Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-23
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – An unauthenticated tape recording suggested that the bus blaze which killed 26 people earlier in the week might have been caused by an unlicensed technician, media reports said Saturday.

On July 19, a fire broke out on a bus taking a group of Chinese tourists to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at the end of an eight-day tour of the country. The vehicle smashed into the railings of the No.2 Freeway, and all people on board perished, the Taiwanese driver, a Taiwanese tour guide, 23 tourists from the Chinese province of Liaoning and their Chinese guide.

A short circuit was seen as a possibility for the cause of the smoke and fire, but there were also still questions about why nobody succeeded in opening emergency doors.

According to unconfirmed reports Saturday, a sound recording was doing the rounds on the Internet of a conversation between an employee of the bus company and an outside technician.     [FULL STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/07/23
By: Liu Chien-pang and Lilian Wu

Taipei, July 23 (CNA) A man has been arrested for importing marijuana buds from Canada and selling it to night clubs in eastern Taipei, Taipei police announced Saturday.

Police said that after a long-term stakeout, they conducted a raid on the man’s residence in Taipei’s Wenshan District a day earlier. They found in his safety deposit box several sealed containers wrapped in three layers of vacuum packaging to avoid being detected.

Police said that that the man, who they identified only as “Wang,” hid the marijuana buds among everyday items, such as books, drink cans and CD cases. He also delivered the drugs in person to his buyers.

Police said the source of marijuana buds is very limited and its purity is higher than marijuana leaves, so that its market price is high.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-22
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The investigation into the theft of NT$83 million (US$2.59 million) on

Friday shifted from three detained East Europeans to a local man who had found but not immediately reported part of the missing money.
A group of more than a dozen foreign visitors were helped by malware in removing the money from First Commercial Bank ATMs over the July 10 weekend, but all of the cash was thought to be still in Taiwan.

After about NT$60 million had been found in a hotel room with two suspects, a bag believed to be containing the rest was found near a park in Taipei City’s Neihu District on July 20.

However, when counting was completed during the evening of that day, only about NT$12 million was accounted for. It later emerged that a 65-year-old local man surnamed Ko had found NT$4.54 million and taken it home with him before alerting the authorities.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: July 22, 2016

The Ministry of Health and Welfare has proposed three major additions to the nation’s planned

long-term health care system as part of an effort to increase the amount and quality of care available to Taiwan’s elderly and disabled population.

Deputy Health Minister Lu Pau-ching, speaking at a press conference in Taipei July 18, said the additions will take effect in 2017 and are in line with President Tsai Ing-wen’s Long-term Care Plan 2.0 initiative, one of the administration’s major policies.

According to Lu, the three new measures are the establishment of thousands of localized long-term care stations around the country, an increase to the number of services offered under the program from the current eight to 17, and the addition of four new categories of people who can benefit from the system.

The deputy minister said that, starting next year, the government will begin establishing neighborhood long-term care stations around Taiwan, with the eventual goal of setting up 2,529 such facilities within four years. Their objective will be to ensure the well-being of elderly and disabled residents through services such as providing meals, placing calls and paying visits to residents’ homes, and assisting in physical activities.     [FULL  STORY]

‘NARROWING THE GAP’:The president said that the nation has done its best amid differences between Taipei and Beijing, while the Chinese should realize her goodwill

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 23, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), for the first time since her inauguration, implicitly dismissed the

so-called “1992 consensus” in an interview with the Washington Post, saying it is unlikely that her government would agree to a deadline for accepting conditions that go against the public’s will.

Tsai gave her first exclusive interview since taking office with Washington Post senior associate editor Lally Weymouth at the Presidential Office Building on Monday, with the president talking at length about cross-strait ties and the Taiwan-US relationship.

“I am certain that as a national leader, [Chinese President] Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) is equipped with the ability to make a good and a right decision based on a comprehensive review of all the situations,” Tsai said when asked to verify reports that Xi has set a deadline for her to accept the “1992 consensus.”

Tsai said that given Taiwan has evolved into a mature democracy, where trends in public opinion matter greatly, it is unlikely that the government would accede to conditions set by the other side that are against the will of the people.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 23, 2016
By: Yuan-Ming Chiao

Grieving family and relatives of 24 mainland Chinese tourists killed in a bus blaze in Taoyuan are

growing increasingly frustrated over the investigation into the causes of the tragedy, Friday.

Family members are demanding answers on the cause of the fire and why tourists were trapped onboard where they eventually suffocated.

Deputy Transport Minister Frank Fan (范植谷) stated that government agencies would reveal the truth on the cause of the accident as quickly as possible.

Many wept before the portraits of the victims while placing incense at their altars. They also collected their belongings found onboard the burned tour bus found by firefighters and law enforcement personnel.

Among the concerns the families have raised are whether the bus driver had multiple violations on record. Fan stated that the driver “only had two parking violations” on record.     [FULL  STORY]

The News Lense
Date: 2016/07/21
By: J. Michael Cole

Tung Nien-tai is known to seek publicity and may be mentally unstable. Police have been alerted.

A former convict and debt collector yesterday called on people to combat Taiwanese independence

by throwing petrol bombs at the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) headquarters.

Tung Nien-tai (董念台) made the call in a Facebook post on Wednesday, inviting hundreds of “anti-independence heroes” to take part in a “100 person surrender” event during which they would throw Molotov cocktails at the DPP building to “formally declare war” on Taiwanese independence.

Calling President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) judicial reform a scam, Tung said the DPP had “different purposes in mind,” adding that the attack was to remind the DPP government not to toy with justice

Tung said that as such actions could land people in jail and people with legitimate jobs should refrain from participating, but should show their support by sharing his post.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/07/21
By: Bien Chin-feng, Sunrise Huang, Chen Wei-ting and Kuo Chung-han

Taipei, July 21 (CNA) Forty-nine family members of the 24 Chinese tourists killed in a tour bus blaze July 19, and 21 Chinese officials arrived in Taiwan Thursday afternoon.

After arriving in Taoyuan International Airport at about 4 p.m. via a China Southern Airlines charter plane, the victims’ family members had their mouth cells taken for DNA testing before being escorted to a funeral parlor in Taoyuan’s Zhongli District.

They will check in at Chuto Plaza Hotel in the city’s Taoyuan District later.

A briefing specifically for the families will be held in the hotel at 8:30 p.m. which the press will not be allowed to attend.     [FULL  STORY]