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Taiwan sends condolences over London attack

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/06/05
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Christie Chen

Taipei, June 5 (CNA) The Presidential Office has sent its condolences to the victims of the deadly attacks in London on Saturday and their families, office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said Monday.

Presidential Office Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) called the U.K.’s representative to Taiwan, Catherine Nettleton, on Sunday and expressed the concern and condolences of Taiwan’s people for the victims and their families, Huang said.

Wu also told her that the Taiwanese stand together with the U.K. at this time, Huang said.

Seven people were killed and 48 injured in the attack in central London on Saturday. The three suspects were shot dead by the police.    [SOURCE]

‘Status quo,’ not independence clause, poll finds

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 06, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

About half of the respondents of an opinion poll said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should replace the Taiwan independence clause in its charter with a new clause based on maintaining the “status quo” in cross-strait relations, while most respondents said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has failed to keep her promise to maintain the “status quo.”

The poll, released yesterday by Chinese-language Web site My-formosa.com, asked if the DPP should make Tsai’s cross-strait policy of maintaining the “status quo” a new clause in the DPP’s party charter, with 48.2 percent of respondents in favor and 26 percent against the idea.

Support for a “status quo clause” is even stronger among those identify as DPP supporters, as 56.1 percent of such respondents backed such a clause, while 27 percent did not.

Asked if the DPP should replace its independence clause with the “status quo clause,” 53 percent of the respondents agreed, and 28 percent disagreed.
[FULL  STORY]

Six extended public holidays for 2018

The China Post
Date: June 5, 2017
By: CNA


Taiwanese will receive 115 days off work in 2018, with six extended public holidays, the longest being the six-day Chinese New Year holiday, the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration said Monday.

The administration said the six extended public holidays are: Founding Day of the Republic of China for 2018 (three days), Chinese New Year (six days), Children’s Day and Tombsweeping Festival (five days), Dragon Boat Festival (three days), Mid-Autumn Festival (three days) and Founding Day of the Republic of China for 2019 (four days).

Officials indicated that whenever a public holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, the administration will make arrangements to turn it into an extended holiday, with the previous Saturday used as an official work day.

For example, Tombsweeping Festival next year falls on Thursday, so the following day,    [FULL  STORY]

Heavy rain warnings continue in Taiwan

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-06-04

Heavy rain led to a landslide which swept across this road in Nantou County. (CNA photo)

Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau released heavy or torrential rain advisories for 19 out of 22 cities and counties in Taiwan on Sunday. That was the third day of unprecedented rain which has left at least two dead and mounting damage from flooding.

Almost all of the main island of Taiwan was under an extremely heavy rain warning on Sunday evening. Only three counties along the east coast — Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung — were under a heavy rain warning. The only three counties in Taiwan where there is no warning in effect are the ones covering the outlying islands of Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu.

The weather bureau was urging the public to stay alert for sudden downpours, thunder, strong gusts of wind and river flooding as the wet weather front moves from southern to northern Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Relatives of Resorts World Manila victims to be compensated

Casino attack claimed the life of four Taiwanese

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/06/04
By: Judy Lin,Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) helped the

Police Gen. Oscar Albayalde holds a copy of an image of a gunman who stormed the Resorts World Manila complex whom he identified as Jessie Carlos during a news conference Sunday, June 4, 2017 in suburban Pasay city, southeast of Manila, Philippines. The lone suspect behind a deadly attack on the casino and shopping complex in Manila was a heavily indebted Filipino who was hooked on gambling, police said Sunday, bolstering their claim the assault was not terror-related. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

relatives of four Taiwanese citizens who died in the Resorts World Manila attack to travel to the Philippines for the necessary proceedings, while the casino is compensating victims’ families 1 million pesos (US$ 20,261.46) each, reports said Sunday.

The identification of the Taiwanese citizens, apparently two guests and two members of staff, came after initial reports that there had been no casualties. Taiwan’s representative office in the Philippines confirmed four Taiwanese visitors died in the random casino attack, but did not release the victims’ identities.

Philippine officials initially claimed no Taiwanese were among the deceased, but on Saturday noon released a statement claiming more than 30 bodies were found on the the third floor of the casino.

Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines then found out four among the deceased were Taiwanese. Relatives of all victims would be compensated by the Philippines, according to an ABS CBN report.    [FULL  STORY]

Agricultural losses from torrential rain reach NT$57 million (update)

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/06/04
By: Chen Cheng-wei and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, June 4 (CNA) Agricultural losses from torrential rain brought by a stationery front hovering above Taiwan over the weekend had reached an estimated NT$57.52 million (US$1.95 million) as of Sunday, according to an initial estimate released by the Council of Agriculture (COA).

As of 5 p.m., agricultural losses as a result of the damage were heaviest in Yunlin County at NT$24.21 million, or 42 percent of the national total, the COA said.

Farmers in New Taipei suffered NT$13.33 million in losses, or 23 percent of the total, according to the COA figures.    [FULL  STORY]

China urged to respect human rights, free Lee

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 05, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

To mark the 28th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) urged China to transition to democracy and release human rights advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲), a Taiwanese who it has detained since March 19.

To the world’s astonishment, young Chinese seeking the universal values of democracy and freedom sacrificed their lives during a bloody crackdown in Beijing on June 4, 1989, and 28 years later, China has become a global leading economy, but Beijing’s “authoritarian government is still challenging those values on which modern civilization depends,” the party said in a statement on Saturday.

China has suppressed its people seeking basic human rights, with rights activists constantly being threatened, under the pretext of maintaining stability, the DPP said.

“Democracy, freedom and human rights are universal values unbounded by national boundaries and should be enjoyed by 1.4 billion Chinese,” the party said.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese man arrested in Manila for suspected drug trafficking

The China Post
Date: June 4, 2017
By: CNA

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A Taiwanese man was arrested in Manila Saturday on suspicion of drug trafficking during a buy-and-bust operation, a spokesman for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said Sunday.
PDEA agents and police posing as drug buyers arrested the man, 56, at a hotel in the city, according to the spokesman.

Drug enforcement agents found 50 kilograms of crystals in a container used to store dried fish in his car. If the crystals were identified as amphetamines, their street value would reach about 250 million Philippine pesos (US$5.17 million), the spokesman said.

The operation was carried out as a result of mutual judicial assistance between the authorities of Taiwan and the Philippines.

The suspect was active in a Taiwanese business chamber in the northern Philippines but withdrew from the chamber in 2015 when his plastics factory closed and he then moved to Binan, about 40 kilometers south of Manila, according to a Taiwanese businessman operating in the Philippines.    [FULL  STORY]

Mattis vows to keep selling Taiwan weapons

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 04, 2017
By: Staff writer, with CNA

US Secretary of Defense James Mattis reaffirmed the US’ commitment to providing Taiwan with defensive weapons.

His comments during an Asia security dialogue in Singapore yesterday were welcomed by Taiwan, but sparked opposition from China.

The US remains committed to improving cooperation with its allies in the region and plans to also continue to engage closely with its partners in an effort to address security challenges in the Asia-Pacific, Mattis said in a speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue held by the International Institute for Strategic Studies from Friday through today.

The annual defense summit brings together ministers and delegates from more than 50 nations to discuss security challenges and opportunities.    [FULL  STORY]

KMT aiming to send outgoing chairwoman to Cross-Strait Forum

The China Post
Date: June 3, 2017
By: CNA

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The Kuomintang (KMT), Taiwan’s main opposition party, said Friday that it is making arrangements for its Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) to attend the 2017 Cross-Strait Forum in Fujian, southern China, later this month.

The 9th annual forum, scheduled to start June 17 in Xiamen, will be held under the theme of increasing civilian exchanges and deepening integration and development.

The agenda will focus on serving youths and grassroots groups on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

According to reports in the Taiwan media, Hung will lead a delegation to the forum on June 18 and might meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who is also general secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC).   [FULL  STORY]