■ Japan
Weapons to be ditched
Japan and China have agreed to jointly establish an organization to speed up recovery and disposal of chemical weapons abandoned by Japan's Imperial Army at the end of World War II and will likely sign an agreement by late December, a government official said yesterday. After a series of talks, the two sides roughly agreed to set up the body which would oversee the functions of a chemical weapons disposal factory to be built in Jilin Province in northeastern China, said Hisashi Michigami, a Cabinet official in charge of the project. "It would be a positive development for the relations between the two countries," he said.
■ Japan
Nuclear carrier coming
The US Navy announced on Friday that the USS George Washington will become the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be stationed in Japan, replacing the diesel-powered USS Kitty Hawk in 2008. Although US troops have been based in Japan continuously since the end of World War II, the Japanese had long opposed a US nuclear presence because of concerns about possible radiation leaks and the memory of US nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that brought the war to an end 60 years ago. Washington and Tokyo had reached an agreement to allow the stationing of a nuclear-powered carrier to replace the Kitty Hawk in October.
■ Vietnam
New bird flu outbreaks
Fresh bird flu outbreaks have killed more chickens and ducks in two northern provinces and birds were dying in a third area, the Agriculture Ministry said. Six outbreaks killed 317 ducks and 37 chickens in Haiphong and Thanh Hoa province on Thursday, prompting workers to slaughter more than 20,400 birds, the Animal Health Department said in a report yesterday. In Quang Ninh province 78 ducks and chickens were found dead of unknown reasons on Thursday, the deparment's Web site reported. Bird flu has killed or resulted in the slaughter of 1.94 million poultry since the virus returned in early October and has now spread to 17 of Vietnam's 64 provinces.
■ Singapore
No death penalty in drama
The government's Media Development Authority (MDA) has ordered a theater director to remove all references to the death penalty in a play scheduled to be staged yesterday, a day after the city-state executed an Australian drug smuggler, a newspaper said. The MDA demanded that Human Lefts, a play about the hanging of Singaporean drug courier Shanmugam Murugesu in May, make no mention of the death penalty and no reference to any political leader, the play's director said. "The plot is still the same, about a son and father, but it's so general I've applied a different story to it," Benny Lim, artistic director of The Fun Stage, said yesterday.
■ Singapore
Girls fall from roller coaster
Two sisters were in critical condition at a hospital yesterday after falling from a roller coaster at the Escape Theme Park, officials said. Chong Siying, 11, and Sili, 9, fell 3m from the ride on Friday night onto a concrete floor. Ringo Leung, the park's general manager, told the Straits Times, proper safety precautions were in place. Each car has a safety bar to secure passengers when the ride is in motion. The ride has been suspended until police finish their investigation, Leung said. The park's eight other rides continue to operate.
■ Canada
Man impounded with car
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