■ CRIME
Three deaths lead to arrest
A woman has been detained for allegedly killing her mother, husband and mother-in-law in an insurance scam, police said yesterday. “She has confessed to pushing her mother down the stairs and poisoning her husband and mother-in-law to get insurance money and pay off gambling debts,” an officer in Nantou County said. The woman, surnamed Lin (林), 29, came under suspicion after her three relatives died under mysterious circumstances within nine months of each other, Nantou County police said. The deaths made her the sole beneficiary of about NT$20 million (US$625,000) in insurance payments, police said. Local media reports said the woman had a gambling problem and had accumulated huge debts. She had also bought hefty insurance policies for her four-year-old son and her sister-in-law, the reports said.
■ HEALTH
Junk food ads face ban
The Department of Health (DOH) wants to ban junk food advertisements from children’s TV programs in a bid to cut obesity rates, an official said yesterday. The authorities are drafting a bill to ban such ads as well as images of smoking, following the lead of the UK and South Korea, Bureau of Health Promotion Director-General Chiou Shu-ti (邱淑媞) said. The bill would also introduce a tax on food deemed unhealthy, such as sugary drinks, candy, cakes, fast food and alcohol, Chiou said. The bill was expected to be submitted to the legislature later this year and, if passed, could take effect next year. Taiwan would be the first country in the world to impose a junk food tax if the bill passes, the John Tung Foundation said. Obesity is worsening in Taiwan, with 25 percent to 30 percent of children obese or overweight, foundation data shows.
AFP
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe