A prestigious Taiwanese researcher specializing in anti-aging protein research was found dead in his office yesterday morning surrounded by injection bottles of sedatives and muscle relaxants.
Lin Yu-yi (林育誼), 38, who also served as an assistant professor at National Taiwan University College of Medicine’s Graduate Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, was rushed to a hospital after being found in his office with no signs of life at about 11am yesterday. He was later pronounced dead after efforts to resuscitate him failed.
A preliminary examination of Lin’s body found a pinhole on his left arm and a fresh bruise on his forehead. Needles were also found at the scene along with sedatives and muscle relaxants, police said.
Police ruled out suicide as no suicide note was found at the scene and, according to Lin’s family members, everything was going well with his wife and family.
However, Lin’s family said he may have injected the muscle relaxants due to overwhelming work-related pressure, which raised suspicions that Lin’s death could have been an accidental overdose. Ruling on the cause of death is on hold until the results of Lin’s blood analysis are given, police said.
According to Lin’s assistant, no visitors were seen entering Lin’s office that morning and no strange sounds were heard coming from it.
With a doctoral degree from the medical school of Johns Hopkins University in the US, Lin was one of the few researchers in Taiwan studying anti-aging proteins. A research team he led was featured in the scientific journal Nature in February for their discovery of the key mechanism for maintaining cell energy balance — believed to be linked to cellular aging and cancer.
Organizing one national referendum and 26 recall elections targeting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators could cost NT$1.62 billion (US$55.38 million), the Central Election Commission said yesterday. The cost of each recall vote ranges from NT$16 million to NT$20 million, while that of a national referendum is NT$1.1 billion, the commission said. Based on the higher estimate of NT$20 million per recall vote, if all 26 confirmed recall votes against KMT legislators are taken into consideration, along with the national referendum on restarting the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant, the total could be as much as NT$1.62 billion, it said. The commission previously announced
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday welcomed NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s remarks that the organization’s cooperation with Indo-Pacific partners must be deepened to deter potential threats from China and Russia. Rutte on Wednesday in Berlin met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ahead of a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of Germany’s accession to NATO. He told a post-meeting news conference that China is rapidly building up its armed forces, and the number of vessels in its navy outnumbers those of the US Navy. “They will have another 100 ships sailing by 2030. They now have 1,000 nuclear warheads,” Rutte said, adding that such
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The cosponsors of a new US sanctions package targeting Russia on Thursday briefed European allies and Ukraine on the legislation and said the legislation would also have a deterrent effect on China and curb its ambitions regarding Taiwan. The bill backed by US senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal calls for a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations such as China and India, which account for about 70 percent of Russia’s energy trade, the bankroll of much of its war effort. Graham and Blumenthal told The Associated Press