Taiwan may pay couples to have babies

Taiwan offered one million Taiwan dollars (31,250 US) Tuesday for a catchy slogan to help boost the island's dwindling birth rate, one of the world's lowest."We are seeking a creative slogan that would appeal to the public and make everybody want to have children," an interior ministry statement said.Taiwan's authorities have been offering various incentives in an unsuccessful bid to boost birth rates, amid growing concerns that a severe manpower shortage will trigger social and economic problems.

South Korea's birth rate hit a four-year low last year as more couples delayed marriage in the economic downturn, officials said Thursday.Statistics Korea said the birth rate -- the average number of babies born during a woman's lifetime -- was 1.15 in 2009, the lowest since 1.08 in 2005.Some 445,000 babies were born last year, 4.4 percent down from 466,000 in 2008."South Korea would have the world's lowest birth rate were it not for some city-states such as Singapore and Hong Kong," Kim Dong-Hoy, who handles the population issue at the statistical body, told AFP.

The transcript of today's Supreme Court arguments for and against Proposition 8 (the California law that bans gay marriage) are out. In one instance that drew laughter from the courtroom, Supreme Court Justice Elana Kagan asked the lawyer for Prop 8 supporters:

Nearly 7,000 Taiwanese couples were expected to tie the knot in New Year weddings on Saturday -- a 20-year high for a single day, the government and media reports said.Household registration offices across the island opened their doors on the holiday to serve more than 6,800 couples who were expected to marry on the first day of the year 100 in Taiwan's calendar, said the interior ministry."The public often choose symbolic dates to get married and 100 symbolises happily ever after" in Chinese culture, the ministry said in a statement.

First Nations mothers face a dramatically higher risk of giving birth to severely overweight babies than non-native Canadians, suggests a new study that sheds an unusual light on the health problems that plague many aboriginal communities. One in 75 women in the Quebec First Nations population scrutinized had infants weighing more than 5,000 grams — over 11 lbs. — 13 times the rate in the general population.

During his inauguration speech in January, President Obama made history by comparing the gay rights movement to African-Americans' fight for civil rights.

Taiwan's debt-ridden high-speed rail company has secured 12 billion US dollars in new funding as part of efforts to pay off earlier loans, an executive said Sunday.A 382 billion Taiwan dollar (12.0 billion US) syndicated loan, signed on Friday, will be used to pay off existing loans which Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp obtained at higher interest levels during the project's construction.The fund -- the biggest syndicated loan in Taiwan history -- will save the company around two billion dollars per year, company vice president Ted Chia told AFP.