■ 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.
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights
Nearly 800 Indian tourists are to arrive this week on an incentive tour organized by Indian company Asian Painted Ltd, making it the largest tour group from the South Asian nation to visit since the COVID-19 pandemic. The travelers are scheduled to arrive in six batches from Sunday to Feb. 25 for five-day tours, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The tour would take the travelers, most of whom are visiting Taiwan for the first time, to several tourist sites in Taipei and Yilan County, including tea houses in Taipei’s Maokong (貓空), Dadaocheng (大稻埕) and Ximending (西門町) areas. They would also visit
HOSPITAL VISITS: Shin Kong Mitsukoshi pledged to give the families of the four people who died NT$11m each and provide support for staff working at the time The central government would assist local governments to enhance public safety, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday as he visited people in hospital who were injured in an explosion at a department store in Taichung on Thursday. A suspected gas explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang department store in Taichung at 11:33am on Thursday, killing four people and injuring 36. Of the 40 casualties, 39 were hospitalized, Ministry of Health and Welfare data showed. Three died after out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, the data showed. As of 6am yesterday, 25 of those injured had been discharged from hospital, leaving 11