■ 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.
Agencies
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry