Hopes that the battered little girl surnamed Chiu would wake from her coma have been dashed. On Sunday the four-year-old was pronounced brain dead. Her parents have donated Chiu's organs so that her misfortune may now save the lives of other children.

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By Michael Tai 戴正德
The buck-passing phenomenon that arose from the recent scandal involving a severely abused four-year-old girl surnamed Chiu reflects the gravity of the problems plaguing Taiwan's medical community.

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By Chiou Chwei-liang 邱垂亮
Following last month's legislative elections, Taiwan's political landscape, including the rivalry between the pan-blue and pan-green camps and the minority government in the legislature, remains unchanged.

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China's current leadership is all too ready to consign the reformer to the trashbin of history. But they would do well to learn from his legacy -- particularly if China's `miracle' is to be anything other than economic
By Orville Schell
So, at last former Chinese premier and Communist Party general secretary Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽) has died. But the political agenda that he espoused while in office passed away long ago, on May 19, 1989, when he appeared in Tiananmen Square just before dawn to beg tearfully for the forgiveness of protesters.

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When the Iron Curtain fell 15 years ago, the free world's scientists got their first good look at the environmental consequences of East Europe's communist economy.

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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is facing an impossible balancing act between not `selling out' militants while fulfilling his people's desire for peace
By Peter Beaumont
The attack by Palestinian gunmen on Gaza's Karni crossing on Jan. 13, in which six Israelis died, and Israel's response seem wearingly familiar. But while a year ago it would have been possible to say it was simply part of the numbing cycle of violence, inviting inevitable retaliation, this time the violence has a different and more subtle meaning.

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On the fate of little Chiu

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