Scores of farmers from central Taiwan took to the streets Tuesday outside the Legislative Yuan to protest a government plan to channel agricultural water resources to an industrial park.

A delegation of Changhua County government officials visited France Wednesday to obtain information about the country's urban planning and development experience.

With the prize of NT500,000, the final contest for National Grape Princess and Fairies competition is scheduled to take place in Changhua County on May 21.

It might be five months away, but Changhua County officials are already gearing up for this year's Mazu Faith and Culture Festival and making a big push for local businesses.

Shareholders of Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co. yesterday formally withdrew the proposal to build the plant in a wetlands area in Changhua County in the wake of an unfavorable environmental impact assessment issued by the Environmental Protection Administration last week.

Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co. will officially withdraw its application for an environmental impact assessment of its plan to build a naphtha cracker plant in Changhua County, in effect killing off the project, Kuokuang chairman Chen Bao-lang (陳寶郎) told lawmakers yesterday.

The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) will continue to seek local support for a proposal to designate several coastal areas in Changhua County as national wetlands, Minister Jiang Yi-huah said Saturday.

A panel convened by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) recommended yesterday that the Kuokuang Petrochemical Project be rejected or given conditional approval.

Despite the government's push for the Kuokuang Petrochemical Development Project, one official has expressed his opposition to the project's construction at its current site in Changhua.

A habitual sex offender confessed Monday to strangling a girl to death while attempting to rape her less than two months after he completed a nine-year jail term for sexual assault and theft.