Japan, US agree on need for verifying framework

Japan and the United States have agreed on the need to create a framework for closely verifying North Korea's nuclear programs through the 6-party talks.
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and US President George W Bush talked over the telephone on Saturday night before the United States took the North off its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Bush said the United States will continue efforts to get North Korea to abandon all of its existing nuclear programs.
Aso said Japan wants to closely cooperate with the United States at the 6-nation talks.
Bush said he has strong feelings about the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korea. He said he has deep sympathy for the abductees' families and conveys his sincere hope to resolve the issue.
The Japanese government plans to work more closely with the United States and other nations concerned to step up pressure on the North so that the abductions issue will not be left unresolved.
2008/10/12 12:12
(From NHK)

Melamine found in animal feed in China

China has announced that the industrial chemical melamine has been detected in animal feed. Three companies are now under investigation.

Following the discovery of melamine-tainted milk products in China, the Chinese Agriculture Ministry has mobilized 40,000 people to investigate animal feed throughout the country.

The investigators found that three firms illegally added melamine to animal feed they produce. Police are now investigating the three firms.

These firms may have added melamine to animal feed to make the nutrition data look better, just as happened for tainted milk products.

Last year, when dogs and cats died in the United States after eating Chinese-made pet food containing melamine, China's government explained that this was an extraordinary case involving just 2 companies.

The discovery of melamine in animal feed in China suggests how widely the industrial chemical has been used in that country.
2008/10/05 15:38

(From NHK)

White House unveils $700 bil bailout plan

The White House has drawn up a bailout plan of an unprecedented scale for the troubled US financial sector.
The Wall Street Journal and other US media reported on Saturday, that the Bush administration plans to spend 700 billion taxpayer dollars over the next 2 years, to buy up bad assets from financial institutions. The plan also includes the creation of a new government entity for this purpose.
The administration has entered in negotiations with Congress over this scheme.
The planned infusion is aimed at bringing the ongoing financial turmoil under control by taking non-performing mortgage-related assets off the balance sheets of the financial institutions. The value of such assets has plummeted following the collapse of the housing bubble. The White House is hoping to win passage of related bills before Congress enters a recess on Friday, ahead of the November 4th presidential election.
If realized, the bailout would be the largest of its kind since the Great Depression.
2008/09/21 10:40
(From NHK)

Tokyo stocks plunge in early Tuesday trading

Tokyo stock prices plunged across the board Tuesday morning in the wake of Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange opened with investors selling a wide range of issues, following a sharp drop in share prices in New York on Monday. The yen's rise against the dollar was also a factor.

The benchmark Nikkei average of 225 selected issues ended the morning session at 11,596, down 618 points from Friday's close. Japanese markets were closed on Monday for a national holiday.

The Nikkei index dipped below 12,000 points for the first time in 6 months, with shares trading at their lowest levels in over 3 years.

The broader TOPIX index of all first section issues was down 66 points, to 1,110.

The sell-off was triggered by concerns that the financial turmoil originating in the United States will worsen.

Market watchers say the deteriorating performance of US financial institutions will likely lead to a further slowdown of the US economy and that of the world.

2008/09/16 12:02

(From NHK)

Unidentified submarine spotted near Japan

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Japan was searching Sunday for an unidentified foreign submarine detected in its territorial waters earlier in the day, the Defense Ministry said.
The Aegis destroyer Atago of Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force spotted what it determined to be a periscope of an unknown submarine between Kyushu and Shikoku islands in western Japan, the ministry said.
By the time officials confirmed that the submarine was not a U.S. or Japanese vessel, it had left the area, it said.
Officials dispatched the Atago as well as P-3C patrol airplanes to look for the submarine, the ministry said in a statement.
"We need to do our utmost to track down the submarine and get to the bottom of the incident," Defense Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi was quoted by Kyodo News agency as saying.
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, foreign submarines and other underwater vehicles are "required to navigate on the surface and to show their flag" in territorial waters during peacetime.
In November 2004, a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine entered Japanese territorial waters near the southern island of Okinawa and ignored Japanese orders for it to surface. The incident escalated already stormy relations with China at the time, stirring up fear in Japan over China's military.
That submarine's presence prompted the Maritime Self-Defense Force to go on alert for the second time since World War II.
Hayashi said Sunday's incident was not serious enough to call for similar security operations, according to Kyodo.

(From CNN)

Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy

The US investment bank Lehman Brothers says it is filing for bankruptcy protection.The 4th largest investment bank in the US said on Monday that it will file for bankruptcy protection with a Federal court in New York.Lehman is the first major US investment bank to go under since the subprime loan crisis emerged last year.Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, other top US financial officials and private institutions had been discussing how to keep Lehman afloat. They met after the bad news about Lehman shook global credit markets last week.But none of the financial institutions involved in the talks said they would acquire Lehman Brothers without splitting it.The collapse of the once highly profitable firm has revealed the seriousness of the financial crisis triggered by the subprime loan problem.
2008/09/15 14:55

(From NHK)

US researchers confirm BSE-linked mutation

A group of US researchers has found the first case of mad cow disease which was caused by genetic mutation.A research group of the US Department of Agriculture released the finding in the Public Library of Science journal PloS Pathogens on Friday.The group examined a 10-year-old cow in Alabama that had mad cow disease, or BSE, and found a genetic mutation of the prion protein that causes BSE.The researchers say the pattern of the genetic mutation is similar to that found in patients who contracted brain-destroying Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.It is widely known that BSE arises by eating feed containing the prion protein, but this is the first time that genetic mutation has been identified as another cause of the disease.The research group says the rate of genetic occurrence of BSE is very low. However, the report is expected to raise controversy on preventive measures as it suggests that it is hard to completely control BSE only by removing contaminated feed.

(From NHK)

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