TOKYO: Japan’s Agricultural Ministry yesterday confirmed a case of a highly pathogenic H5 strain of avian influenza at a poultry farm in Miyazaki prefecture in southwestern Japan.
Three chickens tested positive at the farm and all of the roughly 4,000 chickens there have been culled, an official at the Miyazaki prefectural government said.
The local government also asked nearby poultry farms to restrict movements of livestock, he said.
There is believed to be no risk of the virus spreading to humans through consumption of chicken eggs or meat, he said.
Miyazaki Prefecture is Japan’s top producer of broiler chickens, raising about 28 million birds as of February 1, or around 20 percent of all chickens in Japan, according to an official at the Agricultural Ministry.
Jail for China ex-official’s ally
BEIJING: A Chinese businesswoman was fined $400m and given a 20-year prison sentence yesterday after she was found guilty of colluding with a former rail chief jailed for corruption.
Ding Shumiao had taken two billion yuan ($322m) in “agent fees” for helping former railways minister Liu Zhijun set up 57 rail projects involving 23 companies, Beijing’s No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court said.
The 58-year-old also gave Liu 49 million yuan, added a statement posted on the court’s verified account on Sina Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter.
“The evidence was reliable and abundant,” the court statement said in detailing the sentence of a 2.5 billion yuan ($400m) fine and the lengthy prison term.
She had stood trial in September on charges of involvement with illegal business activities worth a total of 186 billion yuan ($30bn) that were linked to Liu, previous reports said.
Cancer victims sue nuclear firm
SEOUL: A group of South Korean thyroid cancer patients living near nuclear plants have filed the country’s first class action suit against the operator, after an October court ruling in favour of a plaintiff claiming a link between radiation and the cancer.
A total of 1,336 plaintiffs, including 301 cancer patients living near four nuclear plants, and their families, filed the suit in a court in the southeastern city of Busan against Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co Ltd (KHNP), part of state-run Korea Electric Power Corp, a statement from a group of environmental organisations representing the plaintiffs said.
The suit seeks 15 million won ($13,800) in compensation for each patient and between 1 million won and 3 million won for each family member, an environment group official said.AGENCIES
