Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/17
By: Yang Ming-chu and Christie Chen

Tokyo, April 17 (CNA) Thirty-nine Taiwanese students and tourists in Japan’s

quake-struck Kumamoto Prefecture have been brought to safety on Sunday, with seven stranded Taiwanese nationals still awaiting rescue, Taiwanese officials said that day.

A total of 28 university students have been picked up from Kumamoto University and Kumamoto Gakuen University and will be driven to Fukuoka City, where some of them will board a flight back to Taiwan, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Eleven Taiwanese tourists stranded in the southern part of the Aso area in Kumamoto Prefecture have also been rescued Sunday afternoon, Rong Yee-jung (戎義俊), director of Taiwan’s representative office in Fukuoka, told CNA on the telephone.

“I am glad that we were able to escape,” said Lai Chun-yi (賴君怡), who lead the tour group.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-17
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

On Sunday night (April 17), the palanquin holding the three statues of Matsu, the Chinese Goddess of the Sea, will return to their home temple, the Jenn Lann Temple, in Dajia District, Taichung City after completing a nine-day walking tour.
The 340-kilometer journey covers 21 townships and stops over at more than 100 temples in central Taiwan.

The tradition of the pilgrimage tour is hailed as one of the world’s three largest religious activities and included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

As the palanquin, carried on bearers’ shoulders, left the Chaoxing Temple in Qingshui District, Taichung City early Sunday morning, firecrackers began to pop, and the sound seemed deafening in the morning.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/17
By: Y. C. Tai and Flor Wang

Taipei, April 17 (CNA) Most of Taiwan nationals in Ecuador are safe and sound

after a powerful 7.8 earthquake rattled the South American country’s central coast on Saturday, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei.

Citing initial information provided by Taiwan’s representative office in Ecuador, the ministry said there are no reports of Taiwanese killed or injured in the capital of Quito and Machala, but that some in Guayaquil have remained unaccounted for because of a lack of communications.

“We are doing our best to gain a better understanding of those Taiwan nationals who are still out of contact,” the ministry said.      [SOURCE]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-16
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je and his predecessor Hau

Lung-bin quarreled Saturday over who was to blame for the recent decision to end the contract with developer Farglory Group to complete the controversial Taipei Dome.
Work on the complex, centered on a 40,000-seat stadium, was halted last year amid concern by the Taipei City Government that it posed threats to safety, while the price tag also formed a point of discussion between the outspoken Ko and Farglory tycoon Chao Teng-hsiung.

Earlier in the week, the two sides agreed that the contract could be dissolved, though the city said it would not cost even “half a penny,” while Farglory was hinting at compensation and other payments of up to NT$37 billion (US$1.14 billion).

Criticized by some for his handling of the problem and for the long time it was taking for a solution to be found, Ko said he was only solving other people’s problems, a reference to previous mayors, President Ma Ying-jeou and especially Ko’s immediate predecessor, Hau Lung-bin, both of the Kuomintang.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/16
By: Sophia Yeh and Elaine Ho

Taipei, April 16 (CNA) President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) urged young women to be curious, insubordinate and courageous, as well as establish a connection with society, during a meeting with female high school students Saturday.

Tsai, chairwoman of the Democratic Progressive Party, who will become Taiwan’s first-ever female president when she takes office on May 20, said that some high school students would think that they should just focus on studying and ignore what happens in the outside world.

But she disagreed with this mindset and instead, encouraged them to become connected with society and be socialized, during the meeting with about 400 high school students from around Taiwan.     [FULL  STORY]

Philstar Global
Date: April 15, 2016
By: Associated Press

BEIJING — China will “resolutely defend” its interests in the face of stepped-up

U.S.-Philippine military cooperation, the Defense Ministry said, accusing the two allies of militarizing the region and harboring a “Cold War mentality.”

The ministry’s comments came shortly after the announcement Thursday that the U.S. would send troops and planes to the Philippines for more frequent rotations and will increase joint sea and air patrols with Philippine forces in the South China Sea.

In a move likely to further anger Beijing, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter says he will be visiting an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea during his current visit to the region that does not include a stop in China.

“The joint patrols between the United States and the Philippines in the South China Sea are militarizing the region and are non-beneficial to regional peace and stability,” said a statement posted to the ministry’s website late Thursday.     [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2016/04/15
Translated and compiled by Shin-wei Chang

On April 2, the Taiwan government passed the draft for amendment of the Fisheries Act due to being issued a yellow card from the EU. Less than two weeks later, Greenpeace has released a report slamming Taiwan’s fishing industry for human rights abuses and the government for the ineffective implementation of its laws.

Huang Hung-yan, deputy director-general of Taiwan’s Fisheries Agency, today urged Greenpeace to provide the agency with relevant evidence and promised to start investigations upon receiving any new information.

After the EU raised concern about illegal fishing in Taiwan last October, Taiwan’s government has been working on amending the Fisheries Act, reinforcing regulations regarding shark finning, illegal fishing, fishing boat registrations and fisheries tracking systems.Greenpeace’s latest report reveals, with 1.6 million foreign workers engaged in Taiwan’s fishing industry, human and labor rights abuses are frequently heard of, but few of them have undergone legal investigation.     [FULL  STORY]

Bangkok Post
Date: 15 Apr 2016
By: WRITER: AFP

TAIPEI – Taiwan has charged two air traffic control officers with causing a

TransAsia plane crash that killed 49 people in 2014, the first prosecutions in the country’s worst air disaster for a decade.

The plane’s two pilots, who died in the crash, were also blamed for flying Flight GE222 into a residential area as the aircraft attempted to land at Magong city airport in the Penghu islands.

“The four people are found to have been negligent in their duties over this crash,” the Penghu prosecutors said in a statement Thursday, referring to the two air traffic control officers and the pair of pilots.

The pilots will not be prosecuted, but ground staff in charge of air traffic that day are being sued for criminal negligence, which carries a jail term of up to five years.

Taiwan’s aviation body in January said the pilots had caused the crash on July 23, 2014, by flying too low as they tried to land during a typhoon.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-15
By: Maggie Huang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The United States Department of State announced the yearly report on global human rights Thursday which revealed that Taiwanese employers usually assign jobs after working hours by using smartphone communicating apps like Line and What’s app.

Principal human rights problems reported during the year were labor exploitation of migrant workers by fishing companies, exploitation of domestic workers by brokerage agencies, and official corruption.

The report mentioned the working conditions and environment of Taiwanese labor, and specifically pointed out that employers demand their employees work overtime by sending messages about office work by using communication apps on smart phones.

As for freedom of speech and press, the report indicated that the Taiwanese Constitution provides for freedom of speech and press, and the independent media were active and expressed a wide variety of views without restriction. There was, however, concern about the impact of the increasing concentration of media ownership on freedom of the press.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/15
By: Tyson Lu and Y.F. Low

Taipei, April 15 (CNA) A Taiwan cypress tree estimated to be over 2,500 years

old has recently been discovered in the southern part of the Central Mountain Range, forestry officials said Friday.

The tree, with a diameter of 5.2 meters and a circumference of 16.3 meters, will rewrite the rankings of the 10 oldest Taiwan cypress trees in the country once it has been officially registered, according to officials from the Forestry Bureau’s Taitung Forest District Office.

They said the discovery was made in March during an 11-day patrol in a forest near Daguei Lake and Siiaoguei Lake, in an area where the borders of Taitung County, Pingtung County and Kaohsiung meet.

Besides the Taiwan cypress, a Taiwania tree with a diameter of 3.8 meters was also discovered during the same patrol, the officials said.     [SOURCE]