TAIWAN President Chen Shui-bian has pardoned 21 convicts, including 19 Jehovah’s Witnesses who were jailed for resisting conscription. The pardon will take effect on Human Rights Day on Sunday. Only six of the 19 are in jail. The others have been released on parole. Jehovah’s Witnesses are barred from conscription, political activities and accepting blood transfusions. The Christian sect believes in the imminent end of the world and refuses to accept civil authority where it clashes with its own principles. – Reuters