News stories by Dennis Engbarth, page 2

TAIPEI, Sep 02 (IPS) - The end of Taiwan’s most controversial death penalty case this week has “punctured the myth that the judicial system never makes mistakes in death penalty cases,” Judicial Reform Foundation (JRF) executive director Lin Feng-cheng told IPS.

TAIPEI, Aug 31 (IPS) - Human rights activists warn that Taiwan government prosecutors have sent a message that torture is permissible by refusing to indict a former defence minister and eight other former military officers behind the wrongful execution of a young Air Force private by torturing him into confessing rape and murder.

Earlier this week a coalition of Taiwan civic organisations issued a ‘shadow report’ on Taiwan’s compliance with two international human rights covenants, which it incorporated into domestic law in 2009, probing the country’s track record on human rights.

Reporters working in the Philippines, the world’s third most dangerous nation for journalists, are having difficulty identifying with the 'It’s More Fun in the Philippines' tourism promotion campaign launched by the Liberal Party-led government of President Benigno Aquino III.

The exclusion of certified labour union delegates from the official opening ceremony of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) meeting here on May 4 revealed a wide gap between the Manila-based development bank’s promises and practices on labour rights.

Taiwanese civic activists and opposition parties are persisting in efforts to block imports of high-risk American beef even though the ruling rightist Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) legislative majority narrowly defeated a push by opposition legislators Apr. 27 to suspend imports of American beef products.

Taiwan civic activists and opposition parties have launched efforts to block plans by the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) government to 'conditionally deregulate' the import of United States-produced beef containing residues of ractopamine, a controversial 'growth enhancing' chemical used in cattle feed.

Voters in Taiwan’s upcoming presidential and national legislative elections will also decide the fate of a bitterly controversial 9.3 billion dollar nuclear power plant.

Senior representatives of Amnesty International and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network have urged the Taiwan government to 'uphold fairness and justice' in its judicial system and resume a broken moratorium on use of the death penalty.