SPORTS
ISU apologizes over flag
The International Skating Union (ISU) on Thursday apologized for displaying the flag of Taiwan rather than the “Chinese Taipei” emblem at the World Figure Skating Championships in Boston. The Taiwanese flag was displayed on a video screen behind skater Li Yu-hsiang (李宇翔) when he was introduced ahead of his short program earlier in the day. The TD Garden public address announcer read the apology before the pairs event. “The ISU would like to sincerely apologize for the display of the incorrect flag for Chinese Taipei during the ISU World Figure Skating Championships event today,” it said. “We fully understand the sensitivity of this mistake and deeply regret any offense or confusion this may have caused,” it said. Li finished 30th in the short program.
Photo: AFP
SOCIETY
Actor cancels visit
South Korean actor Kim Soo-hyun, known for his role in the My Love From the Star TV series, has canceled his visit to Kaohsiung amid controversy surrounding the death of his former girlfriend, South Korean actress Kim Sae-ron. President Chain Store Corp, the organizer of the Sakura Festival, on Tuesday said that Kim Soo-hyun would not be attending “due to a change in his schedule.” Tomorrow’s event would proceed as planned, except for his scheduled appearance, it said, adding those who purchased tickets for that day can ask for a full refund from 10am on Monday until 11:59pm on April 15. Kim Sae-ron took her own life on Feb. 16, Kim Soo-hyun’s birthday. South Korean media reported that Kim Sae-ron’s parents claimed Kim Soo-hyun, who is about 12 years older than their daughter, had been in a six-year relationship with her, beginning when she was 15. Kim Sae-ron later signed with Gold Medalist, an agency that also represents Kim Soo-hyun, the reports said. Her parents alleged that the agency mishandled their daughter’s affairs, the reports said. On March 14, Gold Medalist said that the two had been in a relationship, but added that they only began dating when Kim Sae-ron was an adult.
CRIME
Man indicted after fall
A man in his 70s, surnamed Lin (林), has been charged with murder after his wife fell to her death from a 14th-floor living room window on Dec. 9 last year, the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office said on Thursday. Lin is suspected of pushing his wife out of a window of their apartment, prosecutors said, adding that his wife, who was in her 60s and had been bedridden due to hydrocephalus — a buildup of fluid in the brain — fell to her death. Lin turned himself in later that day and the New Taipei City District Court granted a motion by prosecutors to detain him. The New Taipei City Social Welfare Department said there was no record of domestic abuse. Prosecutors on Tuesday said that Lin had intended to kill his wife.
SOCIETY
Daycare center fined
A Hsinchu City daycare center would be fined NT$240,000 and its public subsidies ended following the death of a baby this week, the city government said on Thursday. The four-month-old girl asphyxiated on March 11 while sleeping at a government-subsidized daycare center and was pronounced dead on Monday after being sent to a hospital, Hsinchu City Councilor Liu Yen-ling (劉彥伶) said. The Hsinchu Department of Social Affairs had conducted an inspection of the daycare center and held a special inquiry on Tuesday to assess the incident.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with
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