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

[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 07:25 GMT, Wednesday, 26 August 2009 08:25 UK
Korea family talks set to resume
Red Cross officials from South Korea have crossed into the North for talks which could allow families divided by the border to begin meeting again.

The reunions have been suspended for almost two years, because of the worsening ties between the two nations.

This new round of negotiations reflects a recent improvement in relations between the two sides.

If the three-day talks are successful, family meetings could resume as early as October.

The BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul says that for hundreds of thousands of Koreans, separated from their relatives by war in the 1950s, time is running out.

The North and South are still technically at war, as a peace treaty was never concluded at the end the inter-Korean conflict.

Limited numbers

The talks are being held in the North Korean resort of Mount Kumgang.
"Since it is a meeting being held after a year and nine months, the main topic is the dispersed family issue," chief South Korean delegate Kim Young-chol said.

Even if talks are successful, it is likely that only a fraction of those families on the waiting list will be able to see their relatives in the highly emotional but all-too-brief meetings, our correspondent says.

Only about 100 families from the 100,000 or so searching for their relatives are likely to be involved.

In the early part of the decade about 16,000 families were briefly reunited.

The countries regularly held Red Cross talks to discuss family reunions and other humanitarian issues until late 2007.

However the reunions were stopped after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in February 2008 amid North Korean anger at his policy of ending unconditional aid handouts.

He has tied a resumption of aid to progress on North Korean nuclear disarmament.

But in recent weeks, tensions have thawed slightly between the two neighbours.

Last week, Northern officials attended the funeral of South Korea's ex-President Kim Dae-jung.

US former President Bill Clinton also had talks in the North, where he secured the release of two American journalists.

North Korea also announced this month it will ease restrictions on cross-border traffic imposed last year amid the rising tension.


[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 08:40 GMT, Wednesday, 26 August 2009 09:40 UK
Australia island gas deal sealed
Australia has given final approval for a huge natural gas project to be built on an island nature reserve off west Australia.

The project on Barrow Island will be run by US oil firm Chevron, and partners Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil, and will supply gas to China.

The companies have agreed to protect the local fauna, especially turtles.

However, environmentalists have criticised the A$50bn ($42bn; £25.6bn) project, known as the Gorgon gas field.

Barrow Island is home to a number of endangered, rare and endemic species, including the Barrow Island mouse and the flatback turtle.

Exxon Mobil earlier signed a $41.8m deal to export gas from its share of the project to PetroChina over 20 years.

The deal, to sell 2.25 million tonnes of gas over two decades, is the biggest resources deal in Australia's history.

It comes at a time of tension with China, Australia's biggest export market, over the arrest of an Australian Rio Tinto mining executive for alleged commercial espionage.

Environment Minister Peter Garrett said he was aware of both the economic size of this proposal, but also its potential environmental impact.

"The conditions I have placed on this proposal will make sure that there is no significant [environmental] impact," Mr Garrett said in Canberra.

"Barrow Island has been the location of industrial activities for some decades," he added, saying he had imposed 28 environmental conditions.

But Green politicians reacted angrily to the decision, saying Mr Garrett was signing off on the destruction of a unique environment.

"No environmental conditions can protect the environment of this island," Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said.

"And it is a nonsense for Minister Garrett to hide behind such conditions. It is inevitable that the island will be degraded."


[UK Business]
Page last updated at 11:23 GMT, Wednesday, 26 August 2009 12:23 UK
New high-speed rail plan unveiled
Network Rail has proposed a new £34bn ($55bn) high-speed railway line linking Scotland and London by 2030.

The line will serve Birmingham and Manchester, getting passengers from Glasgow to London in just two hours and 16 minutes, the rail firm said.

It rejected several alternative routes, including the east of England.

The proposed new High Speed 2 line will still need to be approved by the government, which is conducting its own rail network review.

The new line would become the country's second high-speed rail link after the line that runs from London St Pancras to the Channel Tunnel, run by the Eurostar service and connecting to high-speed lines in continental Europe.

New line

Network Rail's proposed new line linking Glasgow and Edinburgh with London, on which trains could travel as fast as 200mph, will also serve Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham.

{ JOURNEY TIMES FROM LONDON
Birmingham: 45mins, down from 1h 22mins
Liverpool: 1hr 23mins, down from 2hrs 8mins
Manchester: 1hr 6mins, down from 2hrs 7mins
Edinburgh: 2hrs 9mins, down from 4hrs 23mins
Glasgow: 2hrs 16mins, down from 4hrs 10 mins
Source: Network Rail}

It would cut travelling between London and Birmingham to 45 minutes, from a best time of one hour and 22 minutes currently.

Rail passengers would also be able to get to Liverpool in one hour and 23 minutes, from two hours and eight minutes now.

Network Rail, the company that runs Britain's rail infrastructure, said the new line would require more than 1,500 miles of rail, sleepers and ballast, as well as 138 bridges over roads and current railway lines.

Network Rail says the new line is required to ease the pressure on Britain's railways. It says passenger numbers have rocketed by 40% over the past decade, and that by 2024, many existing lines will be at full capacity.

Transport Secretary Lord Adonis told the BBC that high-speed links were vital for the future.

"This report makes a powerful case for high-speed rail in Britain," he said.

Lord Adonis said the company set up by the government to prepare a high-speed rail plan will take "full account" of the proposals and deliver a report by the end of the year.

Currently, the route proposal will be between London and the West Midlands, with options to extend the line to Scotland and the north of England.

Alternative options

The Conservatives' shadow transport secretary, Theresa Villiers, welcomed the announcement.

"Today's announcement provides further evidence that we need to take high speed rail to the north," she said.

"Unlike Labour, our high speed rail ambitions go north of Birmingham and we call on the Government to match our commitment."

Network Rail said it had rejected routes that would have taken the new line via Leeds and Newcastle upon Tyne, as well as a route that included Leicester and Sheffield and another option through Bristol and Cardiff.

It based its decision on a 12-month study involving 20,000 hours of work and more than 1,500 pages of analysis.

The firm said that the line would account for 43.7 million journeys per year by 2030, which would result in 3.8 million fewer vehicle journeys and fewer carbon dioxide emissions.

"If, as research suggests, up to three times as many passengers will be travelling on our railways by 2020, then it is important that we move quickly in planning today for the rail network of tomorrow," said Scotland's Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson.