In the wake of the Miaoli County Government’s forced seizure of farmland in Jhunan Township’s (竹南) Dapu Borough (大埔), residents of Taipei County’s Gongliao Township (貢寮) are worried about the possible ecological impact of a plan to take over wetlands in Tianliaoyang Village (田寮洋) and turn the area into a housing complex.

According to a plan initiated by the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) in March, a total of 688.5 hectares of land in Gongliao would be expropriated to sell to major corporations to build hotels or housing complexes.

Human rights groups yesterday condemned China’s jailing of an ethnic Uighur journalist who spoke to foreign journalists about last year’s deadly riots in Xinjiang.

A court in Urumqi, capital of the far-western region, sentenced Gheyret Niyaz to 15 years in jail for endangering state security, the Uighurbiz.net Web site reported on Friday.

Pingpu Aboriginal activist Jason Pan (潘紀揚) yesterday denied a statement by the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) that the UN has rejected a petition he filed to sue the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government for not recognizing Pingpu Aborigines’ Aboriginal status.

Pan, director of the Taiwan Association for Rights Advancements for Pingpu Plains Aborigines, made the remarks at a press conference in Taipei held following his recent return from UN headquarters in Geneva.