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Taiwan quick take

■Education
Priest marks anniversaries
Father Brendan O'Connell, a 68-year old Catholic priest who has ministered in Taiwan for 40 years, recently decided to devote his entire life to special education. The residents of Hsuehchia Township, Tainan County, met yesterday to mark the 40th anniversary of O'Connell's preaching and teaching in Taiwan. They also celebrated the sixth anniversary of the founding of the Bethlehem Foundation and the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Merciful Mother Kindergarten -- both founded by O'Connell. At the ceremony, O'Connell quoted Bishop of Tainan Cheng Tsai-fa (鄭再發) as having said that a Catholic priest might retire, but a missionary of God, never. O'Connell said he decided to stay on in Hsuehchia after his retirement to serve the people as a missionary.

■ Politics
KMT wants links referendum
The KMT plans to propose a nationwide referendum on whether to resume direct air and shipping links with China, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday. The legislature opens a special session tomorrow to discuss a separate referendum proposed by the DPP on whether to complete the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. The KMT also supports holding a referendum, but will call instead for a vote on whether to end a ban on direct transportation links with China."We have consulted with business leaders on the nuclear vote and they said we should instead hold a vote on whether to launch direct transportation links,'' a top KMT legislator was quoted as saying.

■ Crime
Prostituting for her art?
A young woman nabbed by police on charges of soliciting for prostitution, says she was offering herself for sexual services to enrich her experience for her books, police said. But her mother later told a local TV news service that the story of her daughter's literature aspiration had been invented by her daughter and was untrue. The 26-year-old woman, identified only by her surname, Chen, was busted in a raid late yesterday when police broke into an apartment and reportedly found the scantily-clad woman in a compromising position. Chen told police that she was not providing "full" sexual services but was allowing clients to caress her for NT$900 per hour. Chen said she was the author of three science-fiction books, one of which won a literature award from a local youth group.

■ Health
WHO to review request
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that it needs China's approval to base a permanent representative in Taiwan. The agency's comments came after Premier Yu Shyi-kun Saturday reiterated Taipei's demand to be admitted to the organization. "We have not received Taiwan's request yet. After we have received the request, we will discuss it with China," the WHO's executive director for communicable diseases, David Heymann, was quoted as saying by news agencies. Keeping Taiwan outside of the WHO would cause a hole in the global anti-epidemic network, Yu said during a press conference on Saturday. WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland said the organization would continue to help Taiwan fight diseases. "Taiwan has been receiving assistance from the WHO and its cooperation organizations. WHO has a global network and Taiwan has not been, and will not be, excluded," she said in Geneva.
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