President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) arrived in the Gambia on Wednesday to a welcome ceremony led by Gambian President Yahya Jammeh.
The red-carpet ceremony at Banjul airport began with a review of an honor guard and the playing of the national anthems of both countries. They were followed by traditional singing and dancing by thousands of performers lined up on either side of the red carpet.
At the conclusion of the hour-long ceremony, Jammeh accompanied Ma on the ride to his hotel aboard a military Hummer, as thousands of well-wishers greeted the leaders along the route.
Photo: CNA
The Gambia is the second leg of Ma’s three-nation state visit to Africa, that also includes Burkina Faso and Swaziland.
Prior to wrapping up his four-day, three-night visit to Burkina Faso, Ma said Taiwan’s relations with its 23 diplomatic allies have been stable over the past four years thanks to the “flexible diplomacy” promoted by his administration.
Under the policy, the government has stressed that the Republic of China should not be isolated by Chinese pressure in the international community so that cross-strait relations can develop smoothly, he said.
This approach has led to major progress in Taiwan’s efforts to expand its international participation, including its attendance at the World Health Assembly as an observer, accession to the Agreement on Government Procurement and its inclusion in the visa-waiver programs of various countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, he added.
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:
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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