An alliance of anti-nuclear groups yesterday gave the government an ultimatum to announce by Thursday a halt to construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) and operations on the nation’s first, second and third plants.
The groups said if their condition are not met, they would stage a continuous protest on Ketagalan Boulevard and besiege the Presidential Office Building.
They also called for the government to “give power back to the people” and to amend the “birdcage” Referendum Act (公民投票法) because of what they called its “unusually” high threshold.
Photo: CNA
The event’s head coordinator and Green Citizens’ Action Alliance secretary-general, Tsuei Su-hsin (崔愫欣), told a press conference on Ketagalan Boulevard yesterday that a series of events would be held in support of former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin I-hsiung’s (林義雄) planned hunger strike today.
The groups said that multiple anti-nuclear events were launched yesterday nationwide in opposition to the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.
At Greater Kaohsiung’s Formosa Boulevard KMRT Station, the Southern Taiwan Anti-Nuclear Alliance yesterday handed out yellow ribbons. At Taipei’s Daan Forest Park, anti-nuclear protesters are to gather every evening starting tonight, Tsui said.
In Chiayi County, students from National Chung Cheng University are organizing anti-nuclear appeals involving staging sit-ins on campus and an event outside the Chiayi Railway Station, Tsui added.
At the Greater Taichung high-speed rail station, student sit-ins are planned nightly starting today, Tsui said, adding that civic forums would also be held in Chiayi on Thursday and Friday.
Tsui urged supporters to wear or tie the yellow ribbons to their bags to help symbolize the unity and ubiquity of the movement, adding that the joint coalition would also post a petition to its Web site today.
Tsui added that she hoped supporters of the movement would start putting pressure on local legislators and candidates in the seven-in-one elections.
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
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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