A foundation in Tainan has pledged to offer free trips to Greater Tainan for students from Sendai, one of the Japanese cities hardest hit by the devastating March 11 earthquake, the city announced yesterday.
The offer is part of ongoing efforts to continue to support Japanese people who have lost their homes and loved ones in the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
The Tree Valley Foundation, an affiliate of flat-panel maker -Chimei, will launch an NT$8 million (US$277,600) project to invite 270 high school and college students from Sendai to visit Tainan, its Taiwanese sister city, over a three-year period starting next year, the Tainan City government said in a news release.
Students will begin arriving in Tainan by the end of February next year and during the summer vacation, the city’s news department said.
High school students will be provided with a nine-day trip, while college students will have an 11-day vacation in the city.
During their vacation, the students will be accompanied by local students who speak Japanese, and the local government will assist the foundation in accommodating the guests, the department said. All expenses will be covered by the foundation.
The foundation made the offer in response to a call made by Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) to send love to families affected by the catastrophic disasters.
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS