China's ambassador to Ireland is to be asked to appear before an all-party parliamentary committee to discuss claims his country's authorities have been harvesting human organs from prisoners. The committee is also asking Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern to raise the issue with his Chinese counterpart at a meeting of the ongoing EU-China dialogue on human rights.
The moves came after the Oireachtas (Gaelic for parliamentary) Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs heard the findings of a report investigating the possible organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners.
The report alleged that "the Chinese Government has over the past half decade put to death a large but unknown number of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience" and "simultaneously seized their vital organs for sale at high prices."
PHOTO: EPA
The committee had been addressed by former Canadian Secretary of State for the Asia Pacific region David Kilgour who co-wrote the report with David Matas, an international human rights lawyer.
Kilgour told the committee that those responsible for these deeds, including the doctors involved, should face the International Criminal Court as quickly as possible.
"We have a new form of evil in the world," he said. "These practices make crimes against humanity as defined by the Treaty of Rome and the International Criminal Court look more like misdemeanours." A misdemanour is a minor offence.
Committee chairman Dr Michael Woods of Prime Minister Bertie Ahern's Fianna Fail ruling party said Kilgour's report "made for compelling reading" and China should permit an independent investigation. (AFP)
中共駐愛爾蘭大使被要求出席跨黨派國會委員會，討論對於中國官方活體摘取囚犯器官的指控。委員會亦要求愛爾蘭外交部長德莫特．埃亨於中國歐盟人權對話會議上，向中國代表提出此項議題。
國會聯合委員會在聽取有關法輪功學員被活體摘除器官的調查發現後，提出這項要求。
這份報告宣稱「中國政府過去五年來處死大量(實際數字未知)的法輪功學員」並且「摘除他們的重要器官以高價賣出」。
加拿大前亞太司司長大衛?喬高，和共同撰寫此份報告的國際人權律師大衛．麥塔斯已在委員會上發表聲明。
喬高對委員會表示，該對這些行為負責的人，包括醫生在內，應該儘速接受國際刑事法庭的審判。
他表示︰「這世界存在著一種新型態的邪惡，這些行為讓羅馬條約和國際刑事法庭所定義的違反人道罪行相形之下如輕罪一般」。輕罪是指不嚴重的罪行。
委員會主席麥可．伍茲博士隸屬愛爾蘭總理博提．阿亨所領導執政的共和黨，他表示喬高的報告「不容忽視」，中國應准許進行獨立調查。（法新社╱翻譯︰鄭湘儀）
A: South Korean supergroup Blackpink has finally come to Taiwan, and I’m going to one of their Kaohsiung concerts this weekend. I’m over the moon. B: My goodness. However did you manage to get a ticket? I’ve heard that all tickets were snapped up. A: That’s right. They sold 90,000 tickets for the two shows, breaking Coldplay’s record of selling 80,000 tickets for two shows in Taiwan. B: No wonder Blackpink is the world’s top girl group. A: Well, I may be too excited to sleep tonight. A: 南韓女子天團Blackpink終於來台灣啦，而且我週末要去高雄看她們的演唱會，真開心。 B: 天啊，你竟然能搶到門票，聽說所有門票全都被秒殺了。 A: 對啊，這次兩場演唱會賣出九萬張門票，還打破Coldplay兩場賣出八萬張門票的紀錄。 B: 她們真不愧是全球最紅的女團！ A: 我今晚可能會興奮到睡不著吧。 （By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times／台北時報張聖恩)
對許多人而言，雞蛋是生活上不可或缺的食物，不論是早餐三明治內的煎蛋、或是晚餐便當中的滷蛋，台灣人對雞蛋的需求量極大，根據統計，台灣人每年吃掉七十幾億顆蛋，是全世界雞蛋消耗量第一的國家。去年冬天開始禽流感侵襲全世界，全台雞蛋也受波及，嚴重缺貨，許多民眾排隊還不一定搶得到雞蛋，不只是大賣場與雜貨店，甚至早餐店都面臨了「缺蛋」的問題。全台面臨「蛋蛋危機」，政府也開始提出更多配套措施來應付目前缺蛋的窘況。本次就讓我們從「蛋荒」的議題來學各種描述社會現象及數據的英文吧！ ========== 如何描述蛋荒？ 一般講到「短缺」時，最常用shortage來形容，如去年的water shortage「缺水」、electricity／power shortage「缺電」。而現在全台面臨的就是一個egg shortage「蛋荒」。 Taiwan’s daily egg demand is about 24 million, while its daily production capacity during the shortage has been about 22.6 million eggs. （台灣每日的雞蛋需求約2,400萬顆，缺貨期間僅約2,260萬顆雞蛋。） shortage和shortfall的差別在於shortfall指的是「不足的（量）、缺額、短少的量」，簡單來說，fall short of…就是「短缺…」的意思。 Our sales have fallen short of the target set by the department. （我們的銷售額沒有達到部門設定的標準。） insufficient insufficient (adj)「不足，短少」在TOEIC測驗中經常出現，deficit (n)則可以解釋為「赤字、虧損」。 The bank just informed us that there were insufficient funds to make the transfer. （銀行剛通知我們帳戶資金不足以轉帳。） 另一個較難的單字是scarcity (n)「缺乏、不足、稀少」，形容詞為scarce (adj)。 The government decided to import eggs from other countries to address the scarcity. （政府決定從其他國家進口雞蛋來應付短缺的問題。） 「蛋蛋危機」？ 造成這次蛋荒的原因究竟為何？根據報導，本次導致「蛋蛋危機」背後的因素相當複雜，從飼料價格上漲、日夜溫差大導致母雞致死率高、到禽流感肆虐等，都是引起缺蛋的主要原因。 The cold weather has been to blame, for some, and for others, the impact of avian influenza, climate instability, and rising international prices for materials. （天氣寒冷、禽流感、氣候不穩定以及國際原物料價格上漲都是罪魁禍首。） instability (n)「不穩定」，相反字為stability (n)、stable(adj)「穩定」，都是多益測驗高頻出現的單字。 Maintaining stability in the Taiwan Strait is important
對話 Dialogue A：你怎麼了？看起來不太舒服。 A: Nǐ zěnmele? Kànqǐlái bú tài shūfú. B：我最近非常忙，壓力很大，脖子跟肩膀都痠痛。 B: Wǒ zuìjìn fēicháng máng, yālì hěn dà, bózi gēn jiānbǎng dōu suāntòng. A：要不要去按摩？我覺得對肌肉放鬆很有幫助。 A: Yào búyào qù ànmó? Wǒ juéde duì jīròufàngsōng hěn yǒu bāngzhù. B：那要去哪裡按呢？你能幫我推薦嗎？ B: Nà yào qù nǎlǐ àn ne? Nǐ néng bāng wǒ tuījiàn ma? A：我知道一家盲人按摩院，師傅很厲害，按完馬上就輕鬆不少。 A: Wǒ zhīdào yìjiā mángrén ànmó yuàn, shīfù hěn lìhài, ànwán mǎshàng jiù qīngsōng bùshǎo. B：好，請給我他的電話，我現在就預約。 B: Hǎo, qǐng gěi wǒ tā de diànhuà, wǒ xiànzài jiù yùyuē. 翻譯 Translation A: What happened? You don’t look well. B: I’ve been really busy these days and under lots of pressure. My neck and shoulders are really sore. A: Would you like to try
Global population hits 8 billion 全球人口突破八十億！ Humanity reached a milestone in November last year, when the global population exceeded eight billion people. Reaching this number means people are living longer, with generally better access to healthcare, food and sanitation than previous generations. Along with passing this milestone, many demographic changes are expected to occur in the coming years. A United Nations report shows that the world’s population will increase to around 9.7 billion people by the year 2050. It is predicted to peak three decades later at approximately 10.4 billion people and stay around this number until the end of the century. What’s interesting to note is
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