TMCnet News
Kyodo news summary -6-+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, April 8_(Kyodo) _ ---------- Singapore's general election expected by early May SINGAPORE - Singapore's next general election could be held as early as the first week of May, according to hints by top government officials and local media reports. Although Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has until the middle of next year to call a general election, he has apparently decided to go for early polls to ride on the back of a strong economy, which grew 6.4 percent last year. ---------- Majority of poll respondents expect Abe to replace Koizumi TOKYO - A majority of respondents to a Kyodo News survey say they expect Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe to replace Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi when the ruling Liberal Democratic Party elects a new leader in September, results showed Saturday. The survey, responded to by 1,018 people, found that 51.9 percent named Abe as the most appropriate person to succeed Koizumi, followed by Yasuo Fukuda, former chief cabinet secretary, who garnered 22.1 percent support, a sharp increase from a similar survey last year. ---------- Nepalese police fire on protesters, killing at least 1 KATHMANDU - Nepalese army soldiers opened fire at a crowd of protesters, killing one person, in the western town of Pokhara on Saturday, while rallies to demand King Gynendra return power to the people were held in at least a dozen other cities, according to reports reaching the capital Kathmandu. The shooting came after Nepal's king-led government earlier Saturday imposed a daylong curfew in Kathmandu and adjoining cities to thwart plans by political parties to hold a massive anti-monarchy protest to commemorate the pro-democracy movement of 1990. ---------- 6-way negotiators may meet in Tokyo on forum sidelines TOKYO - Chief negotiators to the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs appear set to gather in Tokyo early next week, as delegates started arriving in Japan, some of them to attend a security conference from Sunday. North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, the country's chief delegate, told reporters in Tokyo on Saturday, "We have decided to actively contact (officials from other countries) bilaterally and multilaterally for the advancement of six-party talks." ---------- Grandmother of Papuan girl asks Australia to return her home JAKARTA - The grandmother of a 4-year-old girl who was among 42 asylum seekers from Indonesia's troubled province of Papua allowed to stay in Australia demanded on Saturday that Canberra return her granddaughter home. In a tearful conversation with the Jakarta-based private radio station Elshinta, Persila Wanggai said she had been living with her granddaughter Anike for the past two years and her son Yunus, who is planning divorce from his wife, took her to Australia without her consent. ---------- China pledges $600 million in grants, loans for Cambodia PHNOM PENH - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Saturday that China will provide some $600 million in loans and grants to Cambodia, a Cambodian government official said. Sry Thamarong, an adviser to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, said the aid pledge was made during talks between the two premiers in Phnom Penh. ---------- Car bursts through fence into Kobe Airport, driver arrested KOBE - A 28-year-old man was arrested Saturday after bursting through a fence at Kobe Airport in a sports utility vehicle and intruding onto the aircraft parking apron, police said. He then proceeded to make a series of sudden starts and stops around the parked aircraft for about 10 minutes before he was arrested by police officers. ---------- U.N. shifts to recovery, reconstruction for Pakistani quake victims NEW YORK - Six months after a devastating earthquake shook Pakistan, destroying countless villages and hamlets, the United Nations is shifting focus to recovery and reconstruction efforts after implementing relief measures, officials said Saturday. Many measures have been taken to prevent a second wave of death in the aftermath. These have included vaccinating more than 1 million children against measles, preventing epidemics and restoring safe water, as well as providing more than 500,000 tents and 6 million blankets. ---------- Okinawa governor reiterates opposition to base relocation plan TOKYO - Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine reiterated Saturday his opposition to a plan to build a U.S. military airfield on land and landfills in the northern Okinawa city of Nago but said he will continue talks with the central government. Inamine said he conveyed his position to Defense Agency Director General Fukushiro Nukaga in a two-and-a-half-hour meeting in Tokyo, a day after Nago's mayor signed an agreement with Nukaga accepting a revised plan to build two runways at the site to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station from downtown Ginowan. ---------- N. Korea considers imposition of land tax: sources BEIJING - North Korea has formulated draft legislation that effectively calls for taxing land use by enterprises and factories, according to multiple sources familiar with China-North Korea relations. The sources said a real estate bill was drawn up in early January, the same month that top leader Kim Jong Il visited China to observe the results of that country's economic reforms and seemingly to get ideas for North Korea's own reforms as it gradually moves toward a market economy. |