Frustrated with delays to a US report on the death of fishing boat captain Wu Lai-yu (吳來于) during an anti-piracy operation in the waters off Somalia, his daughter yesterday called the US “hypocrites.”
“I am not comfortable with this. It seems that the US was just saying one thing and doing another,” Wu’s daughter told the Taipei Times by telephone.
Wu’s daughter, who wished to have her name withheld, said her family learned from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the US would provide a full account of the incident “no later than last Friday.”
“It [the US] told us that it would inform us about any progress in its investigation, but it hasn’t told us anything yet,” she said.
Despite reaching an agreement in April to pay a ransom for Wu’s release after his vessel, Jih Chun Tsai No. 68, was hijacked by pirates on March 31 last year, Wu was killed when a unit of the US Navy, acting as part of a NATO anti-piracy mission, engaged the pirates on May 11.
Officials from the Kaohsiung branch of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) visited Wu’s family twice after the US confirmed Wu’s death on May 21 in response to an enquiry by the ministry when it learned the news from a NATO press release.
On Monday, three officials from the ministry and the Fisheries Agency visited Wu’s family and delivered the original copy of a letter of condolence for Wu’s death sent from US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell.
AIT officials were invited by the ministry to join the officials in delivering the letter, but they declined to go, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
Wu’s daughter said she and her mother will take part in a protest on July 26 “to have our voice heard.”
When asked when the report could be expected, AIT spokesperson Sheila Paskman did not set a definitive time frame, saying that the AIT has not received the report yet, but people were “working on it every day.”
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai