■ JAPAN
Agreement on defense
Tokyo and Washington plan to allow private defense contractors to share information and technology to speed up the development of new deterrents, the Nikkei Shimbun reported yesterday. At present, the two countries have to sign an agreement for each defense research and development project at a time and information is exchanged only through the two governments. But North Korea's missile and nuclear tests last year have provided an impetus for speeding up the process, officials have said since. The two allies plan to implement the new information sharing framework by the end of this month.
■ JAPAN
Infants left at drop box
Two infants were left at the country's only anonymous drop box for unwanted babies last week, bringing the toll to three in just over a month since it opened at a southern hospital, media reports said yesterday. The baby drop-off, called "Stork's Cradle," was opened by the Catholic-run Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto on May 10 to discourage abortions and the abandonment of children in unsafe public places. The same day, a boy believed to be three was found inside. The second was an infant boy believed to be about two months old and in good health, found last Tuesday and the third one about the same age was dumped on Friday.
■ PHILIPPINES
Bishops berate Arroyo
Influential Roman Catholic bishops yesterday hit out at President Gloria Arroyo for shortening the jail time of a convicted child rapist, allegedly for political considerations. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines' commission on prison pastoral care said commuting Romeo Jalosjos' two life terms to only 16 years showed government was biased in favor of political allies. Jalosjos, 66 and a former House of Representatives member, was convicted in 1996 for raping an 11-year-old girl. He was sentenced to two life terms and has so far served 10 years in jail.
■ CHINA
Algae spreading
Two major lakes are again threatened by spreading algae that has endangered drinking water and underscored the pollution choking the country's waterways, state media reported on yesterday. Satellite pictures of Taihu and Chaohu lakes in the heavily populated east showed canopies of blue-green algae covering big stretches of the lakes, the China News Service reported. A putrid algae outbreak in past weeks led to the shutdown of tap water to much of Wuxi, a city beside Taihu Lake in Jiangsu Province.
■ IRAN
Tehran pans Rushdie honor
The government yesterday condemned Britain's decision to grant a knighthood to author Salman Rushdie, who was forced into hiding for a decade after the Islamic republic's spiritual leader ordered his assassination. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the decision to grant Britain's highest honor to Rushdie, who wrote the controversial novel The Satanic Verses, was an insult to the Muslim world. "Awarding a person who is among the most detested characters in Islamic society is obvious proof of anti-Islamism by ranking British officials," said Hosseini during his weekly press conference.
■ YEMEN
Rebels accept ceasefire
Shiite rebels said on Saturday they had accepted a ceasefire proposed by the government to end months of violent clashes that have killed hundreds in the north of the Arab country. State media said a ceasefire agreement mediated by Qatar committed Yemen to reconstruction in rebel areas, required rebels to give up their heavy weapons and included a temporary exile for their leaders. "In response to the call ... and to prevent bloodshed, we declare a stop to violence and fighting and our commitment to the republican system and the Constitution," rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said in a statement.
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