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

[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 03:01 GMT, Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Japan's finance minister Hirohisa Fujii urged to stay
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has said he does not want his finance minister, Hirohisa Fujii, to resign.

Earlier reports suggested Mr Fujii's resignation had been accepted.

Mr Fujii, 77, is an experienced backer of fiscal discipline. It would be a blow to Mr Hatoyama, who took office in September, if he left, analysts say.

The prime minister has promised to shift Japan to the left after half a century of conservative dominance by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Mr Fujii, who is suffering from high blood pressure, was admitted to hospital last week for tests.

He is one of only a few members of the new government with extensive previous experience of administration.

He has been seen as a champion of fiscal restraint, resisting calls from the ruling Democratic Party's (DPJ) coalition partners for more spending despite Japan's huge debt, the BBC's Roland Buerk reports from Tokyo.

The prime minister is already getting a reputation for being indecisive, and is struggling to revive Japan's frail economy and tackle the vast public debt, our correspondent says.

Mr Fujii had told reporters he was exhausted after weeks of wrangling within Japan's governing coalition to finalise the budget.

He was reported to have offered his resignation after a cabinet meeting he had left hospital to attend.

Some reports said the government had accepted Mr Fujii's resignation.

But Mr Hatoyama was quoted on Wednesday as saying that he wanted Mr Fujii to see through his work on the budget.

"But it is a question of his health, so we also have to think about the opinions of the doctors," he added.


[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 10:05 GMT, Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Anti-whaling activists accuse Japan fleet of attack
Anti-whaling activists have accused a Japanese vessel of ramming their high-tech speed boat during a confrontation in the Southern Ocean.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society says its vessel was sliced in half, but all six crew were rescued.

Earlier the campaigners - who are trying to stop Japan's whaling fleet - said they threw chemicals onto the whaling boat to prevent it being used.

The whalers said the activists tried to tangle their propeller with a rope.

'Whale war'

In recent years the two sides have regularly confronted each other in the waters around the Antarctic.

Sea Shepherd spokesman Paul Watson said the incident had turned the confrontations between the whalers and the activists into a "real whale war".

A statement on the Sea Shepherd website said a Japanese vessel that was accompanying the Nisshin Maru whaler "deliberately rammed" the Ady Gil, a high-tech speed boat that resembles a stealth bomber, shearing off its bow.

The crew of the Ady Gil, five from New Zealander and one from the Netherlands, were picked up unharmed by nearby Sea Shepherd vessel Bob Barker near Commonwealth Bay.

"The Ady Gil is believed to be sinking and chances of salvage are very grim," the Sea Shepherd statement said.

Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), which conducts the country's whale hunt, accused Sea Shepherd of using the Ady Gil to attack its vessels.

{Confrontations between whalers and activists have heated up over recent years}

They alleged the trimaran speedboat came dangerously close to the Nisshin Maru, trying to entangle its rudder and propeller with a rope and launching stink bombs at the vessel.

"The Sea Shepherd extremism is becoming more violent... Their actions are nothing but felonious behaviour," the (ICR) said in a statement.

Japan's fisheries agency said it was the fourth time this season that the anti-whaling activists had interfered with the whaling fleet's operations, Kyodo news agency reported.

The Sea Shepherd group sends boats to Antarctic waters each year to try to stop the Japanese whaling fleet hunting whales.

Japan abandoned commercial whaling in 1986 after agreeing to a global moratorium but international rules allow it to annually kill hundreds of whales under the auspices of a research programme.

Conservationists say the whaling is a cover for the sale and consumption of whale meat.


[Middle East]
Page last updated at 09:12 GMT, Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Yemen 'arrests al-Qaeda suspects' wounded in raid
Yemeni forces have arrested three suspected al-Qaeda militants who were wounded in a raid on Monday, security sources say.

They were captured at a hospital north of the capital, Sanaa. AFP news agency says they include Mohammed al-Hanq, a key local al-Qaeda leader.

The arrests came as the UK and France reopened their embassies in Yemen.

They and the US embassy had been temporarily closed in response to what was described as an al-Qaeda threat.

AFP quoted an unnamed security official saying: "Mohammed al-Hanq and two others who were wounded were captured in a hospital in Amran."

The agency said the local al-Qaeda leader was thought to be behind the security threats that had prompted the embassy closures.

Failed bomb plot

The British embassy said its public services still remained closed, and that the security situation was being assessed on a daily basis.

The US had reopened its embassy on Tuesday, saying successful counter-terrorism operations by Yemeni forces had addressed a "specific area of concern".

This was an apparent reference to Monday's raid some 25 miles (40km) north of Sanaa, in which two other suspected members of al-Qaeda were killed.

The difficulties of travel within Yemen have prevented the BBC from independently verifying details of the reported raid.

But the BBC's Jeremy Bowen, in Sanaa, says he saw military jets flying over the capital on Monday afternoon and into the evening, suggesting some kind of operation was under way.

American intelligence officials say the failed plot to bomb a US-bound jet on 25 December originated in Yemen - where the suspect was allegedly trained by al-Qaeda.


[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 07:24 GMT, Wednesday, 6 January 2010
China again rejects UN sanctions against Iran
China's ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Yesui, has said the time is not right to consider more sanctions against Iran.

The UN Security Council, including China, has previously called for Iran to stop enriching uranium and has issued three sets of sanctions.

Iran's leaders insist their atomic programme is only meant for energy-generating purposes.

But the US and its allies fear Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

China has the presidency of the UN Security Council during January, and is one of its five permanent veto-holders.

Timing tangle

Mr Zhang told reporters at the UN that "more time and patience" was needed to find a diplomatic solution to the impasse.

The Chinese ambassador's comments come days after after Iran missed an end-of-year deadline set by the US to respond positively to offers of talks about its uranium enrichment programme.

Plans on how to respond are apparently still up in the air, says the BBC's Tom Lane, at the UN in New York.

Diplomats at the UN say senior figures from Europe, the US, Russia and China will meet later this month to exchange opinions, our correspondent says.

US officials have previously called for "crippling" sanctions in the event of a diplomatic failure.

However, recent reports suggest they are currently thinking of "targeted sanctions" that focus on people and companies involved in Iran's nuclear programme, our correspondent adds.

Analysts say it could take Iran from between 18 months and three years to build a nuclear bomb.

With all this in the background, diplomats say it could be many weeks and even months before a deal is reached at the UN, our correspondent reports.

However, it is possible the US and its allies could roll out new sanctions of their own sooner.