SINGAPORE medical and rescue teams swung into action yesterday as relief supplies and international rescue teams flowed into Indonesia, even as hopes of finding survivors following last Wednesday's massive earthquake dwindled.
A 54-member Singapore Armed Forces medical team arrived in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra, on Saturday. Yesterday, it was in Pariaman - a coastal town closest to the epicentre of Wednesday's quake - where the members set up a medical facility and received injured quake victims almost immediately.
SEOUL - NORTH Korea told visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday that it was open to bilateral and multilateral talks on its nuclear programmes, China's state television reported.
The CCTV report said the comments were made by North Korean Premier Kim Yong Il during a meeting with Mr Wen, who had arrived in North Korea earlier in the day.
TOKYO - A FORMER Japanese finance minister who stepped down after appearing to be drunk at an overseas news conference was found dead at his home on Sunday morning.
Mr Shoichi Nakagawa was lying face down on a bed at his home in Tokyo's residential district of Setagaya when his wife found him, police and news reports said.
