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Tens of thousands protest against German nuclear plan
Tens of thousands demonstrated in Berlin Saturday against the government's proposal to extend the life of Germany's nuclear power plants for another decade or more.
Waving banners and yellow and green balloons marked with the slogans of the anti-nuclear movement, they turned out in force to protest outside Chancellor Angela Merkel's headquarters.
The organizers -- environmental groups backed by left-leaning opposition parties -- put their numbers at 100,000, though police made it 37,000.
Special trains and 150 buses had been chartered to bring the demonstrators to Berlin from all over Germany.
Merkel's center-right coalition agreed last weekend to lift the deadline of 2022 for the phasing out of nuclear power set by an earlier Social Democrat-led government.
The new plan would extend the lifetime of Germany's 17 nuclear reactors for an average of 12 years beyond the previously scheduled shutdown.