South Korea launches $19b river project
AFP, Seoul
South Korea on Tuesday launched a 19 billion dollar project to dredge and restore its four major rivers despite protests over the feared environmental impact.
Excavators started shifting soil to build temporary dams on two of the rivers after the environment ministry gave the green light following a four-month survey.
Under the plan the Han, Nakdong, Geum and Yeongsan rivers will be dredged, given new banks and equipped with dams along a total length of some 3,200 kilometres (2,000 miles).
Prime Minister Chung Un-Chan told a cabinet meeting the three-year programme will mean less water is wasted, will improve water quality and will boost the economy of local provinces.
When completed in December 2012, the government says the rivers will be opened up for transport and tourism and floods and droughts will be controlled.
It also hopes the project will create tens of thousands of jobs as the country' emerges from the global economic crisis.
Reliance Industries strikes
oil in western India
AFP, Mumbai
India’s energy giant Reliance Industries said Tuesday it had struck oil in the Cambay basin in western India but it did not reveal the estimated size of the field.
Reliance has 100 percent interest ip an on-land exploration block that covers an area of 635 square kilometres (245 square miles) in the Cambay basin in Gujarat state.
The discovery has been named "Dhirubhai 43” after the founder of the Reliance empire Dhirubhai Ambani and because it is the 43rd oil discovery by the firm across India.
Five wells were drilled in the block and oil was found in the fifth, Reliance said in a statement.
"Reservoir thickness of 15 metres was found. The well flowed at the rate of 500 barrels of oil per day, " the statement added.
"This discovery is expected to open future potential within the block," the company said. Commerciality of this discovery is being ascertained through more data gathering and analysis, it said.
Philippines makes biggest ever rice tender
AFP, Manila
The Philippines will tender for a record 600,000 tonnes of rice to guard against potential supply shortfalls from crop damage caused by recent storms, officials saidTuesday.
The December 1 tender, the country's biggest ever, would likewise be a "forward-buying" operation in anticipation that prices may jump next year, a senior agricultural official told AFP
The official conceded that such a huge order would likely push up international rice prices but said this could not be avoided.
"There are rumours that India might be calling for a tender for a huge amount," said the official, who asked not to be named.
However, International Rice Research Institute economist Samarendu Mohanty said he did not expect to a spike.
Geithner in Japan for talks on global economy
AFP, Tokyo
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii here Tuesday for talks on efforts to revive the ailing global economy.
Geithner arrived in Japan for a two-day stop on his way to a meeting of finance chiefs from member nations of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum on Thursday in Singapore.
The Treasury chief, on his first visit to Japan since taking the job in January, met Fujii for dinner talks ahead of US President Barack Obama's planned visit to Tokyo from Friday.
"We will discuss the shape of the global economy, but will not talk about individual cases like the Japanese economy," Fujii told reporters last week when asked about his meeting with his US counterpart.