Sun, Dec 13, 2009 page3

• Taiwan News Quicktake

  • STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
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  ■DIPLOMACY

  Volunteers earn praise

  St Lucia Prime Minister Stephenson King expressed his government’s gratitude to Taiwan for the medical assistance provided in the wake of a fire at a local hospital, a statement released by the Taiwanese embassy in the Caribbean country said. St Jude Hospital in Vieux Fort faced a severe shortage of medical staff because of the departure of many foreign volunteer physicians following the fire that engulfed the hospital in September. Upon receiving a request for help from the government of St Lucia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dispatched a volunteer medical team of six healthcare workers from Changhua Christian Hospital, which maintains sisterhood ties with St Jude Hospital. The members of the team were received by King on Thursday, prior to their return to Taiwan after three weeks of service in St Lucia. King told the volunteers that their performance was praised by the patients and that the staff at St Jude Hospital had also learned a lot from their medical skills and professionalism.

  ■RELIGION

  Mosaic to be inaugurated

  A ceramic mosaic of Mexico’s most popular religious and cultural icon, Our Lady of Guadalupe, will be inaugurated today in Taipei as part of celebrations to commemorate the reported appearance of the Virgin Mary to a peasant nearly five centuries ago, the Taipei-based Mexican Trade Services Documentation and Cultural Office said. “The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was donated by the Iberoamerican Community in Taiwan to observe the Catholic event,” the office said. A special Mass is scheduled to be held today at St Christopher’s Church in Taipei’s Little Manila on Zhongshan N Road, along with a ceremony to inaugurate a St Damian crucifix and the mosaic of “Our Lady of Guadalupe,” which has already been set on the sidewalk outside the church. The mosaic is made of Talavera tiles from the Mexican city of Puebla, while the crucifix is made of limestone from the state of Guanajuato. Monsignor Paul Russell, the Vatican’s charge d’affaires to Taiwan, and clergy from the US, the Philippines and Spain, as well as the local Latin American and Philippine communities, are expected to attend the ceremony.

  ■TOURISM

  Runaway numbers rise

  The number of Chinese citizens who run away after arriving legally in Taiwan has increased slightly since the country opened to Chinese tourists in July last year, a report released last week by the Legislative Yuan showed. It said that in the 17 months since the policy was implemented, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan has jumped by 9 percent. The number of runaways also rose, it said. Four runaways, with one still on the loose, were reported in 2007, while six were reported last year, four of whom remain missing. Meanwhile, for the first nine months of this year, National Immigration Agency statistics showed there were 15 runaways, 13 of whom have not been located, the report said.

  ■LEISURE

  Chaishan to be national park

  Chaishan (柴山), a popular hiking area in Kaohsiung City, will be designated a national park by the Executive Yuan, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) announced on Friday. The Executive Yuan will soon announce the decision to set up a park administration under the Ministry of the Interior to take over the park’s management, Wu said.
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