The story

Skydiving and parachuting, canoe polo, rhythmic gymnastics, orienteering, dragon boat races and korfball are among the air, land and water sports to kick off the first day of The World Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on Friday.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou marked the start of the 11-day event Thursday night during the opening ceremony at the new Main Stadium in front of a capacity crowd of 40,000.

Absent from the ceremony were China's athletes; joint reports by the Kaohsiung Organizing Committee and Taiwan's national news agency, the Central News Agency, made no mention of the boycott. But a photo provided by both show the athletes' absence behind the Chinese flag. Read full article »

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