Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) plans to file a provisional injunction over the government’s rejection of her proposed nuclear referendum in New Taipei City (新北市) in a bid to stop the fuel rods from being installed at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in the city’s Gongliao District (貢寮).
A preliminary hearing has been scheduled at the Taipei High Administrative Court today over the lawsuit Lu has filed against the Executive Yuan for rejecting her referendum proposal, which had been previously approved by New Taipei City’s Referendum Review Committee.
Lu told a press conference yesterday that the Executive Yuan’s rejection has failed to respect the tens of thousands of people who signed the petition.
The former vice president, who is among the aspirants for the Democratic Progressive Party’s candidacy in the Taipei mayoral election in November, has made the anti-nuclear issue one of the main themes of her election campaign.
Citing former Japanese prime minister Morihimo Hosokawa, who ran an anti-nuclear campaign in the Tokyo gubernatorial election, as her inspiration, Lu said she would continue with her efforts, noting that the wishes of the millions of residents in the evacuation zone around the nuclear power plant should be respected.
Lu also accused Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) of flip-flopping on another referendum proposal Lu launched in Taipei, saying that Hau had shunned the responsibility for referring the proposal to the Ministry of the Interior, which subsequently determined that a nuclear referendum is a national issue that cannot be decided by a local referendum.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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