[One-Minute World News] from [BBC NEWS]
[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 07:10 GMT, Thursday, 10 September 2009 08:10 UK
Japan town continues dolphin hunt
A Japanese coastal town has gone ahead with its annual dolphin hunt, despite protests from animal rights activists.
Fishermen in Taiji caught about 100 bottlenose dolphins and 50 pilot whales - their first catch since the fishing season began on 1 September.
But in what appears to be a concession to international opinion, some of the dolphins will be released rather than killed and sold for meat.
The dolphin hunt was criticised in the recent award-winning film The Cove.
After the film's release earlier this year, the Australian coastal city of Broome ended its sister-city relationship with Taiji.
Way of life
Of the 100 dolphins caught in the hunt, 50 will be sold to aquariums nationwide and the rest will be returned to the ocean, officials from Wakayama prefecture said.
The whale meat will be sold for human consumption.
Hunting dolphins and small whales is legal under the terms of the International Whaling Commission's ban on commercial whaling, but many activists still object to the practice.
Dolphin and whale meat is seen as a delicacy in Japan, and Taiji residents say they have killed them for hundreds of years as part of their fishing lifestyle.
[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 11:16 GMT, Thursday, 10 September 2009 12:16 UK
Japan death row 'breeds insanity'
Prisoners on death row in Japan are being driven towards insanity by harsh conditions, according to human rights group Amnesty International.
{Criminal trials in Japan have more than a 99% conviction rate}
The group is calling for an immediate moratorium on all further executions and for police interrogation reform.
A total of 102 prisoners face execution in Japan. Many of them are elderly and have spent decades in near isolation.
International human rights standards prohibit the imposition of the death penalty on the mentally ill.
In Japan, where criminal trials have a 99% conviction rate, the death penalty has wide public support.
But Amnesty's UK director Kate Allen called on the government to immediately halt executions.
"Rather than persist with a shameful capital punishment system, the new Japanese government should immediately impose a moratorium on all further executions," she said.
Ms Allen called the death-row system a "regime of silence, isolation and sheer non-existence".
She said that the Japanese practice of informing prisoners that they would be killed with only a few hours notice was "utterly cruel".
Isolation
According to the report - which researchers said had been challenging to compile due to the secrecy of the country's justice system - the conditions faced by many death row prisoners are making them mentally ill.
{ JAPANESE EXECUTIONS
102 prisoners currently on death row
15 people executed last year
Hakamada Iwao has been on death row for more than 40 years
According to Amnesty, some death row prisoners have no visitors for years}
Death row prisoners, according to Amnesty, are not allowed to speak to other inmates and are held in isolation.
Apart from twice or thrice-weekly exercise sessions, they are not even allowed to move around their cells but must remain seated, the group says.
As a result, many are now suffering from mental illnesses and are delusional.
According to Japan's code of criminal procedure, if a person condemned to death is in a state of insanity, the execution shall be stayed by the justice minister.
But, Amnesty says, executions of inmates who exhibit signs of mental illness - caused by the extreme conditions and the sheer length of their detention - continue.
Between January 2006 and January 2009, the group says, 32 men were executed - including 17 who were older than 60. Five of this group were in their seventies, making them among the oldest executed prisoners in the world.
[Business]
Page last updated at 06:46 GMT, Thursday, 10 September 2009 07:46 UK
Australia agrees $60bn gas deal
US oil firm Chevron has signed $60bn (£36bn) worth of deals to supply natural gas to Japan and South Korea from its Gorgon project in Australia.
Chevron Australia said it would supply Osaka Gas with 1.375 million tonnes of natural gas a year over 25 years.
Tokyo Gas would receive 1.1 million tonnes and South Korea's GS Caltex would get 0.5 million tonnes.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described the deals as a "shot in the arm" for the Australian economy.
Last month, PetroChina signed a deal to buy $50bn worth of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Gorgon - the largest trade deal in Australia's history.
Separately, India's Petronet signed a $25m deal.
Controversial site
Mr Rudd said the latest deals "will deliver in the order of A$70bn worth of exports to Australia over the next 25 years".
He told parliament it had been a "great month" for Australia's LNG export industry.
"These are massive projects that will generate economic growth, income, jobs and prosperity for the nation for decades to come.''
The yet-to-be-developed Gorgon gas field on Barrow Island off western Australia is expected to generate 6,000 jobs and make Australia a leading LNG supplier in the region.
But the A$50bn ($42bn; £25.6bn) project has met opposition from environmentalists as Barrow Island is home to a number of endangered, rare and endemic species.
Chevron and its partners in the project, Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil, are expected to give the go ahead for production in the coming weeks.
[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 09:39 GMT, Thursday, 10 September 2009 10:39 UK
Samoans stranded in road switch
Samoans reliant on bus travel have been stranded by the country's switch earlier this week to driving on the left of the road instead of the right.
{Bus owners are angry they will have to convert their vehicles}
All but about 18 of the Pacific island nation's buses are banned from driving because their doors now open onto the middle of the road.
Bus operators want state aid to modify their vehicles, but talks with the prime minister have so far failed.
Samoa is the first country to make such a change since the 1970s.
Reports from Samoa said there had been no accidents since the switch on Monday, despite widespread predictions of road mayhem from opponents.
Before the switchover, bus drivers had been reluctant to go to the expense of converting their vehicles.
"A few of the bus owners did not believe that we would proceed [with the change]," Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said after meeting a group of them on Wednesday.
He said was considering a request to grant them an extension of three to six months, so they could continue driving while completing the necessary modifications.
He said he would give an answer to their request on Thursday.
The Samoan government introduced the change to end its reliance on expensive, left-hand-drive imports from America.
It hopes that the large Samoan expatriate communities in Australia and New Zealand will now ship used, more affordable vehicles back to their homeland.
The change will also allow imports of used cars from Japan and Singapore.
[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 07:10 GMT, Thursday, 10 September 2009 08:10 UK
Japan town continues dolphin hunt
A Japanese coastal town has gone ahead with its annual dolphin hunt, despite protests from animal rights activists.
Fishermen in Taiji caught about 100 bottlenose dolphins and 50 pilot whales - their first catch since the fishing season began on 1 September.
But in what appears to be a concession to international opinion, some of the dolphins will be released rather than killed and sold for meat.
The dolphin hunt was criticised in the recent award-winning film The Cove.
After the film's release earlier this year, the Australian coastal city of Broome ended its sister-city relationship with Taiji.
Way of life
Of the 100 dolphins caught in the hunt, 50 will be sold to aquariums nationwide and the rest will be returned to the ocean, officials from Wakayama prefecture said.
The whale meat will be sold for human consumption.
Hunting dolphins and small whales is legal under the terms of the International Whaling Commission's ban on commercial whaling, but many activists still object to the practice.
Dolphin and whale meat is seen as a delicacy in Japan, and Taiji residents say they have killed them for hundreds of years as part of their fishing lifestyle.
[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 11:16 GMT, Thursday, 10 September 2009 12:16 UK
Japan death row 'breeds insanity'
Prisoners on death row in Japan are being driven towards insanity by harsh conditions, according to human rights group Amnesty International.
{Criminal trials in Japan have more than a 99% conviction rate}
The group is calling for an immediate moratorium on all further executions and for police interrogation reform.
A total of 102 prisoners face execution in Japan. Many of them are elderly and have spent decades in near isolation.
International human rights standards prohibit the imposition of the death penalty on the mentally ill.
In Japan, where criminal trials have a 99% conviction rate, the death penalty has wide public support.
But Amnesty's UK director Kate Allen called on the government to immediately halt executions.
"Rather than persist with a shameful capital punishment system, the new Japanese government should immediately impose a moratorium on all further executions," she said.
Ms Allen called the death-row system a "regime of silence, isolation and sheer non-existence".
She said that the Japanese practice of informing prisoners that they would be killed with only a few hours notice was "utterly cruel".
Isolation
According to the report - which researchers said had been challenging to compile due to the secrecy of the country's justice system - the conditions faced by many death row prisoners are making them mentally ill.
{ JAPANESE EXECUTIONS
102 prisoners currently on death row
15 people executed last year
Hakamada Iwao has been on death row for more than 40 years
According to Amnesty, some death row prisoners have no visitors for years}
Death row prisoners, according to Amnesty, are not allowed to speak to other inmates and are held in isolation.
Apart from twice or thrice-weekly exercise sessions, they are not even allowed to move around their cells but must remain seated, the group says.
As a result, many are now suffering from mental illnesses and are delusional.
According to Japan's code of criminal procedure, if a person condemned to death is in a state of insanity, the execution shall be stayed by the justice minister.
But, Amnesty says, executions of inmates who exhibit signs of mental illness - caused by the extreme conditions and the sheer length of their detention - continue.
Between January 2006 and January 2009, the group says, 32 men were executed - including 17 who were older than 60. Five of this group were in their seventies, making them among the oldest executed prisoners in the world.
[Business]
Page last updated at 06:46 GMT, Thursday, 10 September 2009 07:46 UK
Australia agrees $60bn gas deal
US oil firm Chevron has signed $60bn (£36bn) worth of deals to supply natural gas to Japan and South Korea from its Gorgon project in Australia.
Chevron Australia said it would supply Osaka Gas with 1.375 million tonnes of natural gas a year over 25 years.
Tokyo Gas would receive 1.1 million tonnes and South Korea's GS Caltex would get 0.5 million tonnes.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described the deals as a "shot in the arm" for the Australian economy.
Last month, PetroChina signed a deal to buy $50bn worth of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Gorgon - the largest trade deal in Australia's history.
Separately, India's Petronet signed a $25m deal.
Controversial site
Mr Rudd said the latest deals "will deliver in the order of A$70bn worth of exports to Australia over the next 25 years".
He told parliament it had been a "great month" for Australia's LNG export industry.
"These are massive projects that will generate economic growth, income, jobs and prosperity for the nation for decades to come.''
The yet-to-be-developed Gorgon gas field on Barrow Island off western Australia is expected to generate 6,000 jobs and make Australia a leading LNG supplier in the region.
But the A$50bn ($42bn; £25.6bn) project has met opposition from environmentalists as Barrow Island is home to a number of endangered, rare and endemic species.
Chevron and its partners in the project, Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil, are expected to give the go ahead for production in the coming weeks.
[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 09:39 GMT, Thursday, 10 September 2009 10:39 UK
Samoans stranded in road switch
Samoans reliant on bus travel have been stranded by the country's switch earlier this week to driving on the left of the road instead of the right.
{Bus owners are angry they will have to convert their vehicles}
All but about 18 of the Pacific island nation's buses are banned from driving because their doors now open onto the middle of the road.
Bus operators want state aid to modify their vehicles, but talks with the prime minister have so far failed.
Samoa is the first country to make such a change since the 1970s.
Reports from Samoa said there had been no accidents since the switch on Monday, despite widespread predictions of road mayhem from opponents.
Before the switchover, bus drivers had been reluctant to go to the expense of converting their vehicles.
"A few of the bus owners did not believe that we would proceed [with the change]," Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said after meeting a group of them on Wednesday.
He said was considering a request to grant them an extension of three to six months, so they could continue driving while completing the necessary modifications.
He said he would give an answer to their request on Thursday.
The Samoan government introduced the change to end its reliance on expensive, left-hand-drive imports from America.
It hopes that the large Samoan expatriate communities in Australia and New Zealand will now ship used, more affordable vehicles back to their homeland.
The change will also allow imports of used cars from Japan and Singapore.
※コメント投稿者のブログIDはブログ作成者のみに通知されます