TMCnet News
Kyodo news summary -3-+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, April 20_(Kyodo) _ ---------- S. Korea summons Japan envoy to protest maritime survey SEOUL - South Korea's Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki Moon summoned Japanese Ambassador to Seoul Shotaro Oshima on Thursday to reaffirm that South Korea will take "stern responses" if Japan conducts a maritime survey near a group of disputed islets, Ban's ministry said. Ban demanded the Japanese government immediately abandon its plan to conduct the survey near the islets, which are known as Dokdo in Korea and Takeshima in Japan. ---------- Japan holding off maritime survey seeking breakthrough with S. Korea TOKYO - Japan is putting off the start of its maritime survey around disputed islets, planned for as early as Thursday, seeking a breakthrough with South Korea through unofficial talks to head off a confrontation, government officials said. A high-ranking South Korean government official in Seoul, however, on Thursday ruled out accepting a Japanese proposal that Japan would drop its maritime survey plan if South Korea holds off from proposing a naming for the seafloor topography of the disputed isles at an international conference scheduled for June in Germany. ---------- Damage from China's anti-Japan protests totals 77 mil. yen TOKYO - Japanese diplomatic missions in China and Japanese-owned businesses operating there suffered a total 77 million yen worth of damage from massive anti-Japan demonstrations a year ago, a senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official said Thursday. Kunio Umeda, deputy director general of the ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, said during a session of the House of Councillors Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that about 60 million yen worth of damage is estimated to have been caused to the buildings of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, and the ambassador's residence and the Consulate General in Shanghai. ---------- AIDS patients demand support from Shanghai medicine seller BEIJING - A group of hemophiliacs from around China are gathering in Shanghai this week to demand help from a factory they charge sold them banned medicine that led to AIDS, a group leader said Thursday. About 40 patients and family members representing about 100 people who contracted HIV/AIDS and hepatitis from Factor 8 hemophilia medication in the mid-1990s reached Shanghai on Sunday. ---------- Japan team finds 100 new geoglyphs in Peru's Nasca YAMAGATA, Japan - A team of Japanese researchers said Thursday that it has discovered about 100 new geoglyphs on Peru's Nasca plateau, which is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its gigantic lines and geoglyphs. The team, led by Masato Sakai, assistant professor at Yamagata University's faculty of literature and social sciences, said they first found the new geoglyphs by analyzing photos of the Nasca plateau taken by a commercial U.S. satellite. ---------- Royal Opera House Belgium director Ono to resign in 2008 BRUSSELS - Kazushi Ono, the music director for the Royal Opera House Belgium, or De Munt La Monnaie, in Brussels, will step down in August 2008, the opera house said Wednesday. British conductor Mark Wigglesworth will replace him, it said. Ono will continue performing there as a guest conductor. |