NEWS IN BRIEF

Date: 23 February 2015 - 21:15

News ID: ۱۱۳۱۰

TOKYO (PRESS TV) – The Japanese minister of agriculture has resigned after he was accused of receiving illegal funds while in office, dealing a major blow to the newly formed cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Abe on Monday accepted a letter of resignation by Koya Nishikawa, who served as Japan’s minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
The resignation is regarded as a huge blow to Abe’s much publicized overhaul plans for Japan’s agriculture sector nearly one month before he submits his reform package to the Japanese parliament.
Abe (pictured above) quickly appointed former Farming Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi to the post. The prime minister said the parliament’s time should not be wasted to examine the issue caused by what he said was Nishikawa's personal problems.
"Minister Nishikawa's intention is firm. As he said, parliamentary time, which should be used for policy deliberation, should not be wasted on his particular problems,” Abe told a news conference, offering his apology to the people over the "wrong appointment” of Nishikawa.
Nishikawa has been hit by allegations of receiving funds from a group active in manufacturing sugar months after he granted the firm more than a billion yen in subsidies.
The issue of sugar is quite sensitive in Japan, as the country, along with United States, is engaged in intense talks with 10 other nations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership over the strategic staple.
The resigned minister is also accused of receiving similar donations in return for granting government subsidies to other companies.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece will present its economic reform plans on Monday to seal a euro zone financial lifeline, but the government drew criticism from a veteran leftist and ruling party member that the deal let voters down.
Germany, the biggest contributor to Greece's two bailouts totalling 240 billion euro, said any extra spending on Athens's list of reforms had to be offset by savings or higher taxes.
After a climbdown in Brussels to win the conditional four-month agreement, the government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras declared the reform list would at least be decided by Greeks, in contrast to the austerity policies dictated by foreign creditors since they bailed out Athens in 2010.
"The list will include a series of reforms that the Greek government will propose - and I underline that," said government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis. "Above all, they will be socially just reforms that aim to fight tax evasion, to fight corruption," he told Skai television.

PRETORIA (PRESS TV) – All 486 South African miners trapped after a fire outbreak at a gold mine have been brought to safety, a source says.
The miners were working about 2,300 meters underground at Harmony GoldMining Company's Kusasalethu mine near the town of Carletonville when the fire broke out on Sunday.
The missing miners have been found and rescued, said Charmane Russell, the spokeswoman for the Harmony Gold Mining Company.
The fire was thought to have been caused during maintenance work on a bulk air cooler at the mine.
Following the incident, a search and rescue mission rushed to pull the miners out, the company said in a statement.
South African President Jacob Zuma had called on the mining company to do everything possible for the rescue of the miners.
"I urge all South Africans to keep the miners in their thoughts and prayers during this difficult period," Zuma said before the miners were located.
Mine accidents are common in South Africa's ultra-deep gold mines. Three people died at the Kusasalethu mine in 2014.