The driver of the tour bus in which 26 people died when it crashed into a barrier and caught on fire in Taiwan on July 19 was drunk when the accident occurred, investigators said on Friday.
In the worst road accident ever to overcome Chinese mainland visitors to the island, the entire tour group of 23 tourists and a guide were killed as they headed for Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to return home. The driver and another tour guide from Taiwan also died in the crash.
Investigators said tests done on the driver, identified only by his surname Su, revealed his blood-alcohol level was 215 mg per 100 ml, more than four times the legal limit.
"He was drunken driving, a very severe case of drunken driving," said Wang Yi-wen, chief investigator and deputy chief prosecutor of the Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office.
Investigators are trying to determine what role the driver's intoxication may have played in the accident.
An Fengshan, a spokesman with the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said in a statement on Friday that the mainland has paid close attention to the investigation results disclosed by Taiwan authorities.
"We have repeatedly asked the Taiwan authorities to investigate the cause of the accident, who was responsible, and to console the victims and their family members," he said.
A memorial service was held on Friday morning in Dalian, Liaoning province, where most of the victims came from.
Zhang Qing, 48, said her younger sister, Zhang Hong, died along with her husband, child and mother-in-law in the accident.
Relatives of the tourists went with a work team in charge of the accident to Taiwan to identify the dead, and they returned home with their cremated remains on Tuesday.
The team said that relatives of 23 victims have agreed to sign a compensation contract made by Taiwan, and the other decided to deal to seek legal recourse.
A top pro-independence politician in Hong Kong has been barred from running in the territory's September legislative elections.
Andy Chan, the founder of the Hong Kong National Party, was one of at least 13 pro-democracy candidates who refused to sign a new required pledge stating that Hong Kong is an inalienable part of China. The city government announced Saturday that he has been disqualified from running.
Chan's party, which backs independence for the city-state, issued a statement saying it was "honored" to have a candidate disqualified for political reasons, and called on other parties that support democracy to boycott the election.
Declarations of outright independence from China represent the political extreme in Hong Kong, where most parties still embrace the "one-country, two-systems" model championed by Beijing. China's stance allows for the territory to be self-governed, while remaining part of mainland China. However worries that Beijing is exerting too much control and undermining Hong Kong's democratic liberties, have led to growing separatist sentiments.
Hong Kong and Chinese officials say that independence is inconsistent with Hong Kong law, and activists could face legal consequences for their views.
A rare public opinion poll on the issue conducted in mid-July by the Chinese University of Hong Kong found some 17 percent of Hong Kong residents support the territory becoming independent after 2047.
Under the terms of Hong Kong's 1997 hand-over from British to Chinese rule, the territory is to enjoy a high degree of autonomy for at least 50 years.
The school randomly polled 1,010 Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong residents who were at least 15 years old.
Japanese patrol boats have warned 3 Chinese patrol vessels not to enter Japanese territorial waters off the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Saturday.
The vessels were navigating in the contiguous zone just outside Japan's waters on Saturday afternoon after entering the territorial waters for about 2 hours.
The Japan Coast Guard says the vessels sailed into waters off the Uotsuri Islands in the Senkaku chain at around 10 AM on Saturday and left at around noon.
It was 20th day this year that Chinese patrol ships have entered Japan's territorial waters.
The previous occasion was on July 18th. As of 3 PM, the vessels were navigating in the contiguous zone between 40 kilometers west-southwest and 48 kilometers east-northeast of Minamikojima Island.
Japan controls the Senkaku Islands that are claimed by both China and Taiwan.
Syrian state media report dozens of families have been fleeing the besieged city Aleppo after government forces opened a humanitarian corridor. The city had been sealed off for weeks as Syrian forces bombarded the city. U.N. officials and aid groups have demanded the Syrian government open routes to the city for aid deliveries, warning the estimated 300,000 people there are facing dire food shortages.
Meanwhile the U.S.-led coalition battling Islamic State forces has reported more airstrikes on a key city outside Aleppo, where militants have been fighting to retain control of the city center.
The U.S. military reported 11 airstrikes near Manbij, targeting Islamic State tactical units and fighting positions. The coalition also reported some nine strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq.
VOA's Kurdish Service reports that fighting in the center of Manbij is continuing amid the airstrikes. An anti-IS militia is battling the militants in the city, street by street, as coalition forces tighten a circle around Islamic State's stronghold in the city.
Suite à la défection de 13 employés du restaurant nord-coréen Ryukyong à Ningbo en Chine en avril dernier, Choi Sung-yong, le représentant de l’Association des familles de personnes enlevées par la Corée du Nord, a prétendu que six responsables de cette affaire ont été exécutés en public en mai dernier.
Citant une source qui fait fréquemment des allers-retours entre Pyongyang et Pékin, Choi a indiqué à Yonhap ce vendredi que «d’après la nouvelle transmise par cette source, six responsables de cette défection de masse, dont l’instructeur de sécurité (agent du ministère de la Sécurité d’Etat), ont été exécutés en public le 5 mai dernier à l’école militaire générale de Kang Kon à Pyongyang sur ordre de Kim Jong-un».
Thai authorities have detained a Chinese college student and political asylum-seeker for having an expired passport, raising concerns that he will be sent home, where he has reported being detained and beaten repeatedly by state security police.
Xu Zhenxin, 19, was detained on Sunday after Thai police asked for his identification en route to the northern city of Chiang Rai, where he had hoped to find work, activists told RFA on Friday.
Fellow Chinese national and Thailand-based asylum-seeker Lu Taizhi said he got a call from Xu, saying he was in police custody.
"He was on his way to Chiang Rai when he ran into some police, who asked to see his passport," Lu said, adding that Xu had applied for political asylum with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). "His passport had expired."
"I informed UNHCR on Monday morning around 9.00 a.m. local time," he said.
Fellow refugee Liu Xiaoying said Xu is being held in the Bangkok Immigration Detention Center alongside another Chinese refugee.
Calls to the detention center in Bangkok rang unanswered during office hours on Friday.
Xu arrived in Thailand last November after taking a cross-border bus to Vietnam and a flight to Bangkok.
He had already received approval for resettlement as a political asylum-seeker, and held a UNHCR letter of protection.
A former freshman student at the Nanjing Post and Telecommunications University, Xu described himself as a political activist who frequently handed out leaflets calling for democratic reform on the streets of the city.
He had been interrogated several times by the city's state security police, who had beaten him at least twice, fellow refugees told RFA.
He also spent a week in a "black jail," an unofficial detention center, they said.
Xu's detention comes amid a growing climate of fear for Chinese dissidents who have sought political refuge in Thailand.
Meanwhile, asylum-seeker Li Xiaolong, whose wife Gu Qiao is currently facing deportation for illegal immigration after the family were rescued from the wreck of a sailing yacht off the coast of southern Thailand, has been protesting outside UNHCR offices for the past month at a lack of action on their case.
Li said he was allowed to meet with UNHCR officials on Friday to discuss the family's plight.
Li, who speaks no Thai, has no current means of supporting the couple's youngest son.
Japanese supermarket chain Aeon is about to become the first Japanese retailer to operate stores in Myanmar.
Aeon intends to launch a joint venture with Creation Myanmar Group of Companies in early August to operate food supermarkets in the booming Southeast Asian country.
The new company will run 14 supermarkets that the local partner currently operates mainly in Myanmar's largest city of Yangon. It will begin opening new stores by the end of the year.
A number of Japanese firms are racing to invest in Myanmar which is called Asia's final frontier.
Aeon hopes to establish an advantageous position in the Myanmar market by making early inroads into the country.
It has already begun operating supermarkets and shopping malls in 5 Southeast Asian countries.
Nintei-Shiho-Shoshi Lawyers are permitted to represent clients in various summary court proceedings such as civil trial, compromise and conciliation and so on. The summary courts have the original jurisdiction over civil cases ,involving claims for amounts not exceeding 1,400,000 yen. There are 438 summary courts in Japan.