Koizumi visits Central Asia with energy agenda

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will become the first leader from Japan to visit Central Asia where he will look to vie for the region's rich energy resources.

Japan is competing with fast-growing China and Russia for influence in the region's abundant oil and natural gas reserves.


Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visits central Asia this week to meet with leaders in the energy-rich region. AFP/File/Toshifumi Kitamura phot via Yahoo News.

The nation imports nearly all of its oil as is otherwise highly reliant on foreign energy sources.

Koizumi, who leaves office next month, will meet with Presidents Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan and Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan during his four-day trip to the two countries starting Monday.

Iran opens nuclear generator

Iran opened a heavy-water nuclear production plant Saturday raising the possibility of United Nations sanctions.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the generator declaring that his nations was only interested in peaceful energy production.


Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, inaugurates a heavy-water nuclear generator in Arak, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2006. Tehran says the plant is for peaceful purposes but Western countries fear it could eventually be used to develop a nuclear bomb. AP Photo/ ISNA, Arash Khamoushi via Yahoo News.

"There is no discussion of nuclear weapons," he said. "We are not a threat to anybody even the Zionist regime, which is a definite enemy for the people of the region."

Israeli legislator Ephraim Sneh of the Labor Party said in response to the Iranian move that Israel should "prepare itself militarily."

Japan and U.S. to help with Philippine oil disaster

Japanese and U.S. experts are assisting efforts to contain the Philippines' worst oil spill and the "worst environmental disaster" already in the country's history.

A Japanese salvage ship with a remotely-piloted vehicle departed from Okinawa and is expected to arrive in the affected area off Guimaras island in about three days, the Petron Corp. said. A four-member assessment team from the United States coastguard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency arrived in Manila Tuesday.

Coastguard and private volunteer boats are using boons and spraying dispersants to help contain the massive oil spill.


A local resident, hired by Petron, wipes oil from the mangroves in Nueva Valencia on Guimaras island. The Petron Corp. tanker Solar I sank in 3,000 feet of water with 450,000 gallons of oil on board. AFP/Joel Nito photo via Yahoo News.