■ Society
Family found dead in NYC
A family of four was found dead in a Harlem apartment in New York City in an apparent suicide by the father, who had sent a letter to relatives in Taiwan saying he was depressed over a financial setback. Fred Wang, 42, his wife, Christine, his 8-year-old son Dennis and his 6-year-old daughter Serena were discovered dead on Thursday night of apparent carbon-monoxide poisoning. They were found by a relative who went to their housing complex after Wang sent his family a letter by express mail saying he was upset by a failed business venture. Coals were burning in silver-colored bowls in the room and a blanket was draped over the door, said Sergeant Mike Wysokowski, a police spokesman. The drapes had been pulled closed. A grandmother who lived with the family was unharmed.
■ Media
TVBS slapped with fine
The Government Information Office (GIO) yesterday issued a NT$200,000 (US$6,000) fine to television station TVBS for "not honestly reporting the transfer and background of its shareholders." The fine came as one of the station's talk shows publicized evidence related to government scandals for the second straight day, but GIO minister Pasuya Yao (姚文智) denied to reporters that there was any connection. "We decided to fine them [TVBS] because we discovered that the station did not honestly provide necessary information as required when they were renewing their license for the channel earlier this year," Yao said. He warned that such dishonest behavior could result in suspension of the station's license. The GIO is investigating whether TVBS Chairman Norman Leung (梁乃鵬), who is also the former chairman of the Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority, is eligible to hold such a high-ranking position in Taiwan's media industry.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater