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Kyodo news summary -7-+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) TOKYO, Oct. 17_(Kyodo) _ ---------- Gov't submits bill on new law for refueling mission to Diet
TOKYO - The government endorsed at a Cabinet meeting and immediately submitted to the Diet on Wednesday a contentious bill for a new law to continue providing refueling support in the Indian Ocean for U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in and near Afghanistan.
Passing the bill represents the first major challenge for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in parliament, where the opposition camp is staunchly against the mission.
---------- Vietnam, Libya, Burkina Faso among new UNSC members
NEW YORK - Vietnam and Libya, which had been formerly regarded as foes of the United States, were among the five new non-permanent members elected Tuesday by the General Assembly to serve out their new two-year terms beginning next January.
Vietnam, which was unopposed for the one vacant Asian seat, has never been elected to the Security Council before and will join China and Indonesia at a critical time when pressing issues, such as the handling of Myanmar, are particularly relevant to the regional players.
---------- Vietnam vows to do its utmost to fulfill new role in U.N.
HANOI - Vietnam will do its utmost to fulfill its role as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, meeting the expectations of the international community's trust, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said through state-run media on Wednesday.
Dung made the pledge in an interview with the Vietnam News Agency after the country became a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council for the 2008-2009 term, as voted for by a majority of U.N. member countries.
---------- Easier benefit applications eyed for A-bomb survivors outside Japan
TOKYO - The ruling coalition parties are set to submit a bill for a legal revision to enable survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who are now living abroad to apply for government medical benefits without coming to Japan, party members said.
"We would like to conduct thorough discussions as there is a need to create a law," said Takeo Kawamura, who heads a project team of the Liberal Democratic Party and the New Komeito party, at a meeting of the team Wednesday.
---------- Thailand expects no obstacle to sign ASEAN Charter next month
BANGKOK - Thailand's military-installed government remains committed to ensure parliament will allow Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont to sign an ASEAN Charter in a summit next month, a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman said Wednesday.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will submit the draft of the ASEAN Charter to the Cabinet for consideration Oct. 22. We hope the Cabinet will approve and forward it to the National Legislative Assembly for further approval in time for the signing scheduled for Nov. 20," Piriya Khempon, director general of the Information Department, said at a press conference.
---------- U.N. envoy seeks to visit Myanmar again before mid-Nov.
KUALA LUMPUR - U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari said Wednesday he is negotiating with Myanmar's military government for an early second visit and he wants ASEAN to continue engaging Myanmar toward national reconciliation and democracy.
"I have confirmed an invitation from authorities in Myanmar to visit by mid-November. I intend to honor that invitation. We are right now talking of the possibility of going even a bit earlier," Gambari told a press conference at the end of his overnight visit to the Malaysian capital.
---------- Beijing says its ordination of bishops saved church in China
HONG KONG - The Vatican should thank China for its independent ordination of bishops because otherwise the Catholic faith would have gone extinct in the country, the head of China's religious affairs said Wednesday.
Hong Kong's Cable TV reported that Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs, said China has ordained without the Vatican's approval more than 100 bishops in the past 50 years so that the Catholic faith would continue to exist in the country.
---------- Consultancy group raided over China poison gas disposal projects
TOKYO - Prosecutors searched locations related to a Tokyo-based consultancy firm Wednesday over alleged accounting irregularities connected to government projects to dispose of weapons abandoned in China by the Imperial Japanese Army before and after the end of World War II.
The prosecutors suspect about 100 million yen is unaccounted for in connection with projects awarded to a group of companies of Pacific Consultants International, investigative sources said.
---------- Wanted Chinese woman nabbed over murder case in Osaka
OSAKA - Police have arrested an internationally wanted Chinese woman in Tokyo on suspicion of murdering a Japanese man and pretending the dead man was her missing husband in an alleged attempt to inherit the husband's assets, police sources said Wednesday.
Yin Lina, 51, had been on Interpol's wanted list since January 2003 after allegedly killing Akira Kondo, 69, in Ishikawa Prefecture in February 2002.
---------- 170 kg of ephedrine seized at Narita, largest in single case
NARITA, Japan - Three Mexican men have been arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle about 170 kilograms of ephedrine, a material for producing stimulants, through Narita airport, the largest amount confiscated in a single case in Japan, police and the health ministry said Wednesday.
Police investigators said it is the second time that a law aimed at cracking down on trafficking of banned goods during airport transits has been applied in arresting alleged drug smugglers since its introduction in 2000. The first case involved the seizure of heroin at Narita airport in 2003.
Copyright 2007 Kyodo News International, Inc.
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