secure the Games.
Lochte could also face disciplinary action over the incident by USA Swimming and the International Olympic Committee.
SPONSOR LIFELINE
In related news, a California company has thrown the star swimmer a lifeline by signing him for an upcoming advertising campaign.
Pine Bros Softish Throat Drops said a series of advertisements featuring Lochte would carry the slogan: “Forgiving on Your Throat.” | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2016/08/27/2003653951 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/5bd1d789f5de93dd49371aa883a9edb496124d39947b96de39c0205be25fdced.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:52:33 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | It is easy to suspect that the Web makes us stupid. I could fill the rest of this newspaper with anecdotes of British leftists using Facebook to reinforce each other’s belief that British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership is a triumph; of cybernats turning to Twitter to bury the nagging feeling that an enormous deficit would have left an independent Scotland close to bankruptcy; or of US conservatives finding incontrovertible proof on white supremacist sites that US President Barack Obama is a Muslim. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Feditorials%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2F2003654140.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | We should revolt against the partisan stupidity of the Internet | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Nick Cohen / The Observer
It is easy to suspect that the Web makes us stupid. I could fill the rest of this newspaper with anecdotes of British leftists using Facebook to reinforce each other’s belief that British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership is a triumph; of cybernats turning to Twitter to bury the nagging feeling that an enormous deficit would have left an independent Scotland close to bankruptcy; or of US conservatives finding incontrovertible proof on white supremacist sites that US President Barack Obama is a Muslim.
However, as I only have this space, I will give you the story of US radio talk show host Charlie Sykes. I do not believe anyone can count themselves properly adult unless they stop at some point in their lives and think through every prejudice they hold. The US shock jock did so last week and confessed at the end of his self-examination to being frightened by the conservative movement he had helped nurture.
When US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told a lie, Sykes said, he could no longer say to his audience: “By the way, you know it’s false.” Facts were biased now. Fact-checkers were the hired liars of the liberal media. The fact was, his fellow conservatives had had it with facts. The partisan Web was their trusted source. If they had read Trump was telling the truth on a conservative site or Facebook, that was all the confirmation they needed.
Sykes described an “alternative media reality and there’s no way to break through it. I swim upstream because, if I don’t say these things from some of these Web sites, then suddenly I have sold out. Then they will ask what’s wrong with me for not repeating these stories that I know not to be true.”
However, suspecting the Web has made us stupid is not the same as proving it. To understand is not to pardon, and I do not mean it as exoneration when I say you can make a good argument that the populist movements sweeping the rich world are understandable reactions to modern crises and fears, not a by-product of new communications technology.
A minority of schoolchildren in the US are white, and within 25 years whites would become a minority in the US population as a whole. You would be naive in the extreme not to have expected a frenzied backlash. Meanwhile, in Europe, Marine le Pen and Nigel Farage have not come from cyberspace. Economic insecurity and mass migration are real, as is the murderous violence of the Islamo-fascists. The euro will truly never work. The banks really did collapse and governments really did fail to send bankers before judges, and compelled taxpayers to bail them out instead. All these things happened without Twitter. You do not appear to need technology to explain our discontents.
Yet, listen to the jeering tone and cocksure ignorance of modern debate for a while, and perhaps you will think again. When Sykes talks about there being no way for the truth to break through alternative media reality, he is describing a world where people are so alienated from each other they cannot accept the good faith of an opponent who produces a discomforting argument. You can see the alienation in the T-shirts worn by Labour supporters announcing with pride that they have “never kissed a Tory.” They are not alone in their sexual taboos. In the 21st century, the idea of love crossing a political divide revolts partisans everywhere. In 1960 just 5 percent of Americans said they would be upset if their child married a supporter of a rival political party. By 2010, that number stood at 40 percent. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2016/08/30/2003654140 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/80b43c52231cd64827f9bba4d907eb88d608a2b6294cd86734c0193dbfb9bddd.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:52:50 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | When hackers penetrated a secure authentication system at a bitcoin exchange called Bitfinex earlier this month, they stole about US$70 million worth of the virtual currency. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Feditorials%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2F2003654205.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Cybertheft threat to cryptocurrency exchanges rising | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss / Reuters, NEW YORK
When hackers penetrated a secure authentication system at a bitcoin exchange called Bitfinex earlier this month, they stole about US$70 million worth of the virtual currency.
The cybertheft — the second largest by an exchange since hackers took about US$350 million in bitcoins at Tokyo’s MtGox exchange in early 2014 — is hardly a rare occurrence in the emerging world of cryptocurrencies.
New data disclosed to Reuters shows a third of bitcoin trading platforms have been hacked, and nearly half have closed in the half dozen years since they burst on the scene.
This rising risk for bitcoin holders is compounded by the fact there is no depositor’s insurance to absorb the loss, even though many exchanges act like virtual banks.
Not only does that approach cast the cybersecurity risk in stark relief, but it also exposes the fact that bitcoin investors have little choice but to do business with undercapitalized exchanges that may not have the capital buffer to absorb these losses the way a traditional and regulated bank or exchange would.
“There is a general sense in the bitcoin community that any centralized repository is at risk,” said a US-based professional trader who lost about US$1,000 in bitcoins when Bitfinex was hacked.
He declined to be named for this article.
“So when investing, you always have that expectation at the back of your head. I lost a small amount compared to the others, but I know of traders who lost millions of dollars worth of bitcoins,” the trader said.
The security challenge for the bitcoin world does not appear to be letting up, according to experts in the currency.
“I am skeptical there’s going to be any technological silver bullet that’s going to solve security breach problems. No technology, cryptocurrency, or financial mechanism can be made safe from hacks,” said Tyler Moore, assistant professor of cybersecurity at the University of Tulsa’s Tandy School of Computer Science who will soon publish the new research on the vulnerability of bitcoin exchanges.
His study, funded by the US Department of Homeland Security and shared with reporters, shows that since bitcoin’s creation in 2009 to March last year, 33 percent of all bitcoin exchanges operational during that period were hacked. The figure represents one of the first estimates of the extent of security breaches in the bitcoin world.
In contrast, data from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a non-profit organization, showed that of the 6,000 operational US banks, only 67 banks experienced a publicly disclosed data breach between 2009 and last year. That is about 1 percent of US banks.
However, among the world’s stock exchanges, security breaches are much higher, with hackers attracted to the large pools of cash moving in and out of these trading venues. The latest survey of 46 securities exchanges released three years ago by the International Organization of Securities Commissions and the World Federation of Exchanges found that more than half had experienced a cyberattack.
Moore collaborated on the research with Carnegie Mellon University associate research professor Nicolas Christin and doctoral student Janos Szurdi.
In 2013, Moore and Christin wrote a research paper on security risks surrounding bitcoin exchanges when Moore was still a professor at Southern Methodist University. That research, entitled “Beware of the Middleman: Empirical Analysis of Bitcoin Exchange Risk,” was peer-reviewed and presented at the 17th International Financial Cryptography and Data Security Conference in Okinawa, Japan in 2013. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2016/08/31/2003654205 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/0510fee3120abc7f6bb1a5b8f43703a9f8480f245e5eda5537f79e2943b72e49.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:52:06 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | Washington and Moscow have made key steps toward agreeing to a new ceasefire in Syria, but a final deal has not been reached, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov said after talks on Friday. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ffront%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654014.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | US, Russia move closer to new Syria truce agreement after marathon talks | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, GENEVA, Switzerland
Washington and Moscow have made key steps toward agreeing to a new ceasefire in Syria, but a final deal has not been reached, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov said after talks on Friday.
Kerry and Lavrov made the comments after the marathon talks at a luxury hotel on the shores of Lake Geneva.
“Today I can say that we achieved clarity on the path forward” for a revamped cessation of hostilities, the top US diplomat said.
He added that the “vast majority” of technical obstacles to a ceasefire had been agreed, but that some issues remained unresolved.
Lavrov echoed his US counterpart, telling reporters that “very important steps” had been made on a deal to stop the violence.
There had been hopes of a definitive announcement to stem the fighting in the war-ravaged country or on a new round of UN-brokered peace talks.
Kerry said US and Russian experts would continue to meet in Geneva in the coming days to pore over unresolved issues in hopes of striking a durable deal, but added: “Neither of us is [ready] to make an announcement that is predicated by failure — we don’t want to have a deal for the sake of a deal.”
A previous ceasefire agreed to earlier this year has all, but collapsed, and Kerry acknowledged that “violations [of the deal] eventually became the norm rather than the exception.”
Moscow and Washington support opposite sides in the Syrian conflict, which erupted in March 2011 after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad unleashed a brutal crackdown against a pro-democracy revolt.
Russia is one of al-Assad’s most important international backers, while the US supports Syria’s main opposition alliance and some rebels.
Kerry on Friday listed two main priorities to ensure that a prospective revamped ceasefire holds: responding to ceasefire violations by the Damascus regime and checking the rising influence of the group formerly known as al-Nusra Front.
That group has renamed itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham after renouncing its status as al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, but Kerry on Friday said: “Nusra is al-Qaeda, and no name change by Nusra hides what Nusra really is and what it tries to do.”
The two diplomats met on and off for nearly 12 hours and were briefly joined by the UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, who on Thursday voiced hopes the talks would help his drive to revive the stalled negotiations.
Successive rounds of negotiations have failed to end a conflict that has killed more than 290,000 people and forced millions from their homes over more than five years.
De Mistura had voiced hope of bringing the warring parties back to the negotiating table by the end of this month, but that deadline looks likely to slip in the face of intense fighting on the ground.
Both Kerry and Lavrov stressed the need for fresh talks to find a political solution to the crisis.
Kerry said that he hopes installing a real ceasefire could “open the window of opportunity for us to be able to get to the table here in Geneva and have a real negotiation about the future.”
The US and Russia cochair a UN-backed humanitarian task force for Syria, which has been struggling to ensure access for desperately needed aid across the country. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2016/08/28/2003654014 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/c2ffb0f80e6dbee2c5bec6da932c76ebae988dca60c17f8258399142bacb1176.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:51:52 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | Taiwan’s consumer confidence index fell this month, reflecting public concerns over the economy, National Central University said yesterday. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2F2003654120.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Consumer index on confidence down this month | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Staff writer, with CNA
Taiwan’s consumer confidence index fell this month, reflecting public concerns over the economy, National Central University said yesterday.
The index stood at 79.56 this month, down 0.62 points from last month, according to a survey conducted by the university’s Center for Taiwan Economic Development asking consumers about their spending intentions and outlook for the next six months.
The index consists of six indicators reflecting how much confidence people have in consumer prices, the job market, family finances, the overall economic climate, the stock market and the possible purchase of durable goods in the coming six months.
The six sub-indices all declined.
The sub-index for confidence in stock market investments saw the biggest decline, falling 2.3 points from a month earlier to 70.8 this month.
The second-biggest decline was recorded in the sub-index for the timing for durable goods purchases, which dropped 0.55 points to 88.95.
The sub-index for confidence in the job market decreased by 0.4 points to 110.4.
The sub-index for confidence in the economy lost 0.25 points to 73.35, the sub-index for confidence in consumer prices fell 0.15 points to 55.05, and the sub-index for family finances lost 0.1 points to 78.8.
The university said that a sub-index score of between zero and 100 indicates pessimism, while a score of between 100 and 200 indicates optimism, meaning that respondents were only optimistic about the labor market in the coming six months.
The survey, conducted from Aug. 19 to Tuesday last week, collected valid responses from 2,416 adults and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/30/2003654120 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/6d02d130746dd8cd2782e1226b13cb5a98e2cc25fcd21315f0cc080b08cdc2a9.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:53:22 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | “Look at me, stay with us,” the paramedics shout as a barely conscious motorcyclist is bundled into a volunteer ambulance in the Laotian capital, Vientiane, where rampant drink driving brings nightly carnage to the roads. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2F2003654169.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/30/thumbs/P05-160830-309.jpg | en | null | FEATURE: Volunteers save lives as Laos road tolls mount | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, VIENTIANE
“Look at me, stay with us,” the paramedics shout as a barely conscious motorcyclist is bundled into a volunteer ambulance in the Laotian capital, Vientiane, where rampant drink driving brings nightly carnage to the roads.
It is a grim scene familiar the world over, but in Laos, an impoverished and authoritarian communist country with almost no state-funded medical services, these kind of vital lifesavers are volunteers and entirely funded by donations. And they have never been more in demand.
By the time the crew arrive at a nearby hospital, the Japanese donated ambulance — a right hand drive vehicle in a left hand drive nation — has picked up two more injured on the way. Fresh calls for help are coming in all the time.
Founded in 2010 by a group of foreigners, “Vientiane Rescue” is a much needed lifeline for those in need of urgent medical care.
“Before we launched this service, after an accident the wounded were simply left on the roadside or taken away in tuk-tuks. That’s obviously disastrous for those with fractures or trauma,” said Sibastien Perret, a French national and former firefighter who helped found the group.
Poorly maintained roads, dilapidated vehicles, an increase in motorcycle use and the widespread prevalence of drink driving makes Vientiane one of Asia’s most precarious capitals for road deaths.
The government keeps few statistics, but Perret’s group said demand for their services has jumped 30 percent in the last year alone.
“We undertake around 20 to 30 call outs a day. And in 90 percent of cases it is road accidents,” he said.
Years of rapid growth has seen the streets fill with vehicles in recent years, many of them brand new luxury cars driven by the country’s communist party elite. That wealth — and the volunteer ambulances scooping victims up from the road — are both a stark illustration of how public services in communist Laos are largely nascent or non-existent despite being one of Asia’s fastest growing economies in the past decade.
In the 1990s the country’s rulers abandoned free healthcare, meaning ordinary citizens must fend for themselves when they get ill.
Since 2000, Laos’ GDP has increased 12 times, reaching US$12.3 billion last year, but the country has one of the world’s lowest spends on healthcare. In recent years it has averaged just 0.5 percent of GDP according to the World Bank.
Volunteer groups plug some of the gaps, but even they face shortages. At Vientiane Rescue bandages are washed and reused, while several of their ambulances are crudely converted cars.
The service operates 24-hours a day, seven days a week and has also recently expanded into firefighting teams and specialists to counter drownings.
Most of those volunteering are students who are sent to Thailand for first aid training. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/30/2003654169 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/ca151113a2cec223a565b843ab0b1b38c21c0cdf96256a8ff4c2530fde0ef9a7.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:50:28 | null | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | FORMULA ONE | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fsport%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2F2003653956.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | SPORTS BRIEFS | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Agencies
FORMULA ONE
Rosberg fastest in practice
Nico Rosberg yesterday posted the fastest time in the first practice session of the Belgian Grand Prix. In unusually hot morning conditions on the Spa track, Rosberg was 0.73 seconds faster than second-placed Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest, 0.799 seconds behind Rosberg. Whatever Hamilton goes on to achieve in tomorrow’s qualifying will be made redundant, however, as he is taking a grid penalty for having changed too many engine parts, and is going to start from the back of the grid. Hamilton, last year’s Belgian GP winner, has won six of the past seven races and leads Rosberg by 19 points with eight races remaining after this one. However, his penalty means Rosberg has a good chance to even things out.
BASEBALL
Player, broker sentenced
A South Korean baseball player was convicted of match-fixing yesterday and handed a suspended two-year prison term for deliberately allowing or attempting to allow walks in four games last season. A broker involved in the scheme was also sentenced to one year in prison, according to Cho Janghyun, spokesman for the Changwon District Court in southeastern South Korea. Lee Tae-yang, a starter for NC Dinos in the Korea Baseball Organization, was indicted in July and accused of taking 20 million won (US$17,940) from the broker in return for fixing the games. Prosecutors also indicted another player, Moon Woo-ram, for receiving 10 million won in cash and gifts from the broker in exchange for connecting him with Lee. Moon plays in the second-tier Korean league.
OLYMPICS
Pole auctions medal
Polish discus thrower Piotr Malachowski, who took silver at the Rio Olympics, said that he auctioned off his medal this week to fund treatment for a three-year-old boy struck with cancer. The 33-year-old world champion wrote on his Facebook page that he was moved to auction his prize after receiving a letter from the mother of a boy called Olek, who said he had been battling eye cancer for two years and that treatment in New York was his only hope. “I fought for gold in Rio. Today I am calling on everyone to fight for something even more precious,” Malachowski wrote on Friday to announce the auction. “If you help me, my silver medal might turn out to be more precious than gold for Olek,” he said, adding that he would use the entire sum raised to pay for treatment. “Success,” he later wrote, saying the medal had found takers.
RUGBY UNION
Fiji coach weighs offers
Fiji national rugby coach Ben Ryan says he is weighing almost 20 job offers that have poured in since he guided the country to its first-ever gold medal at the Rio de Janiero Olympics. Ryan’s contract with Fiji Rugby Union ends on Sept. 3 and he has resisted all efforts to keep him in the job he has held since 2013. Fiji sports organizations mounted a major effort to raise money to match rival offers for Ryan, but the English coach said money is not the issue and that he is ready for new challenges. One offer is believed to have come from the Japan national rugby sevens team and others from Super Rugby teams in Australia, Japan and New Zealand. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2016/08/27/2003653956 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/0fa9353e7f0509d2430222de1f4a8ff312ab6dee39e5c0f8a789731e19eadea8.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:51:50 | null | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | A determined Argentina overcame injuries to several key players before leaving it late to claw their way to a second ever victory over South Africa in their Rugby Championship clash in Salta on Saturday. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fsport%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2F2003654078.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/29/thumbs/P10-160829-330.jpg | en | null | Injury-stricken Argentina claw past South Africa | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Reuters
A determined Argentina overcame injuries to several key players before leaving it late to claw their way to a second ever victory over South Africa in their Rugby Championship clash in Salta on Saturday.
Replacement flyhalf Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias kicked the winning penalty with two minutes remaining as the Pumas eked out a 26-24 triumph after the Springboks had looked poised to rally past Argentina for the second time in eight days.
The win was just reward for an Argentina side angry with themselves for letting victory slip from their grasp in Nelspruit in their tournament opener and vowing they would beat the Springboks at home for a first time.
“We played a fantastic first half, we had a lead that was not a true reflection of what we saw on the pitch,” Argentina coach Daniel Hourcade said. “In the second half they came at us and we started to have problems with injuries... The truth is this team showed enormous heart in adversity today. I am really happy because I think we deserved to win it.”
Under new coach Allister Coetzee, South Africa have lost two of their five Tests this year, but the strength in depth of the Springboks squad very nearly saved the day in Argentina.
They might also be concerned that having won 18 and drawn one of their first 19 meetings with Argentina, they have now lost two of the last five.
It was Argentina’s third win in the championship since joining the elite southern hemisphere tournament last year, having also beaten Australia once.
Argentina dominated the first half despite losing prop Ramiro Herrera to the sin-bin for a bad tackle in the 20th minute, taking a 6-3 lead while down to 14 men with flyhalf Nicolas Sanchez’s second penalty.
The Pumas added a try as soon as Herrera had rejoined the fray, when a sweeping passing movement from inside their 22 ended with fullback Joaquin Tuculet touching down to put them 13-3 ahead at the interval.
South Africa began the second half with purpose and an attack down the left brought their first try after flanker Francois Louw’s slick pass to Bryan Habana sent the winger away for a record 65th Test try and 20th in the championship.
Fullback Johan Goosen converted to level the score at 13-13 and Sanchez, who took a nasty knock to the head trying to defend the attack, had to be replaced with center Juan Martin Hernandez moving inside to take his place.
Hernandez, who masterminded Argentina’s win in Durban last year, engineered a fine second Pumas try with a neat crossfield kick to the far-right corner, where flanker Juan Leguizamon beat Habana to the high ball and scored.
Argentina were seven points ahead with 13 minutes remaining, but lost Hernandez to injury and South Africa edged to within two when replacement forward Pieter-Steph du Toit went over from a scrum close to the line.
Morne Steyn, who had come off the bench looking to bolster South Africa with his place kicking from long distance, guided the visitors into a one-point lead going into the last six minutes when he landed the second of his penalties.
However, strong defending by Argentina and the 40m penalty from a cool-headed Gonzalez Iglesias allowed the Pumas to snatch a hard-earned victory. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2016/08/29/2003654078 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/5fddbf9ce8614e899a6845b0f0bec786917a6f4deb162a6b5ba2ee8849493381.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:54:21 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | Chinese practice | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Flang%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2F2003654181.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/31/thumbs/p15-160831-a1.jpg | en | null | USING IDIOMS | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Chinese practice
鶴立雞群 (he4 li4 ji1 qun2)
竹林七賢是歷史上的名士，他們常一起出現在中國藝術中。七人中有多位都是研究老莊玄學的人。晉朝官方推崇儒家思想，竹林七賢因不願意認同而受到壓迫。七賢中有一位嵇康，他是作家、詩人、音樂家及道家哲學家。
前宋朝的筆記小說《世說新語》「容止篇」中提到，某人對王戎描述他第一次見到嵇康之子嵇紹的感覺：「昨於稠人中始見嵇紹，昂昂然若野鶴之在雞群。」亦即：「我昨天第一次在人群中看見嵇紹。他昂然站立的樣子，就好像一頭野鶴佇立在雞群中一樣。」
成語「鶴立雞群」直譯成白話文就是「一頭鶴站立在雞群中」的意思，引伸為一個人在群體中出類拔萃的意思。
英文也有兩句類似的句子。第一個是「a cut above the rest」；第二個是「a big fish in a small pond」。之所以與「鶴立雞群」相似，是因為兩個英文句子都指某人在團體中比同儕更有成就或更有能力。然而，雖然第一句「a cut above the rest」的確講的就是鶴立雞群，第二句「a big fish in a small pond」則稍微帶有貶義，因為句子裡的小池塘其實就暗示著這個團體太小了，蜀中無大將，廖化才作得了先鋒。另外，第一句的「a cut above」可用來指稱一個東西、一個地方、或一個點子，並不限制只能講人。(台北時報詹豐造譯）
喬登那一百九十八公分的身高，走在街上簡直就是鶴立雞群。
(That Michael Jordan is 1.98 meters tall, when he’s walking down the street you can’t miss him.)
他那幅畫實在太美了，在今年的畫展中鶴立雞群。
(That painting of his really is very beautiful, it’s the stand-out work in this exhibition.)
英文練習
a cut above the rest; a big fish in a small pond
The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove were historical scholars often depicted together in Chinese art. Several of them were Taoist. During their lifetimes, they were united in the potential persecution they faced when the pro-Confucian Jin dynasty came to power. Among their number was the writer, poet, musician and Taoist philosopher Chi Kang.
There is a reference in a chapter entitled Appearance and Manner in the former Song Dynasty (420–589) book A New Account of the Tales of the World in which a person speaks of the first time he caught sight of Chi Kang’s son, Chi Shao. He said, 『昨於稠人中始見嵇紹，昂昂然若野鶴之在雞群』: “I saw Chi Shao for the first time yesterday, standing among a crowd of people. He stood out among them like a wild crane standing proud among a group of chickens.”
The Chinese proverb 鶴立雞群, literally “crane standing in a group of chickens,” refers to somebody who is outstanding within their group.
In English, two phrases spring to mind. The first is “a cut above the rest”; the second is “a big fish in a small pond.” These are similar in that they refer to someone who is more skilled, accomplished or able than others among their peers or immediate group. However, the former unequivocally says that the person in question is outstanding, while the latter carries a slightly derogatory tone: it infers that the group in question is rather limited in size, hence the “small pond.” Also, “a cut above” can refer to an object, place or idea, and not necessarily a person.(Paul Cooper, Taipei Times)
I think you’ll find that this camera is worth the money. The lens is a cut above the rest.
（我相信你會同意這台相機是值得那個價錢的。它的鏡頭可是極品。）
He’s famous here, but he’s just a big fish in a small pond. He wouldn’t make it in a more competitive environment.
（他在這裡很出名啊，不過那也只是蜀中無大將而已。若把他丟到一個更競爭的環境，他就沒搞頭了。） | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2016/08/31/2003654181 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/c8f75675eaaef8700157587d476a2e382f8eba27b0e839304d27e7660298d15b.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:51:49 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | North Korea yesterday threatened to fire at lighting equipment used by “provocative” US and South Korean troops at a truce village inside the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ffront%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654015.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | N Korea threatens to shoot out lights over ‘provocations’ | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AP, SEOUL and PYONGYANG
North Korea yesterday threatened to fire at lighting equipment used by “provocative” US and South Korean troops at a truce village inside the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas.
The North’s Korean People’s Army (KPA) accused US and South Korean soldiers of “deliberate provocations” by aiming their lights at North Korean guard posts at Panmunjom since Friday evening.
The KPA said in a statement that the soldiers’ actions have seriously threatened the safety of North Korean troops and disrupted their normal monitoring activities.
It said the activities have further raised the anger of North Korean soldiers at a time when the Korean Peninsula has reached the “brink of war” due to the start of annual joint military drills between the US and South Korea on Monday last week that Pyongyang says are an invasion rehearsal.
“Floodlight directed at the KPA side at random is taken as an intolerable means of provocation and it will be the target of merciless pinpoint shots,” the KPA’s chief security officers at Panmunjom said in the statement, carried by the North’s state media.
“The true aim sought by the provocateurs through their recent act is to seriously get on the nerves of the KPA soldiers, lead them to take due countermeasures and label them as provocation,” it said.
The South Korean Ministry of National Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Tuesday, the US-led UN Command in South Korea accused North Korea of planting land mines near the truce village.
Panmunjom, jointly overseen by North Korea and the UN Command, is where an armistice that ended the 1950-1953 Korean War was signed and is now a popular tourist spot for visitors from both sides.
Under the armistice, the two sides are barred from carrying out any hostile acts within or across the 4km-wide Demilitarized Zone. Still, they have accused each other of deploying machine guns and other heavy weapons and combat troops inside the zone.
More than 1 million mines are believed to be buried inside the zone. In August last year, land mine blasts that Seoul blamed on Pyongyang maimed two South Korean soldiers and caused tensions to flare.
Pyongyang yesterday also expressed anger at UN Security Council discussions over a statement denouncing the country’s latest submarine-launched missile test.
North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs official Jon Min-dok told reporters that the US-led discussions at the UN were a “terrible provocation” and that the country is developing nuclear weapons because of “outrageous nuclear intimidation” by the US.
Jon spoke just before the Security Council concluded the discussions with a statement strongly condemning all four North Korean ballistic missile launches last month and this month, calling them “grave violations” of a ban on all ballistic missile activity.
“The best way for the US to escape a deadly strike from us is by refraining from insulting our dignity and threatening our security, by exercising prudence and self-control,” Jon said. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2016/08/28/2003654015 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/fa3a00462cc0e623e5a890521cae293a08c493678b0a16b2bf160e02749c6f3f.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:53:25 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | Afghan special forces have rescued a kidnapped Australian aid worker, officials said yesterday, four months after she was taken at gunpoint in the country’s volatile east. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2F2003654172.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Afghan soldiers rescue Australian aid worker | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, KABUL
Afghan special forces have rescued a kidnapped Australian aid worker, officials said yesterday, four months after she was taken at gunpoint in the country’s volatile east.
Katherine Jane Wilson, said to be aged about 60, is “safe and well”, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop said, without disclosing when Wilson was released or who was behind her abduction.
Unidentified masked gunmen kidnapped Wilson from Jalalabad, near the border with Pakistan, in late April when she was visiting the city for a women’s embroidery project.
“I confirm that Kerry Jane Wilson, who was abducted in Afghanistan in April this year, has been released, and she is now safe and well,” Bishop said in a statement, without saying whether she is still in Afghanistan.
Bishop, who has previously said Australia does not pay ransom to kidnappers, voiced relief for Wilson and her family, but would not provide details of how she was freed.
Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, said Wilson was released in a “special operation,” without offering details.
“As a result of our efforts, she has been safely released. Several suspects have been detained and our investigation is still going on,” the agency said in a brief statement.
Wilson, a well-known aid worker in the country, ran a nongovernmental organization known as Zardozi, which promotes the work of Afghan artisans — particularly women.
Following her abduction an Australian man was seized, along with a US colleague, in Kabul by gunmen wearing police uniforms.
The two foreigners, professors from the American University of Afghanistan, were earlier this month pulled from their vehicle after the kidnappers smashed the passenger-side window and hauled them out.
Bishop said she “deeply appreciates” the support of Afghan authorities in facilitating Wilson’s release.
“To protect those who remain captive or face the risk of kidnapping in Afghanistan and elsewhere, the government will not comment on the circumstances of Kerry Jane’s release,” she added.
The abductions underscore the growing dangers faced by foreigners in Afghanistan, plagued by Taliban and other militant groups.
Foreign tourists, including British, US and German nationals, came under Taliban fire earlier this month in a volatile district of Herat Province, leaving some of them wounded. They were safely evacuated to Kabul and were flown out of the country.
Aid workers in particular have increasingly been casualties of a surge in militant violence in recent years.
Judith D’Souza, a 40-year-old Indian employee of the Aga Khan Foundation, a prominent nongovernmental organization that has long worked in Afghanistan, was abducted near her residence in the heart of Kabul on June 9. She was rescued last month.
The Afghan capital is infested with organized criminal gangs who stage kidnappings for ransom, often targeting foreigners and wealthy locals, and sometimes handing them over to insurgent groups. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/08/30/2003654172 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/377cc3833acbc85559744001cf1d6cd173311a148f54c6e5803575d2a28a7199.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:50:38 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | Oil prices edged higher on Friday, but the market remained weak as OPEC’s key producers cast doubt on the possibility of cutting output. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2F2003654001.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/28/thumbs/P14-160828-322.jpg | en | null | Oil prices up, despite uncertainty over supply | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, NEW YORK
Oil prices edged higher on Friday, but the market remained weak as OPEC’s key producers cast doubt on the possibility of cutting output.
Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zanganeh on Friday said his country wanted its pre-sanctions share of the crude market, in comments that suggested Tehran might not be on board with efforts in the OPEC cartel to agree on an output cap together with Russia.
“Iran will cooperate with OPEC on improving prices and the state of the crude market, but we expect our right to restore our lost market share in the market to be considered,” he said, the ministry’s SHANA news service reported.
Earlier, Saudi Arabian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Khalid al-Falih also downplayed hopes for a reduction in production at the group’s meeting next month in Algeria.
“I don’t believe that an intervention of significance is required. I certainly don’t advocate a cut,” he told Bloomberg News.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery next month added US$0.31 to reach US$47.64 a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for next month rose US$0.25 to US$49.92 a barrel.
“Comments from the Saudi energy minister quelled expectations of a production freeze, which rekindled concerns over the ongoing oversupply,” said Lukman Otunuga, an analyst at trading group FXTM.
Oil prices had rallied last week and entered a bull market — a 20 percent rise from recent lows -- after OPEC and Russia announced plans to discuss the supply crisis, which has hammered the crude market for more than two years.
However, prices have taken a beating this week on concerns about prospects for success at the September meeting in Algiers.
Al-Falih left the door open for an output freeze, saying it “signifies that everybody is content with where the market is today and they want it to be trending in that direction.”
However, a previous OPEC attempt in April to steady output collapsed largely because of Iran’s refusal to join talks, keen to maximize its oil revenues after having just emerged from global sanctions.
Even if a deal is reached next month on the sidelines of an energy conference, there are doubts about the impact on an already oversupplied market.
“Most of the OPEC countries are sending a signal that they’re open to freezing production, but you have to remember that most of them are producing at peak levels,” BMI Research oil and gas analyst Peter Lee told AFP.
“Even if producers come to an agreement, the freeze is at a very high level,” he said. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/28/2003654001 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/89bfda93b46c56e2e6661841214015100e960f71a7ed80242e3e2aa7d2a20736.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:51:10 | null | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | Chinese powerhouse Didi Chuxing’s (滴滴出行) acquisition of Uber Technologies Inc’s China operations marked the biggest move yet toward consolidation in an industry that many investors and Silicon Valley pundits view as a winner-takes-all game. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fbiz%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2F2003654055.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Economists see ride-hailing as ripe for competition | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | Reuters, SAN FRANCISCO
Chinese powerhouse Didi Chuxing’s (滴滴出行) acquisition of Uber Technologies Inc’s China operations marked the biggest move yet toward consolidation in an industry that many investors and Silicon Valley pundits view as a winner-takes-all game.
On the day the Didi deal was announced earlier this month, Uber board member Bill Gurley said Uber’s rivals in other markets had a slim chance of splitting the market with the dominant player, just as Uber struggled to erode Didi’s share in China.
After China, the industry will consolidate in other markets, said Hans Tung (童士豪), an Asia-focused investor and managing partner at GGV Capital, which backed Didi and Grab, a Singapore-based ride service.
“There will be a dominant No. 1,” he said that same day.
However, the consensus of economists interviewed by Reuters suggests an entirely different scenario, one of perpetual competition in a business with relatively few barriers to entry.
“That one firm wins is a narrow and not accurate way to think about these firms,” said David Evans, chairman of the Global Economics Group and coauthor of a recent book that included Uber, Matchmakers: The New Economics of Multisided Platforms.
Ten other economists who have studied ride-hailing agreed that the growing industry, which UBS Group AG estimates to be a US$40 billion market, has room for at least two successful players and perhaps a few smaller ones.
The industry, they said, has none of the elements that traditionally have enabled single companies to control a sector. If it is the first of its kind, a company can dominate markets that have huge infrastructure costs, such as putting up cell towers or laying pipes; a large workforce of employees with specialized skills; and customers who get locked into a service and have difficulty leaving for competitors.
Ride-services, by contrast, are relatively cheap to start, depend on contract labor with no inherent loyalty or specialized skills and have free apps that can be downloaded in seconds.
“You may not want to try a new social networking site if your friends aren’t on it,” Evans said. “But you don’t care what app your friends use for ride-hailing.”
The question of whether on-demand ride services will remain open to new players has vexed start-ups and investors since Uber started the industry seven years ago.
Companies taking on Uber include Lyft Inc in the US, Grab in Southeast Asia, Ola Cabs in India and newer start-ups like New York City’s Juno. In the US part of Uber’s attraction to investors is the chance at grabbing the entire industry.
“The ridesharing industry around the world is highly competitive and innovative. That’s good for riders,” Uber said in a statement.
Gurley said that any competitor would need to pursue a different strategy — perhaps offering more luxury and high-end services — to successfully battle Uber in its strongest markets.
When business magnate Carl Icahn invested US$100 million in Lyft early last year, he told media outlets he saw “room for two.”
Chris Sacca, a prominent venture capitalist who invested in Uber, responded: “This is a winner-take-all game,” on Bloomberg television.
Lyft has hired an merger and acquisitions firm and recently explored the possibility of acquisitions by several companies, a source familiar with the discussions said, and reports of a possible sale stimulated talk of whether it could compete with Uber. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/08/29/2003654055 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/e0d9a96446059949aa12b68dacf5e7d6c6d3fbe5c78976737b3b9b04e794ec37.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:53:55 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | The National Health Insurance (NHI) Administration yesterday urged the public to be cautious about telephone scams, after it received more than 14,000 calls over the past three-and-a-half months from members of the public asking about suspicious calls they had received. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ftaiwan%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2F2003654232.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | NHI Administration calls on public to beware scams | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
The National Health Insurance (NHI) Administration yesterday urged the public to be cautious about telephone scams, after it received more than 14,000 calls over the past three-and-a-half months from members of the public asking about suspicious calls they had received.
According to the administration, callers pretending to be from the agency contact potential victims, telling them their National Health Insurance cards have been suspended.
Administration official Tung Yu-yun (董玉芸) said that scammers often tell people they are victims of fraud or that their NHI cards have been suspended, which sometimes would be followed by another caller pretending to be the police, asking the people to transfer money that they say is to be handled by a prosecutor or court, or give cash to an unspecified agency.
Some scammers also try to collect private information from their targets, the agency said.
Since June 7, the administration no longer suspends NHI cards, even if people fail to pay their insurance fees, it said, adding that it would not contact people via telephone, text message or messaging apps such as Line to inform them about payment issues or fraud.
The agency urged the public to be cautious if they receive telephone calls of this nature and to not follow callers’ instructions.
People can call the administration’s toll-free hotline (0800-030-598) to confirm their status or the 165 anti-fraud government hotline if they receive a suspected scam call, the agency said. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2016/08/31/2003654232 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/6b4e0a6d8530d239b7f9a0bbf7b7471bdde2517924f42d2f7121072414b40e6f.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:53:36 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | Former national policy adviser Wu Li-pei (吳澧培) yesterday questioned President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) appointment of Premier Lin Chuan (林全) and Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維), panning the former for incompetence and the latter for adherence to the so-called “1992 consensus.” | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ffront%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2F2003654209.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/08/31/thumbs/P01-160831-3.jpg | en | null | Wu Li-pei queries Tsai’s Cabinet picks | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | By Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter
Former national policy adviser Wu Li-pei (吳澧培) yesterday questioned President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) appointment of Premier Lin Chuan (林全) and Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維), panning the former for incompetence and the latter for adherence to the so-called “1992 consensus.”
Wu said in a radio interview that some critics in the pan-green camp are accusing Tsai of being incompetent.
“Tsai is experiencing a major crisis, which she will not be able to turn around” if she fails to make sensible changes, Wu said.
“How can you make changes in the areas you pledged to reform, which are national security, the judiciary and finance, when you fill the related high-ranking posts with people from the former administration?” he asked.
“In the judiciary, [Tsai] also wanted to appoint people from the former administration, but failed,” he added, referring to controversy involving Judicial Yuan presidential nominee Hsieh Wen-ting (謝文定), whose nomination met with such vehement protest that Tsai withdrew it in the middle of this month.
When asked whether he had ever expressed his concerns over Tsai’s appointments to National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), who is Wu Li-pei’s nephew, Wu Li-pei said he had once, but it did not end well.
Joseph Wu “thinks highly of David Lee, but I do not believe that Lee is someone who should be a member of Tsai’s administration,” Wu Li-pei said. “How would Lee, if he supports the ‘one China’ principle or the ‘1992 consensus,’ be able to advocate President Tsai’s ideas?”
The senior Wu said his nephew replied that Lee is the best choice beside himself.
“He did not believe that there are people in the pan-green camp who are capable of taking on the job, and so I have since stopped talking to him,” Wu Li-pei said.
The “1992 consensus” refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Beijing that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means. Former former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) said in 2006 that he had made up the term in 2000.
When the president’s team is composed of people who do not necessarily hold the same beliefs as she does, “how can there be reform?” Wu Li-pei said.
He said the premier should step down, or there will be “no tomorrow for Tsai.”
“Lin is conservative in terms of economic reform. He does not have enough charisma to lead reform on areas such as public investment, quantitative easing or economic structural changes,” Wu Li-pei said.
The heads of state-run businesses should also be replaced by professional experts, he said.
“That the government should be tactful means reforms have to be well-thought out before they are implemented rather than sporadic. However, when facing emergencies such as the misfired missile and the airport [glitches], what is required are immediate, appropriate solutions,” he said.
“There are many problems that were actually left by the former administration, but if you cannot fix them, you will be the one held accountable for them,” he added.
Lee said in response to Wu Li-pei’s criticism that he has always made his greatest effort to perform his duties, regardless of the position he is in.
Lin said he would not shun his political responsibilities, but “it depends on who the person calling for my resignation is.” | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2016/08/31/2003654209 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/b6ce807208560e03cbf74325c1ddfa7ba2baa0d0695b368688a105723aa21ae4.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:52:47 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | Singapore yesterday sent teams armed with protective suits, fogging machines and insecticide to wage war on mosquitoes after the discovery of dozens of Zika infections sparked alarm in the city-state. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Ffront%2Farchives%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2F2003654147.json | http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/logo.gif | en | null | Singapore deploys teams amid dozens of Zika infections | null | null | www.taipeitimes.com | AFP, SINGAPORE
Singapore yesterday sent teams armed with protective suits, fogging machines and insecticide to wage war on mosquitoes after the discovery of dozens of Zika infections sparked alarm in the city-state.
Inspectors from the Singaporean National Environment Agency checking for mosquito breeding sites visited homes in the suburban district where 41 cases were reported over the weekend, including 36 involving foreign workers at a condominium construction project.
Work was halted at the site on Saturday after authorities found that housekeeping was “unsatisfactory, with potential breeding habitats” for mosquitoes.
Nearly all 41 have recovered, but five more suspected cases were yesterday reported by a clinic, local media said.
The five, who include foreign workers, were undergoing further tests at Singapore’s Communicable Diseases Centre.
Singapore, despite having the highest healthcare standards in Southeast Asia, is a densely populated tropical island with frequent rain. Mosquitoes breed in stagnant water that collects in construction areas, open space and homes.
It is also one of Asia’s cleanest cities, but has a chronic problem with dengue fever, which is spread by the same Aedes aegypti mosquito that carries the Zika virus.
Zika causes only mild symptoms for most people, such as fever and a rash, and has been detected in 58 countries, particularly Brazil.
However, in pregnant women, it can cause microcephaly, a deformation in which babies are born with abnormally small brains and heads.
Singapore’s first reported case of Zika in May involved a man who had visited Sao Paulo, Brazil, earlier in the year.
However, all of the latest cases involved local transmission.
Inspectors armed with insecticide spray cans visited high-rise public housing to check toilets and other areas for stagnant water.
Owners of homes found with such sites can be fined up to S$5,000 (US$3,673).
Contractors in protective gear carried out insecticide fogging in public places, pumping a mosquito-killing mist over large areas.
Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control yesterday issued a travel alert for Singapore.
The agency said pregnant women or women who are planning to get pregnant are advised to postpone traveling to areas where Zika is actively spreading.
The agency has issued travel alerts for 58 countries or territories where Zika is spreading, including Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore.
Women who have visited the areas should delay getting pregnant for at least two months, men should avoid sex or use a condom for at least two months after returning from the areas and people who suffer from Zika-like symptoms after having visited the areas are advised to avoid sex or use a condom for at least six months, the agency said.
All travelers to the areas should take measures to avoid mosquito bites and report to airport quarantine stations or doctors if they think they might be infected with the Zika virus, it added.
Additional reporting by Lee I-chia | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2016/08/30/2003654147 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.taipeitimes.com/8c5ad0ba93e37965ac3f2b2e92a6acdf0d285fd91aae5161ff74d88a60058b5a.json |
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