■ Aviation
Some crash bodies missing
Search crews were unable to find the bodies of 50 of the 225 people who died when a China Airlines jetliner split apart shortly after taking off in Taipei five months ago, officials said yesterday as they finished the plane's salvage operation. The cause of the May 25 crash was still unknown, but investigators were analyzing signs of metal fatigue and cracks found in pieces of the wreckage, the Aviation Safety Council said in a statement. The council said that the bodies of 175 of the 225 passengers and crew aboard the Boeing 747-200 were recovered and identified. No one survived the crash. If the investigation continues without delay, officials plan to release the final crash report in September 2004, the council said.
■ Diplomacy
Chen thanks Europeans
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday that the government and people are grateful for the European Parliament's passage of a resolution urging China to dismantle its missile deployment against Taiwan. Chen made the remarks while receiving a delegation of the Liberal Party caucus in the European Parliament. The delegation, headed by Gramham Watson, chairman of the Liberal Party caucus, arrived in Taipei Sunday for a weeklong visit. Noting that democracy, freedom, human rights and peace are universal values, Chen said that China's deployment of 400 ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan poses an enormous threat to regional peace and prosperity. He also said that the normalization of relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait first requires the normalization of trade ties.
■ Medicine
Stem cell advance
A gynecologist working at the National Taiwan University Hospital said yesterday that he has successfully applied the embryo cloning technique in embryonic stem cell cultivation experiments on rats and he is working on similar experiments on human embryos. Chen Shih-yuan (陳思原) of the hospital's Department of Gynecology, said that he succeeded in splicing the somatic cell nucleus of a rat and transplanted it to replace the nucleus of an embryonic cell. Approximately 5 percent of the 1,056 embryos were successfully fertilized in vitro. Chen said that he has succeeded in cultivating rat embryonic stem cells. Expecting to achieve a breakthrough in human embryonic stem cell cultivation, the gynecologist said that the target is to establish a cell lines bank.
■ China relations
Migrants repatriated
The Kinmen Coastal Patrol Squad yesterday repatriated 18 Chinese citizens who had illegally entered Kinmen. The illegal immigrants were taken back to China from Kinmen's Shuitou (水頭) Port under the supervision of officials from the Red Cross Society in Kinmen. Two fishing boats authorized by the Xiamen City government were used to transport them back. The 14 men and four women, were caught and detained by the Kinmen Coastal Patrol Squad between Sept. 13 and Oct. 22 on charges of illegal entry, smuggling, illegal poaching of shellfish or engaging in illegal small-scale trading on the coast. Since there is no binding agreement on the repatriation of such illegal immigrants, Taiwan has returned Chinese citizens from Kinmen and Matsu in accordance with the 1990 Kinmen Agreement.
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