The Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU) yesterday released a statement seconding the no-confidence motion against the Cabinet initiated by opposition parties.
The legislature plans to hold the no-confidence vote initiated by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union this morning.
The group said it supports the motion demanding that the Cabinet that refuses to face the truth and listen to the public opposition to nuclear power step down.
“Facing a Cabinet that is incapable of responding to the people’s will of terminating nuclear power, then the constitutional instrument must be applied for it to step down,” the group said in its statement.
The “mediocre, but evil” Cabinet has not only neglected the public’s opinion, but also undertaken many ridiculous actions that have harmed the public, it added.
The group cited several examples, such as the Cabinet turning a blind eye to the Formosa Plastics Group’s lawsuit against an academic, Tsuang Ben-jei (莊秉潔), which may have caused a chilling effect on other academics, planning to hold a “bird cage” referendum to allow the new nuclear power plant to go into operation, enforcing land expropriation to support an overabundance of science parks and possibly allowing local governments to arbitrarily make development plans by amending national land planning laws.
The group said that with its long-term determination to protect the natural environment, it strongly urges all legislators to use the constitutional instrument entrusted by the people to topple the Cabinet and protect the fundamental spirit of Taiwan as a democratic country.
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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
HOSPITALITY HIT: Hotels in Hualien have an occupancy rate of 10 percent, down from 30 percent before the earthquake, a Tourism Administration official said The Executive Yuan yesterday unveiled a stimulus package of vouchers and subsidies to revive tourism in Hualien County following a quake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. The tremor on April 3, which killed at least 17 people and left two others missing, caused the county an estimated NT$3 billion (US$92.7 million) in damages. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is to issue vouchers worth NT$200 at the price of NT$100 for purchases at the Dongdamen Night Market (東大門夜市) in Hualien City to boost spending, a ministry official told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting in Taipei. The ministry plans to issue 18,400