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Taiwan News Quick Take

■ POLITICS

Canadian delegation arrives

A 10-member Canadian parliamentary delegation led by Member of Parliament (MP) Carol Skelton arrived in Taiwan yesterday, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Skelton, who was minister of National Revenue of Canada from 2006 to last year, is now a member of Canada's House of Commons and is also a member for life of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada. The delegation, including one senator and four other MPs, was invited by the Taiwan-based Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association, according to the press release. The delegation members are expected to meet President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and various other officials. As the visit coincides with the Saturday legislative elections, the delegation will meet legislative candidates of some of the major parties and visit a vote-counting center on polling day. It is also scheduled to tour the National Palace Museum, Taipei 101 and the Southern Taiwan Science Park before leaving Taiwan on Sunday.



■ Health

Transplants help two

Taipei Veterans General Hospital (TVGH) has successfully conducted Taiwan's first sequential liver transplants, in which a teenager received a new liver from a deceased donor and his old liver was transplanted into another man, hospital officials announced yesterday. The operations took place last month when a liver was taken from a nine-year-old braindead girl and transplanted into the body of a 16-year-old boy, whose liver was in turn given to a 59-year-old patient suffering from liver cancer. The boy has familial hypercholesterolemia, a rare genetic disease that blocks the circulation of cholesterol within the blood vessels. Without a transplant, he would have been unlikely to survive past the age of 20. Because the recipient of the boy's liver does not have the condition, he will be able to survive as long as he controls his diet, said Liu Jun-shu (劉君恕), the chief surgeon who led the team that performed the transplants. The mother of the teenage boy said at a press conference that her son had been "blessed with the chance to be reborn".



■ Health

Journal teams up with NCKU

US-based journal Experimental Biology and Medicine has established an Asian chapter at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Tainan, marking the first time an international science journal has set up a branch office in Taiwan, senior NCKU officials said yesterday. The opening ceremony of the office was hosted by the journal's editor-in-chief Steven Goodman, NCKU president Michael Lai (賴明詔) and NCKU professor of medicine Lei Huan-yao (黎煥耀), who also heads the chapter. Explaining the need for an Asian chapter, Goodman noted that almost 30 percent of the scientific papers the journal receives come from Asian academics, presenting a need to recruit more editing staff based in Asia, as well as having a standing branch office here.



■ SOCIETY

Suicide rate falls 19%

The national suicide rate fell by 19 percent last year compared to 2006, a Department of Health press release said yesterday. In the first three quarters of 2006, there were 19.3 suicides per 100,000 people, falling to 16.1 suicides per 100,000 in the first three quarters of last year, according to department figures. However, suicide remained the ninth leading cause of death during both years, according to the figures.
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