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[One-Minute World News] from [BBC NEWS]

[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 11:10 GMT, Friday, 28 August 2009 12:10 UK
Japan jobless rate hits new high
Japan's jobless rate hit a record 5.7% in July and consumer prices fell at a record pace, figures released days before a general election have shown.
By Roland Buerk
BBC News, Tokyo

Companies are continuing to lay off workers even though the economy has returned to growth after the most bruising recession for decades.

The state of Japan's economy is the key issue in the election campaign.

Opinion polls show that the governing Liberal Democratic Party faces defeat in the election.

It has held power for 53 of the past 54 years.

Recovery doubts

In July, 3,590,000 Japanese were out of work in July, over a million more than a year ago.

Japan's economy grew by 0.9% between April and June, but the latest figures cast doubt on the strength of the recovery.

"The recent growth was mainly due to government spending and was not a self-sustaining recovery in the Japanese economy," said Hiroshi Watanabe at Mizuho Investors Securties.

"We're unlikely to see a swift recovery for the time being," he added.

News that the unemployment rate has risen to the highest since World War II is a blow for the Prime Minister Taro Aso.

Opinion polls show his Liberal Democratic Party was already on course for defeat on Sunday for only the second time in more than 50 years.

'Deflationary pressure'

Other figures released in Tokyo show core consumer prices fell by 2.2% in July from a year earlier, the fastest pace on record.

And analysts expect prices to fall further.

"Domestic demand is pretty weak. We expect deflationary pressure to increase," said Naoko Ogata at the Japan Research Institute.

Japan is particularly sensitive to falling prices.

The country was stuck in a deflationary spiral for years after an asset price bubble burst at the start of the 1990s.

Shoppers put off purchases in the expectation of prices falling further, causing the economy to stagnate.


[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 10:28 GMT, Thursday, 27 August 2009 11:28 UK
Australia discovers new dinosaur
Australian palaeontologists say they have discovered a new species of dinosaur on a sheep farm in the northern state of Queensland.

The fossil remains of the large plant-eating sauropod, nicknamed Zac, are about 97 million years old.

They were found near the town of Eromanga, in a fossil-rich area that was once covered by a vast inland sea.

Palaeontologists say the find confirms Australia's importance as a centre for dinosaur discovery.

The country's largest dinosaur, Cooper, was found on the same sheep farm in 2004.

Cooper was almost 30 metres long and was a new species of titanosaur - enormous, armour-plated creatures.

'Dinosaur rush'

Queensland Museum palaeontologist Scott Hocknull said Zac's skeleton was smaller than Cooper's, but more complete.

Zac, in common with other sauropods, had a very long neck, a small head and blunt teeth, and a long tail to counter-balance the neck.

Mr Hocknull said the find was part of a new "dinosaur rush" in Australia.
"We have got dinosaurs coming out of all parts of Queensland, and so Australia is really becoming this centre for dinosaur discovery."

He said much of Zac's remains were sticking out of the ground, but there are further excavations planned in this dinosaur-rich area.

"There will be hundreds of skeletons underneath the ground. The bone beds are so dense, you can hardly move for a dinosaur bone."

Three new dinosaur species were found in the same area earlier this year, all dating to the same period as Zac - about 100 million years ago in the Early Cretaceous period.

[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 13:32 GMT, Wednesday, 26 August 2009 14:32 UK
China admits death row organ use
China is trying to move away from the use of executed prisoners as the major source of organs for transplants.

According to the China Daily newspaper, executed prisoners currently provide two-thirds of all transplant organs.

The government is now launching a voluntary donation scheme, which it hopes will also curb the illegal trafficking in organs.

But analysts say cultural bias against removing organs after death will make a voluntary scheme hard to implement.

Thriving black market

About 1.5 million people in China need transplants, but only about 10,000 operations are performed annually, according to the health ministry.

The scarcity of available organs has led to a thriving black market in trafficked organs, and in an effort to stop this the government passed a law in 2007 banning trafficking as well as the donation of organs to unrelated recipients.

But in practice, illegal transplants - some from living donors - are still frequently reported by the media and the Ministry of Health.

Human rights groups have often criticised China for its lack of transparency over organ donation, but critics have focused particular concern on the use of body parts from executed prisoners.

In a rare admission of the extent to which this takes place, China Daily - citing unnamed experts - said on Wednesday that more than 65% of organ donations come from death row prisoners.

China executes more people than any other country. Amnesty International said at least 1,718 people were given the death penalty in 2008.

The China Daily quoted Vice-Health Minister Huang Jiefu as saying that condemned prisoners were "definitely not a proper source for organ transplants".

The new scheme is therefore designed to reduce the reliance on death row inmates, as well as regulating the industry by combating the illegal trafficking of organs.

The system will be piloted in 10 provinces and cities, and a fund will be started to provide financial aid to donors' families.