ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION: Politicians went green for Earth Day yesterday, walking, cycling or taking the MRT to work, eating vegetarian meals and turning off lights
By Mo Yan-chih and Meggie Lu
As politicians around the country made an effort to be more environmentally friendly on Earth Day yesterday, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) minister-designate Stephen Shen (沈世宏) pledged to implement president-elect Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) plan to levy an energy tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cut energy use.

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JUST OPTIONS: The State Department said an ad seeking a contractor to build the AIT compound was only listing possible elements of the facility
By Charles Snyder
The US said on Monday that there was a “possibility” that a barracks for US Marine security forces at the planned new American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) headquarters in Neihu, Taipei City, may be built, but there are no current plans to station Marines at the complex.

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The UN World Food Program (WFP) yesterday compared the escalating global food crisis to a “silent tsunami” that could plunge more than 100 million people into hunger and poverty.

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After six weeks of listening to contentious bids for their support, Pennsylvania voters headed to the polls yesterday with the fate of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential ambitions in their hands.

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Britain’s top official in Hong Kong yesterday expressed concern about new pre-Olympics visa curbs on foreigners entering China from the territory.

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The Dalai Lama asked Washington for help on Monday in improving the situation in Tibet, in the highest level meeting with the US administration since Beijing’s crackdown in his homeland.

“At this moment we need your help,” he told the US special envoy on Tibet, Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky, as they met in Michigan, adding that the issue of Tibet was “very significant.”

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