Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/07/26
By: Wang Hung-kuo and S.C. Chang

Taipei, July 26 (CNA) Suryati of Indonesia beat eight other contestants to win the Mandarin

and Hokkienese song title in New Taipei City’s Foreign Labor Super Star Singing Competition Sunday.

Suryati, who will soon return to her home country to release an album, thanked the local government for staging the contest, which she said gave talented people a chance to perform at their best. “My friends working in other countries envy me very much for this,” she said.

Xindian resident Chen Tsai-tien (陳再添) and his Indonesian helper Kartika won the “employer and employee duet” title with a harmonious rendition of the famous Taiwanese song “Xiang Lang Jim Tao” (Twin Pillow).

A total of 788 contestants participated in 18 solo and group singing competitions that awarded cash of prizes of of NT$15,000 (US$476), NT$10,000 and NT$8,000 to the first, second and third place winners, respectively.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-07-26
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

A private zoo in Madou district in Tainan in southern Taiwan is set to be closed for good in

January next year, with the owner complaining that the country’s newly revised Animal Protection Act will make his business too challenging to run.

“Making the decision is painful,” Chiu Hsi-ho, owner of the Madou King of Crocodile Zoo, said Friday.

Once the revisions to the Animal Protection Act take effect on Jan. 23 next year it will be difficult for small-scale private zoos to survive, Chiu said, adding that he will be unable to run a zoo when the laws become stricter than when he started his business nearly 40 years ago.

The death, attributable to negligence, of a hippopotamus named A He late last year belonging to another private zoo in Taichung triggered public outcry over animal abuse, prompting lawmakers to amend the Animal Protection Act.

The revisions, passed Jan. 23, stipulate that an “animal show vendor” must have a license from the proper authorities prior to commercial operation.     [FULL  STORY]

’DESPICABLE’:Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang said Lee’s comments had caused ‘extreme harm’ to the peaceful development of the cross-strait relationship

Taipei Times
Date:  Jul 26, 2015
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan  /  Staff reporter

Both Beijing and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration have disgraced themselves

as their denouncements of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) indicate their “outdated ways of thinking,” former representative to Japan Koh Se-kai (許世楷) said yesterday.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Taiwan Affairs Office on Friday made hard-hitting comments about Lee’s visit to Japan, on the heels of Presidential Office spokesperson Charles Chen’s (陳以信) statement earlier that day that Lee had “humiliated” the nation and “forfeited its sovereignty” when he said that the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), known as the Senkakus in Japan, belong solely to Japan. The islands are claimed by Taiwan, China and Japan.

Lee reiterated his position on the issue when answering questions at a meeting at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo on Thursday.

In a press release, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang (陸慷) called Lee a “stubborn Taiwan splittist” and condemned Tokyo for assisting his visit and becoming involved in Taiwan separatist activities despite the objections of Beijing.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-07-25
By: Xinhua and Staff Reporter

The Japanese cabinet on Tuesday released a defense white paper for 2015, which dedicated

a significant portion to discussing “China’s military threat.”

This is nothing new for the Abe administration that has time and again tried all sorts of tricks to deceive the public to serve its rightist agenda.

Early in July, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party rejected a draft version of the white paper on the grounds that it was too “soft” on China. Finally, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his party got what they wanted, just as they forced the controversial security bills through the lower house of the parliament a few weeks ago.

A large part of the 2015 version of the white paper is devoted to describing the so-called threats from China, including pictures of China doing island construction in the disputed South China Sea, where China feels Japan is not even a relevant party.     [FULL  STORY]