TAIWAN TRANSPORTATION MINISTER RESIGNS OVER DERAILMENT

Taiwan's transportation minister has resigned to take responsibility for a train derailment earlier this month that killed 49 people and injured more than 200 others, authorities said on Thursday, according to a Kyodo News report.

Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng told a press conference that Premier Su Tseng-chang approved the resignation of Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung on Wednesday.

Lin will vacate the post next Tuesday after attending all public memorial services for those who died on April 2. He offered to resign two days after what authorities called "the island's worst rail disaster in seven decades."

Packed with passengers at the start of a four-day holiday period, the train was traveling from Shulin in New Taipei to the southeastern city of Taitung when it derailed while passing through a tunnel, 30 kilometers north of Hualien City.

Authorities suspect that a crane truck that caused the accident was parked without its emergency brake engaged and rolled down a hill beside the track.

Prosecutors have indicted at least 10 people so far, including railway officials and contractors. The driver of the crane truck, whose two companies are subcontractors of the Taiwan Railway Administration, has been detained since April 4 as the main suspect.

Another suspect is a foreign worker from Vietnam who has been in Taiwan illegally.

WEEKLY FEATURE : TRUEMONEY PHILIPPINES BUCKS THE COVID-19 CHALLENGE