■UNITED STATES
Pang death likely suicide
Investigators believe Danny Pang (彭日成), the Taiwan-born international financier who died in California last weekend while facing charges of fraud, committed suicide, a police spokesman said on Friday. Pang was indicted in July on charges of illegally structuring financial transactions to evade currency-reporting requirements. Pang died on Saturday at a hospital, a day after police and paramedics were called to his home. “It is our opinion that the death appears to be suicide,” said Newport Beach Police Sergeant Evan Sailor. Pang’s death won’t be ruled a suicide until the coroner’s investigation is finished, Sailor said. The Orange County coroner has ruled out foul play.
■UNITED STATES
‘Guiding Light’ off the air
The US show Guiding Light aired its final episode on Friday, 72 years and more than 15,000 episodes after its first broadcast as a CBS radio program in 1937. The show, the story of three families, moved to television in 1952 and first broadcast in color in 1967. In the finale, the main characters, Josh Lewis and Reva Shayne, decide to marry “again,” then drive off in Josh’s vintage pickup truck on an unspecified adventure. “You ready?” Josh asks Reva. “Always,” she replies. It was a long and rocky run for the show’s main characters, who have married, divorced and remarried. Reva drove off a Florida bridge, washed ashore on a Caribbean island and married a prince there. The prince’s evil brother dumped her into the ocean and she was swept back to the US. The character was also presumed dead three times and died once but came back to life.
■UNITED STATES
‘Killer’ claims distress
A man accused of beheading his wife at the television station that the couple founded to counter stereotypes of Muslims plans to claim emotional distress was behind the killing. Muzzammil Hassan, 45, is scheduled to be tried in January on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of 37-year-old Aasiya Hassan. A psychiatric defense would allow jurors to find him guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter, Muzzammil Hassan’s attorney said on Friday. “Extreme emotional disturbance is not an insanity defense,” attorney James Harrington said afterward. Muzzammil Hassan had been served with divorce papers a week before his wife’s body was found at the offices of Bridges TV near Buffalo, New York, where the couple also lived. Hassan was arrested after walking into the Orchard Park police station on Feb. 12 and telling officers his wife was dead. The prosecution’s case is built on alleged admissions and forensic evidence.
■UNITED STATES
Hand found in yard
A human hand has been unearthed from the yard of a Maryland home, but police say this is no “whodunit.” Investigators believe it’s a decades-old medical school specimen left by a former resident. It was an odd discovery for the electrician who dug it up in the northeastern part of the state. Only the fingertips showed signs of decay, the Cecil Whig reported. Maryland State Police Trooper First Class Dave Feltman says the hand found on Tuesday appeared to have been surgically removed. The son of a previous owner of the house told police it was a souvenir he took home as a student at the University of Maryland’s medical school more than 50 years ago. Police said they believed his account but had sent it to the state medical examiner as part of routine procedure.
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