VIDEO GAMES
Xbox live gets trial period
Microsoft Taiwan Corp will offer consumers a free seven-day trial of its Xbox live service, in accordance with the Consumer Protection Act (消費者保護法), a local government official said yesterday. The software giant and game console producer is following in the steps of Apple Inc and Groupon, which agreed last month to a request by the Taipei City Government to an unconditional seven-day refund period. In response to complaints from consumers that Microsoft had no refund policy for its Xbox online service in Taiwan, the city government urged the company to rectify the situation, said Yeh Ching-yuan (葉慶元), director of Taipei’s Law and Regulation Commission. On Aug. 15, Microsoft agreed to allow a free seven-day trial of its Xbox service in Taiwan, in keeping with Article 19 of the Consumer Protection Law, Yeh said.
SOCIETY
Youths embark on bike trip
More than 100 young adults and teenagers expressed determination yesterday to complete an 11-day bike journey around the country to celebrate their transition to adulthood. The 110 young people, aged between 18 and 20, were set to begin their 1,000km trip from Taipei today as a rite of passage to mark their coming of age. The “Change Your World” event, being held for the third year, is organized by the Sports Affairs Council and the Taiwan Bike Association. It is aimed at encouraging young people to travel around the island to get a better understanding of the place in which they live. The 1,000km event is the final stage of a larger event that included 500km trips nationwide last month for 18-year-olds.
CULTURE
Hakka writer dies at 70
Hakka writer Chung Tie-min (鍾鐵民) died peacefully at his home in Meinong (美濃), Greater Kaohsiung, on Monday. He was 70. He was the eldest son of late writer Chung Li-ho (鍾理和). Chung Tie-min checked into Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital early this month with complications relating to heart disease. He did not respond to treatment and family members decided to have him discharged on Monday so he could spend his final moments at home, in accordance with local customs. To promote Taiwanese literature, the Chung Li-ho Cultural and Educational Foundation said that he had successfully advocated the building of a memorial museum dedicated to his father. A memorial for Chung Tie-min will be held at the Chung Li-ho Memorial Museum on Sept. 10.
EDUCATION
Wu warns Chinese nationals
Chinese nationals who will attend universities and colleges in Taiwan this fall should avoid taking part in activities involving political issues, Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji (吳清基) said. Wu said extracurricular activities and clubs are good ways for students to help develop their originality and competitiveness, but Chinese students who will study in Taiwan this fall should avoid attending any activities involving politics to avoid unnecessary negative outcomes. More than 1,000 students from China have been accepted into undergraduate programs in Taiwanese universities for the fall semester, the first time Chinese nationals have been allowed into the country’s higher education institutions as full-time students. Another 220 Chinese students have been admitted into master’s degree programs and 28 into
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