OUTRAGE:The prison term given to Lu Chung-chi is far too light given the number of deaths and injuries, said the father of a victim who lost his life in the disaster

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 27, 2016
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

The Shilin District Court yesterday found event organizer Lu Chung-chi (呂忠吉) guilty of

professional negligence in causing deaths in the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙樂園) water park disaster on June 27 last year, sentencing him to four years and 10 months in prison.

The ruling, the first verdict on the disaster, sparked furious reactions from people affected by the inferno, who said the sentence was too lenient considering the enormity of the catastrophy.

Fifteen people of the 508 injured in the blaze that swept through a Color Play Asia party at the park died as a result of their injuries. More than 200 sustained serious injuries, and many of them are still in pain, fighting for recovery and requiring medical treatment and daily rehabilitation work.

Most of those who sustained injuries were between the ages of 18 and 25, when they attended the event organized by Lu, proprietor of Color Play Co (玩色創意) and Juipo International Marketing Co (瑞博國際整合行銷), who rented out facilities at the park in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里).     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Tasiwan
Date: 2016/04/26
By: Tang Pei-chun, Kuo Chih-hsuan, Yang Shu-min, Yang Ming-chu,
Y.F. Low and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, April 26 (CNA) A Taiwanese fishing boat and its crew, which had been detained by

Japanese coast guard Monday in a disputed area of the Pacific Ocean, was released Tuesday afternoon after the owner paid a security deposit of NT$1.76 million (US$54,442), according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).

The “Tung Sheng Chi No. 16,” which is registered in Pingtung County, was detained by Japanese coast guard early Monday in waters 150 nautical miles east-southeast of Okinotori, an 9-square-meter uninhabited atoll that belongs to Japan.

Saying that the boat was fishing in its exclusive economic zone, Japan threatened to prosecute the crew unless a security deposit of 6 million yen (NT$1.76 million) was received by noon Tuesday.

The boat owner Pan Chung-chiu (潘忠秋) on Tuesday morning remitted the full amount to Taiwan’s representative office in Japan for transfer to the Japanese authorities and was notified by Japan that the boat and its crew would be released.     [FULL  STORY]

Desert News
Date: April 25 2016
By Tad Walch, Deseret News

The funeral for Elder David Smith Hampton, the 18-year-old Mormon missionary from North

Ogden, Utah, is scheduled for Tuesday at 1 p.m. Hampton died April 12 when his foot slipped on his bike pedal and he fell into traffic in Taiwan.

The funeral for a Mormon missionary who died April 12 when his bicycle toppled over into traffic in Taiwan is scheduled for Tuesday at 1 p.m. at the Coldwater Stake Center in North Ogden, Utah.

Elder David Smith Hampton, 18, was serving in the Taiwan Taichung Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the time of the accident. His mission president told his parents that Hampton was climbing a hill on his bike alongside traffic when his foot slipped and his bike teetered over in front of a car that had no chance to swerve.

A public viewing will be held tonight from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the same stake center.

Hampton’s parents, Steve and Cyndi, have requested that any donations be made to a scholarship fund in David Hampton’s name. Donations to the fund can be made online at http://www.plumfund.com/memorial-fund/elder-david-hampton-scholarship or at any Zions Bank branch.  Email: twalch@deseretnews.com     [SOURCE]

Fox News
Date: April 25, 2016
By: John Bolton

China and Taiwan are locked in a spiraling controversy over conflicting concepts of

“citizenship,” with enormous implications both for them and the United States. The timing of the dispute is especially significant, as Taiwan prepares for next month’s inauguration of Tsai Ing-wen of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (and Taiwan’s first female president). The DPP has long advocated explicitly declaring Taiwan independent from the mainland, rather than continuing its current ambiguous status,

Although extraditing alleged international phone scammers may not initially seem the stuff of high-stakes diplomatic statecraft, the stakes are high and figure in the much broader ongoing dispute across the Strait of Taiwan. Beijing struck first in Kenya, where Chinese and Taiwanese swindlers allegedly extorted money from mainland Chinese by masquerading as police calling about “illegal” conduct. Almost certainly because of Chinese threats to withhold substantial amounts of economic assistance, Kenya “deported” 45 Taiwanese citizens to China, even though they had been acquitted of phone fraud. Taiwan immediately complained that its citizens’ rights were violated by not being sent to their home country. Just days later, Malaysia returned 20 Taiwanese (apparently part of the same scam) to Taiwan, which promptly released them because of insufficient evidence, thereby eliciting Chinese complaints.     [FULL  STORY]