■ 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.
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
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