Radio Taiwan International
Date: 27 April, 2020
By: Natalie Tso

Taiwan reported zero new cases of COVID-19 on Monday. It was also the 15th straight day of no new domestic cases. 

The total number of cases rests at 429, of which just 13% (55 cases) are domestic. The vast majority — 343 cases — are imported, while an additional 31 are from a cluster infection on board a navy ship. So far, six people have died of COVID-19 in Taiwan, and 290 have recovered. The rest are being treated in isolation wards.     [FULL  STORY]

Straits Times
Date: April 28, 2020
By: Lim Ruey Yan

Taiwanese pop star Show Lo's mother has weighed in on his side on his break-up with Chinese Internet celebrity Grace Chow.

Chow, 31, wrote an explosive post on Weibo last Thursday, announcing that she had broken up with Lo, 40, for some time and accused the singer of cheating on her and having improper relationships with several women.

According to Taiwan's Mirror Media, Madam Lin Hsiang-lan has criticised Chow in private, saying that the Chinese influencer should have settled the matter quietly instead of blowing it up in public.

Madam Lin said she treated Chow like her daughter-in-law while she and Lo were dating, but with her outburst, Chow would destroy Lo's entertainment career.    [FULL  STORY]

Posuo's next and final performance will be at their native Hualien's Qixingtan Beach

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/27
By: Lyla Liu, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwanese dance group Posuo (婆娑舞集) performed on Waiao Beach in Yilan County Sunday (April 26) and is slated to take the show to their hometown, Hualien, in early May.

Despite the cloudy Yilan weather, 300 people gathered on the beach on Sunday to see Posuo dancing beautifully to a cello, with the endless ocean in the background, CNA reported.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/27/2020
By: Liang Pei-chi, Yeh Su-ping and Evleyn Kao

Taipei, April 27 (CNA) The government will ask all local governments to carry out complete fire safety inspections of karaoke bars and similar venues after a deadly fire broke out at a popular karaoke outlet in Taipei, Deputy Interior Minister Hua Ching-chun (花敬群) said Monday.

The fire broke out on the fifth floor of a 14-floor building housing the Linsen branch of Cashbox Partyworld KTV and left at least five people dead and one person in critical condition.

The Taipei City Fire Department later found that the business's fire alarm, smoke alarm, sprinkler and emergency broadcasting systems were turned off at the time of the blaze.

"If the company wanted to turn those systems off, it shouldn't have opened for business yesterday," Hua said, describing it as "gross human negligence" to turn off major alarms in a confined, crowded space.    [FULL  STORY]

DISEASE PREVENTION: The app is available for iOS devices, while Android users would be able to download it before tomorrow to monitor vehicle and foot traffic

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 28, 2020
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter

The Freeway 1968 (高速公路1968) mobile phone application would allow people to check the number of vehicles or foot traffic at 234 tourist attractions nationwide during the International Workers’ Day holiday, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.

Large crowds at some popular tourist attractions during the Tomb Sweeping Day long weekend raised concerns about the risk of COVID-19 transmissions, and sparked debate over whether the Workers’ Day holiday should be canceled.

Lin said that his ministry would comply with instructions from the Central Epidemic Command Center by launching the upgraded edition of Freeway 1968 today.

The tourist attractions covered include scenic spots, night markets, parks and shopping districts, he said, adding that traffic and crowd alerts for these areas would be available.    [FULL  STORY]

rthk.hk
Date: 2020-04-26

At least five people were killed and dozens more hurt in a fire that tore through a karaoke parlour in Taipei on Sunday, in an incident that fire authorities say may have involved ‘gross negligence’.

Reports say more than 50 people were hurt – two critically – and were rushed to hospital.

Local media reports say the blaze started on the fifth floor of a 14-floor building on Linsen North Road, at a branch of the karaoke franchise Partyworld.

The first nine floors of the building belong to the karaoke branch.    [FULL  STORY]

Straits Times
Date: April 26, 2020
By: Jan Lee

Taiwanese pop star Show Lo's ugly break-up with his influencer girlfriend Grace Chow, the most-talked-about scandal in the Chinese entertainment scene currently, has taken yet another turn.

The rumoured third party between the couple, Linda Chien Kai-le, 36, one of Lo's co-hosts on long-running variety programme 100% Entertainment, has come out to apologise to Chow.

Chien, also known as Butterfly Sister from her early stint as a children's programme presenter, posted the apology on Saturday night (April 25). "I would like to sincerely apologise to Miss Grace Chow here and to say sorry to all those who love me," she wrote.

Chien's post is widely seen as an indirect confirmation that she was one of Lo's sexual partners outside of his relationship with Chow.    [FULL  STORY]

Dongshi District: a nice place to admire fireflies and lotus flowers

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/26
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Dongshi District (東勢區) in Taichung City, famous for producing fruits year round due to its climate, is also a nice place to admire fireflies and lotus flowers during summer.

Dongshi, which can be reached via the Dongfeng Bicycle Green Way, has a lot to offer cooped up city dwellers during the COVID-19 pandemic.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/26/2020
By: Lee Hsien-feng and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, April 26 (CNA) An annular solar eclipse will take place on this year's summer solstice on June 21, available to be seen in parts of Taiwan, with the Taitung County government planning to hold a public event for the eclipse that day.

The astronomical phenomenon occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth, covering the sun's center and leaving the sun's visible outer rim, or corona, to form an annulus around the moon, according to Yang Yi-ching (楊義清), president of the Taitung Astronomical Association.

The eclipse will start at about 2:51 p.m. and end at 5:26 p.m., with people in parts of Yunlin, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung Nantou, Hualien and Taitung, as well as the outlying Penghu and Kinmen islands able to see 98 percent of the sun covered during the process, while those in other areas will only find the sun at around 94 percent dark, according to Yang.

The spectacle will not occur again until 2070 in Taiwan, when the eclipse will pass through only parts of Pingtung.    [FULL  STORY]