TMCnet News
Kyodo news summary -4-+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, Feb. 20_(Kyodo) _ ---------- Nakagawa tells Koizumi U.S. beef probe report insufficient TOKYO - Farm minister Shoichi Nakagawa said Monday he reported to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that a U.S investigative report on a U.S. shipment of beef to Japan that contained banned material last month is insufficient. "I reported that the contents (of the report) are insufficient for the Japanese side," Nakagawa told reporters after talking with Koizumi. ---------- S. Korea names new chief delegate to 6-party talks SEOUL - South Korea on Monday named Deputy Foreign Minister Chun Young Woo as the country's new chief delegate to the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program, a statement from the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry said. Chun, who is currently in charge of publicizing the ministry's policies, is to replace Song Min Soon, who has been named as chief secretary to the president for unification, foreign and security policy. ---------- Chemical spill cuts water supply for 20,000 in S.W. China BEIJING - A chemical spill in a southwestern Chinese river has halted the water supply to more than 20,000 people in Sichuan Province since last Wednesday, the state-run China Daily said Monday. The residents of the town of Guanyin have been relying on water shipped from another town following the pollution blamed on a power plant in the upper reaches of the Yuexi River, the paper said. ---------- Japan not satisfied with U.S. beef report TOKYO - Japan views the U.S. report released Friday on its probe into a shipment last month of banned bovine material and measures to prevent a recurrence as "insufficient" and plans to make a range of inquiries with Washington, farm minister Shoichi Nakagawa said Monday. It will thus take several days before Tokyo finalizes its response to the report, in which the U.S. Department of Agriculture admitted a flaw in the U.S. inspection system for beef exports to Japan and vowed to take various measures to prevent a repeat of the incident, Nakagawa said. ---------- Rescuers continue digging for survivors of Philippine landslide GUINSAUGON, Philippines - Rescuers on Monday continued searching for survivors in a farming village in the central Philippines buried by a massive landslide. The rescuers, including U.S. Marines and teams from Malaysia and Taiwan, voiced hope of finding survivors three days after the landslide despite the general assessment by disaster officials that more than 1,000 people remained buried and are feared dead. |