Students from six African countries will meet their Taiwanese counterparts in friendly soccer games in Taipei on Saturday to celebrate May 25 “Africa Day” and the upcoming FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The friendly meet is one of a series of events the ministry is organizing to celebrate “Africa Week,” which has added importance this year because it is the 50th anniversary of independence for many African countries, said Samuel Chen (陳士良), director of the ministry's Department of African Affairs.
The friendlies will be held at National Taiwan University and will open with a match between ministry officials and a team consisting of officials from various African embassies and representative offices in Taiwan. Later, teams of students from Burkina Faso, Gambia, Swaziland and Sao Tome and Principe — Taiwan's four diplomatic allies in Africa — and a mixed team of South African and Nigerian students will play local university teams, Chen said.
Chen said that South Africa has introduced a special 90-day “event visa” for those holding tickets to the 2010 World Cup, which is scheduled to take place in South Africa from June 11 to July 11. Fans traveling to South Africa for the games will be able to enjoy expedited customs clearance and the special visa is free of charge.
He reminded people planning to watch matches in South Africa about the changeable weather conditions and the flu pandemic, saying that the ministry's offices in Cape Town is ready to help any nationals who encounter problems while traveling to the tournament.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
RSS