Japan's tsunami-hit airport 'back in three weeks'

SENDAI - THREE weeks after Japan's massive tsunami swamped this once-bustling airport, US airmen working to restore it say commercial flights could soon resume.

Hundreds of cars, several planes and even houses were washed onto the runway at Sendai International Airport when the huge waves of March 11 engulfed the country's north-east coast.

The terminal building was flooded and fires erupted in the car park and in aircraft hangars.

Passengers were left stranded on the upper floors for two days, and staff were forced to flee to the roof of an administrative building.

CCTV footage posted on video sharing site YouTube, showing the debris-cluttered waters swallowing up the runway, has been watched more than 17 million times and become one of the defining images of the nation's tragedy.

With roads washed away or impassable, the crippling of the airport badly hampered relief efforts. 

Supplies and fuel could not get to the area where 28,000 people are dead or missing, leaving rescue teams unable to work in some of the hardest-hit towns. -- AFP

Hundreds of bodies in Japan nuclear exclusion zone

TOKYO - UP TO 1,000 bodies of victims of Japan's quake and tsunami remain uncollected in the exclusion zone around a stricken nuclear plant because of radiation fears, a report said on Friday.

Citing police sources, Kyodo News said that authorities had intended to transport the bodies outside the 20km evacuation zone imposed around the Fukushima power station, but were reconsidering the plan.

The bodies had been 'exposed to high levels of radiation after death", the report quoted a source as saying, adding elevated levels of radioactivity were found on Sunday on the body of a victim about five kilometres from the plant.

Local police decided not to retrieve that body because of the radiation, the report said. Over 28,000 people have been confirmed dead or listed as missing since the twin natural disasters which hit on March 11, devastating the north-east coast and crippling the atomic plant, which has since been leaking radiation.

Workers have struggled to cool the plant, prevent a large-scale meltdown and dispose of thousands of tonnes of highly contaminated run-off water, while radioactive substances have tainted foodstuffs and groundwater nearby. Japan said on Thursday the plant would be scrapped following the crisis.

Authorities are considering decontaminating the bodies in the nuclear exclusion zone where they are found, but are concerned that the process could damage decomposing bodies further, hampering identification, Kyodo said. If the bodies were handed back to relatives without decontamination, cremating them could spread plumes containing radioactive substances, while burying them might contaminate the soil, the report added. -- AFP

Vietnamese woman jailed for human trafficking

HANOI - A JUDGE says a Vietnamese woman has been sentenced to five years in prison for trafficking women to work as prostitutes in Malaysia and Singapore.

Presiding Judge Nguyen Thi Mai says the woman, Dinh Thi Thu Hong, was convicted in a one-day trial on Wednesday of selling seven Vietnamese women to work in brothels in 2008 and 2009.

Mr Mai says the victims were promised jobs at restaurants but were instead sold to brothels.

Hong told the court in Dong Thap province that she was unaware that the women had been sold into prostitution, maintaining that she was merely the broker who sent them to work abroad.

Two other women of Vietnamese descent who were allegedly part of the ring in Singapore and Malaysia have not been arrested. -- AP

Indonesia detains 43 Afghan migrants

SURABAYA - INDONESIA arrested 43 Afghans who were trying to reach Australia illegally, police said on Thursday, a day after Asian nations pledged to work together to tackle people smuggling.

The migrants, including women and children, were arrested in the waters off Madura island in East Java province on Thursday morning, provincial maritime police chief Anang Hidayat told reporters.

'They were seeking asylum in Australia. They were arrested while they were transferring boats. They had no identification documents,' he said.

The group had flown from Afghanistan to Jakarta, travelled by bus to Madura island to 'take a big boat to Australia", Mr Hidayat said.

'We've handed the case over to the immigration department and International Organisation for Migration to handle,' he said.

Indonesia is a key staging post for people-smugglers bringing Afghans, Sri Lankans and other nationals for the perilous onward sea journey to Australia where many seek asylum. -- AFP

Philippines cracks down on Chinese poachers

MANILA - PHILIPPINE authorities on Thursday vowed to seek long jail terms for six Chinese caught poaching fish and sea turtles, as part of a crackdown against foreigners stealing marine wildlife.

The head of a multi-agency taskforce against illegal entrants, Brigadier General Juancho Sabban, said he planned to take a hardline stance against all foreign poachers, unlike previous officials who allowed them to be released.

'We will be pursuing the harshest penalty as demanded by law. We will be fighting for the conviction of these apprehended poachers,' BG Sabban told AFP.

In previous cases of Chinese fishermen caught illegally in Philippine waters, the Chinese embassy often successfully lobbied for the release of its nationals, much to the anger of local environmental groups.

But BG Sabban, who took over in August last year as head of the taskforce that includes the police and military, said he would push hard for the latest batch of nabbed Chinese to be jailed.

'I don't know what happened in previous cases but I would like to assure everybody that we will take action differently,' he said. -- AFP