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]

The News Lens
Date: 2016/04/25

More than 940,000 Taiwanese are still paying their student loans, and 33,000 of them have

requested deferred payment because their monthly salary is less than NT$30,000 (approximately US$927), according to the latest statistics released by Ministry of Education (MOE).

The data shows that 319,254 students applied for student loans in the 2014 academic year, including 17,590 high school students and 301,664 college students.

The students who receive student loans account for 22.5% of the 1.34 million college students in the country. Of the students with debt, 59,768 are enrolled in public schools while more than 240,000 are studying in private universities.

MOE has to allocate about NT$3 billion (approximately US$92.8 million) of its annual budget to subsidize the interest of the student loans.

Although students have to start paying back their student loans a year after graduation or completing military service, people who are from low-income households or have a monthly salary less than NT$30,000 (approximately US$927) can apply for deferred payment for a year for three times at most.

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-25
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey, who has been listed as defendant in a corruption case, denied any wrongdoings during his talk with President Ma Ying-jeou on Monday morning and did not tender his resignation.

Academia Sinica is the highest academic institution in Taiwan.

Prosecutors have named Wong as a defendant for breach of trust in a case that involved OBI Pharma, a Taiwan biotech company which had acquired biomedical technology assets from Academia Sinica for developing a new drug for treatment of breast cancer.

Wong had bought OBI Pharma shares for his daughter in 2012 after Academia Sinica transferred its technology to OBI Pharma in 2010, but sold a large portion of the shares before the negative clinical trial results of OBI Pharma’s new drug were announced in Feb. 2016     [FULL  STORY].

NO LEGAL BASIS:Taiwan does not recognize Japan’s claim of a 200 nautical mile economic zone around Okinotorishima atoll, which Tokyo declared unilaterally

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 26, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday urged the Japanese government to immediately release a Taiwanese fishing boat seized in disputed waters near the Okinotori atoll in the Pacific Ocean earlier yesterday.

The ministry said the Taiwanese fishing boat, Tung Sheng Chi No. 16, was chased by a Japan Coast Guard vessel on Sunday evening about 150 nautical miles (277.8km) east-southeast of the atoll and about 1,000 nautical miles east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip.

Okinotorishima is a Japanese atoll that lies about halfway between Guam and Taiwan, and 1,700km from Tokyo. Beijing has long rejected Japan’s claim that the atoll is an island, describing it as a rock formation and saying that the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around the atoll should not be recognized.

The ministry said Japan Coast Guard personnel boarded the Tung Sheng Chi No. 16 for inspection, before seizing the boat and arresting its crew.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/25
By: Kuan Jui-ping and Y.F. Low

Taipei, April 25 (CNA) A bus carrying a group of Chinese tourists from Jiangsu Province flipped onto its side in Miaoli County Monday, leaving one dead and 26 others injured, police said.

The accident occurred on a section of the No. 1 freeway between Touwu and Miaoli, when the tourists were on their way to the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

The tour bus driver died after being thrown out of the vehicle in the accident, while 25 passengers and the driver of a gravel truck that was hit by the bus were injured, police said.      [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 25, 2016 – Page 3　
By: Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter

About 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners yesterday gathered in front of Taipei City

Hall to commemorate the 17th anniversary of a peaceful demonstration by more than 10,000 people in Beijing.

The group called on Taiwanese to give more support to their campaign against human rights abuses in China.

Several Falun Gong practitioners held a banner reading “Commemorating the 17th anniversary of the peaceful petition on April 25 of Chinese Falun Gong practitioners,” while others, in yellow uniforms and yellow caps, sat in meditation postures.

“We are commemorating the April 25 peaceful demonstration here today, because though it was a campaign by Falun Gong practitioners in China, it carries very significant meaning for Taiwan as well,” Taiwan Falun Dafa Association president Chang Chin-hwa (張錦華) said.     [FULL  STORY]