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Japan proposes 'peace' tunnel to South KoreaJustin McCurry in Tokyo guardian.co.uk Friday February 15 2008 Politicians in Japan have proposed the construction of an 80-mile "peace" tunnel to South Korea that would boost trade and symbolise a recent warming of ties between the former enemies. The proposed tunnel, more than twice as long as the Channel Tunnel, would link Karatsu in south-western Japan and Pusan in South Korea, via two islands in the Japan Sea. It would be part of a 140-mile (230km) rail link passing through the Japanese islands of Iki and Tsushima, and making it possible to travel...

Alive and safe, the brutal Japanese soldiers who butchered 20,000 Allied seamen in cold bloodBy NIGEL BLUNDELL - More by this author » Last updated at 17:53pm on 3rd November 2007  The perpetrators of some of the worst atrocities of the Second World War remain alive and unpunished in Japan, according to a damning new book.  Painstaking research by British historian Mark Felton reveals that the wartime behaviour of the Japanese Navy was far worse than their counterparts in Hitler's Kriegsmarine. According to Felton, officers of the Imperial Japanese Navy ordered the deliberately sadistic murders of more than 20,000...

About 50 million people are affected in Bangladesh About 140 million people, mainly in developing countries, are being poisoned by arsenic in their drinking water, researchers believe. Speaking at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) annual meeting in London, scientists said this will lead to higher rates of cancer in the future. South and East Asia account for more than half of the known cases globally. Eating large amounts of rice grown in affected areas could also be a health risk, scientists said. "It's a global problem, present in 70 countries, probably more," said Peter Ravenscroft, a research associate in...

Michelle Malkin found a new photo of the Korean Hostages: http://kr.news.yahoo.com/service/news/shellview.htm?linkid=459&articleid=2007080107591321223http://img.news.yahoo.co.kr/picture/2007/23/20070801/2007080107591321223_115521_0.jpghttp://michellemalkin.com/2007/08/01/south-korean-christian-hostage-crisis-rescue-attempt/ Here's a very clumsy BabelFish translation, from Korean, to English: http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=ko_en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fkr.news.yahoo.com%2Fservice%2Fnews%2Fshellview.htm%3Flinkid%3D459%26articleid%3D2007080107591321223

A South Korean woman held hostage with 21 others in Afghanistan has pleaded for help to secure their release.The woman, who identified herself as Yo Syun Ju, told the BBC by telephone she was "sick and in a terrible situation". "Tell them to do something to get us released," she said in an interview carried out in the presence of the Taleban militants holding her captive. A group of 23 Koreans was abducted one week ago. The kidnappers have since killed one of the hostages.

Hiroshima has preserved some of its ruins from the blast The nuclear bombs dropped by the United States on Japan in 1945 were the inevitable way to end World War II, Japan's defence minister has said. "I think it was something that couldn't be helped," said Fumio Kyuma in a speech at a university east of Tokyo. His comments sparked outrage from survivors of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The minister, who represents Nagasaki in parliament, said later that he was expressing the US view of events. In his speech, he said the US must have thought...

Koreans and Japanese Ranked World's Slimmest People Koreans, many of whom are experiencing a sweeping zeal for losing weight, count with the Japanese as among the slimmest people in the developed world, a study shows. According to PopNews, a study on body mass index (BMI) released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2005 shows that only 3.2 percent of Koreans and Japanese have a BMI higher than 30. A person with a BMI figure higher than 25 is considered overweight, while a reading above 30 means obesity. The U.S. is the fattest of the OECD member nations...

Tokyo's Imperial Palace was valued higher than California in the 1980s Japan's land prices have risen for the first time in 16 years, in a further sign that the world's second-largest economy is continuing to recover.Since 1990, land prices have been sliding following the bursting of the asset price bubble. However, government figures showed that nationwide land prices rose by 0.1% last year with commercial land prices increasing by 2.3%. Strong price increases in commercial areas in major cities drove the gains. 1990s peak The major metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka each saw significant increases. Commercial land...

It may be surprising to learn that China has a parliament. This country is, after all, a one-party state - and there are no general elections. Thousands of delegates have gathered in Beijing Still, almost 3000 delegates make up the ranks of China's legislature. Members are chosen from China's different regions. Once a year - for just two weeks - they come to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to discuss (and then inevitably approve) the Communist Party's latest set of proposals. During these two weeks, Tiananmen Square outside becomes the world's most orderly coach park. Rows...

Not everyone is in favour of a free trade deal South Korea and the US are in the final round of free trade talks, trying to reach a deal before a looming deadline.US presidential powers to fast track trade deals ends at the end of March, making agreement all the more urgent. Since talks started on Thursday they have agreed to streamline customs and anti-trust rules, but farming and automobiles remain contentious issues. Hundreds of South Koreans have protested in Seoul arguing that a trade deal could threaten their livelihoods. Seoul wants the US to immediately end tariffs that...

A protest staged by thousands of rural workers in central China ended in violent clashes last week, media reports and an official said.Several people were injured as up to 20,000 people clashed with 1,000 police in Hunan province on Friday, a local official told Reuters news agency. A report on the Boxun Chinese news website said the clash was sparked by rising public transport costs. Rural regions of China have mounting unrest in recent years. Thousands of protests were held last year amid growing discontent over the widening gap between rich and poor and corruption among officials at local...

Mr Howard will hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Australian Prime Minister John Howard has arrived in Japan on a visit which will include the signing of a bilateral security pact. The declaration is thought to include co-operation on terrorism, peacekeeping and disaster relief. The government has dismissed suggestions that the defence deal could strain ties with China. Meanwhile, Australian diplomats are due in North Korea for talks on its nuclear programme. The delegation will urge Pyongyang to abide by its agreement last month to start dismantling its nuclear facilities. Such progress could result in Australian aid,...

Did Hirohito play an active part in planning and conducting the war? Japanese emperor Hirohito expressed doubts about going to war with China in the 1930s and 40s, extracts from a diary of one of his advisers reveal. They show Hirohito was afraid the Soviet Union would intervene. The diary by Kuraji Ogura, who worked as a chamberlain to Hirohito in World War II, was found recently and parts have been published in Japan's media. The full text may help solve the debate about how much responsibility the emperor had for Japan's wartime action. South Pacific visit The document...

While Christianity's explosive growth has swept through much of the Southern Hemisphere – particularly across Africa – another dramatic story has unfolded in Asia. Some have dubbed it the "Korean miracle." About one-third of South Koreans are now Christian. Seoul, the capital, boasts 10 of the 11 largest Christian congregations in the world. And South Korea sends more missionaries abroad to spread the word than any other country except the United States. No one knows how many Christians remain in North Korea. Two-thirds of Korean Christians lived there before the war, but many fled to escape Communist rule. ~sNip Today,...

In Pictures: Robot menagerie An ethical code to prevent humans abusing robots, and vice versa, is being drawn up by South Korea. The Robot Ethics Charter will cover standards for users and manufacturers and will be released later in 2007. It is being put together by a five member team of experts that includes futurists and a science fiction writer. The South Korean government has identified robotics as a key economic driver and is pumping millions of dollars into research. "The government plans to set ethical guidelines concerning the roles and functions of robots as robots are expected to...

There are hundreds of dialects among China's 1.3bn people Only about half of China's population can speak the national language, Mandarin, according to the state news agency Xinhua.More men speak Mandarin than women, and more urbanites speak the language than those in rural areas, Xinhua said. For many years now, the government has tried to increase the use of Mandarin, to promote social cohesion. But China has hundreds of dialects, some of which - such as Cantonese and Hokkien - have strong regional support. In a survey of 500,000 people around the country, the Ministry of Education found that...

Summary: Controversies over the war in Iraq and U.S. unilateralism have overshadowed a more pragmatic and multilateral component of the Bush administration's grand strategy: its attempt to reconfigure U.S. foreign policy and international institutions in order to account for shifts in the global distribution of power and the emergence of states such as China and India. This unheralded move is well intentioned and well advised, and Washington should redouble its efforts.

After more than 60 years of silence, World War II's most enduring and horrible secret is being nudged into the light of day. One by one the participants, white-haired and mildmannered, line up to tell their dreadful stories before they die. Akira Makino is a frail widower living near Osaka in Japan. His only unusual habit is to regularly visit an obscure little town in the southern Philippines, where he gives clothes to poor children and has set up war memorials. Mr Makino was stationed there during the war. What he never told anybody, including his wife, was that during...

Japan began its satellite programme in 2003 Satellite launch Japan has launched its fourth spy satellite, which will give it the capability to monitor any location around the globe.An H-2A rocket carrying the satellite lifted off from a base in southern Japan at 0441 GMT, officials said. Tokyo began launching spy satellites in 2003, after North Korea fired a missile over Japan's main island in 1998. Japan sees itself as one of the top targets of the Communist state, which last year tested a nuclear bomb. Satoki Kurokawa, a spokesman for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa), said the...

The survey found a large rise in Christians in China The number of religious believers in China could be three times higher than official estimates, according to a survey reported by state media.A poll of 4,500 people by Shanghai university professors found 31.4% of people above the age of 16 considered themselves as religious. This suggests 300 million people nationwide could be religious, compared to the official figure of 100 million. China is regularly criticised for cracking down on unauthorised worship. Believers are only allowed to attend government-approved churches, mosques and temples. Correspondents say the poll's findings back up...

President Roh has seen his popularity fall sharply Twenty-three South Korean lawmakers have left the ruling Uri party to form a new political group to fight elections later in the year.The move leaves the conservative opposition Grand National Party (GNP) as the largest group in parliament. Correspondents say the breakaway MPs want to distance themselves from the increasingly unpopular President Roh Moo-hyun ahead of December elections. A recent opinion poll put the Uri party's approval rating at just 10%. In contrast, the GNP is enjoying public support of around 50%, the same poll found. Resignation offer In a statement,...

The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported that the United States and Japan are expected to upgrade their joint operation plan for a possible contingency on the Korean Peninsula. The Japanese newspaper said the countries agreed on military cooperation in case of an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula, a missile attack on Japan or the launching of an operation to protect Taiwan from China. The Asahi Shimbun quoted local government officials as saying that under the new agreement the US would be authorized to launch attacks on North Korea from bases and ports in Japan. In addition, the report said, Japanese...

Accompanied by some of France's top chief executive officers, Jacques Chirac arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for his fourth visit to China since 1995. The French president described his country's relations with Beijing as "strategic" and added that their development is "at the heart of France's foreign policy". Chirac's four-day visit is aimed first and foremost at boosting Paris's industrial interests, but the latter cannot be split from the broader political significance of the growing Franco-Chinese economic, financial and strategic dialogue. Chirac's bid for 'balanced multipolarity' At a press conference just before the French president left Paris for Beijing, his...

N.Korea atomic test seen harming NE Asia economies Tue Aug 8, 2006 5:39 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A test of a nuclear weapon by North Korea would have a "negative though not cataclysmic" impact on South Korea's economy and could pose strains on China, said a study on Tuesday by a leading U.S. economist. An analysis by Marcus Noland of the Institute for International Economics found that among North Korea's neighbors, South Korea was the most economically vulnerable to a nuclear breakout by the North. A test by isolated North Korea, which declared itself a nuclear power in February...

The Russian government has backed a 17bn-rouble ($630m) plan to develop the Kuril Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The draft plan for 2007-15 aims to improve the islands' energy and transport infrastructure, including the construction of an all-weather airport. Russia has a long-standing territorial dispute with Japan over four Kuril islands, seized after World War II. Meanwhile, Russia plans to expand its restricted border zones that could be as big as in Soviet times, reports say. 'Ignored region' The government plans to spend nearly $1,000 for every resident of the chain of 56 Pacific islands a month - more...

Bush Admin Official Stresses Bilateral Discussions on USFK Issue WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A high-ranking official from the Bush administration said Saturday (local time) about the reduction in scale of U.S. forces in Korea (USFK) that, “No decision has been made yet. President Bush and President Roh will decide after discussions between the two governments.” The official, who wished to remain anonymous, said in a meeting with correspondents in Washington, D.C. that the U.S. would present a strategic concept of USFK at the 9th Future of the Alliance Talks (FOTA) instead of presenting any specific reduction scales. This official said that...