Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/07/30
By Chang Ming-hsuan and Y.F. Low

Taipei, July 30 (CNA) A 93-year-old man has retained his title as the oldest participant in this year’s 30 Hour Famine event organized in Taiwan by the Christian humanitarian organization World Vision.

The annual event aimed at raising hunger awareness kicked off simultaneously in Taipei, Changhua, Kaohsiung and Hualien at noon Saturday, drawing 28,570 participants from around the country.

Among the participants is Lin You-mao (林友茂) from Taichung, who is taking part for the 27th consecutive year with his 63-year-old eldest son.

Lin has shown up every year since the famine event was first launched in Taiwan in 1990. A lover of badminton and tennis, he looks much younger than his age and has impressed the organizers with his energy and zeal.    [FULL  STORY]

An overview of the past week’s developments in cross-Strait relations.
’92 Consensus’ at Chinese Academic Forum

The News Lens
Date: 2016/07/30
By: Shuhei Omi

Chinese academics at a Cross-Strait Relations Academic Conference organized by Xiamen

University have blamed the Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) administration’s refusal to acknowledge the “92 Consensus” as the cause of deteriorating cross-Strait relations, Central News Agency reports.

Liu Guoshen (劉國深), director of Xiamen University’s Taiwan Studies Institute, told the conference he hopes the Tsai administration will acknowledge the so-called “92 Consensus” so there can be “peaceful cross-strait developments.”

A number of analysts have observed, both openly and behind closed doors, that by insisting on President Tsai recognizing the consensus, Beijing has backed itself into a corner and undermined communication between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwanese fishermen, Phoenix TV Reporters on Taiping Island.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/07/30
By: Y.F. Low

Taipei, July 30 (CNA) A July 19 tour bus fire that killed all 26 people on board could have

been a suicide by the driver, who had been convicted of sexual assault just weeks before the accident, local media reported Saturday.

According to Apple Daily, 53-year-old Su Ming-cheng (蘇明成) was sentenced to five years in prison by the Taiwan High Court on June 24 for sexually assaulting a female tour guide while they were leading a tour group to Hualien on Oct. 11, 2013.

Su had taken leave of absence one week before the verdict and only returned to work on July 12, raising suspicion that he started the fire on purpose to kill himself out of spite over his conviction, the paper said.

Prosecutors, however, would not comment on or confirm the report.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 31, 2016
By:The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A man wanted by the police shot himself in the head when approached and questioned by police in

Taipei Bus Station lobby on Saturday morning, according to police sources.

The man, age 54 and surnamed Wang, appeared in the bus station lobby at around 9 a.m. Saturday, seeking to purchase a bus ticket, but his suspicious behavior attracted the attention of two policemen patrolling the lobby.

When the police approached him, Wang pulled out a gun and pointed it at the right side of his head. When police asked him to drop the gun, he pulled the trigger. Wang remained conscious as he was rushed to Mackay Memorial Hospital for treatment.

After Wang fired the gun at his head, the police tried to handcuff him and found that he was carrying a second pistol. As the weapon was not powerful, Wang’s attempted suicide ended with his forehead wounded and bleeding, according to the police.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: July 28, 2016

The first International Workshop on Strategies for Combating Human Trafficking was held

in Taipei City July 27, during which Susan Coppedge, the U.S. ambassador-at-large to combat and monitor trafficking in persons, commended Taiwan for achieving Tier 1 status for the seventh consecutive year.

“To date, Taiwan has signed 16 memoranda of understanding with countries around the world, most recently Panama and El Salvador, to increase information sharing and cooperation in stemming the flow of trafficking. We are very appreciative to have such a reliable partner as we seek to end modern slavery,” the ambassador said.

Coppedge, who gave a speech at the workshop, was on her first visit to Taiwan since being confirmed by the U.S. Senate and appointed to the position by President Barack Obama in 2015. Her presence at the event underscores the close cooperation between Taiwan and the U.S. in the fight against human trafficking.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-28
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a ruling of the Taiwan High Court that sentences Kuo Yen-chun, convicted of randomly slashing four people at a Taipei Metro station last year, to 12 years in prison.

Kuo, 28, attacked people with a 20cm kitchen knife at MRT Zhongshan Station on July 21 last year, injuring four people. Kuo was suppressed by five security guards and the station chief after a few minutes’ face-off before police arrived to handcuff him and take him away.

Police said Kuo’s parents were divorced when he was a little child and Kuo had lived with his mother in Japan for a long time, but came back to Taiwan after his mother died of cancer.

Investigators said Kuo had been unemployed for a long period of time. He had a quarrel with his aunt one day after being hallucinated from taking drugs and left home; he later slept on public park benches, police said. He felt depressed and was filled with pent-up emotions, so he stole a knife from a store and went to the station to commit the crime, police said.     [FULL  STORY]