Kyodo news summary -6-

---------- Taliban release 5 more S. Korean hostages

KABUL - Afghanistan's Taliban militants on Wednesday released five more South Korean hostages, raising to eight the number set free following an agreement with South Korean officials, according to a mediator.

The four women and one man were handed over by elders of Ghazni to officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross outside Ghazni, capital of the province of the same name, Haji Zahir, who has been mediating between the Taliban and South Korean negotiators, told Kyodo News.

---------- Abe, Merkel reaffirm cooperation on climate change, antiterror mission

TOKYO - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel reaffirmed their cooperation on climate change, U.N. reforms and support for antiterrorism operations in Afghanistan in talks in Tokyo on Wednesday.

''We engaged in a meaningful exchange of opinions on cooperation at the United Nations as well as on climate change and energy, which will be the main issues at next year's (Group of Eight) summit to be held in Hokkaido's Lake Toyako,'' Abe told a joint news conference afterward.

---------- Yokozuna Asashoryu arrives in Mongolia for treatment

ULAN BATOR - Troubled grand champion Asashoryu arrived home in Mongolia from Japan on Wednesday to undergo treatment for a stress disorder.

Accompanied by his stable master Takasago and doctor Masaki Honda, the grand champion touched down in Ulan Bator on a direct flight from Japan and is set to move to a spa resort about 400 kilometers outside the capital to receive traditional Mongolian treatment.

---------- Britain honors Nelson Mandela with statue in Westminster

LONDON - A large bronze statue of former South African President Nelson Mandela was unveiled in London's Parliament Square on Wednesday in recognition of his lifelong struggle against apartheid.

Mandela and his wife Graca Machel joined British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Mayor of London Ken Livingstone for the ceremony which was attended by thousands of people, including politicians, dignitaries, celebrities and members of the public.

---------- China admits performance-enhancing drugs widely sold on Internet

BEIJING - China's government on Wednesday promised to crack down on the sale of performance-enhancing drugs on the Internet in the run-up to the Olympic Games.

An official from China's food and drug safety watchdog, Yan Jiangying, admitted the online sale of illegal drugs, including performance-enhancing substances, was ''rampant,'' adding that the government was determined to take tough action against those involved.

---------- Woman miscarries after ambulance accident, rejection by 9 hospitals

NARA, Japan - A pregnant woman suffered a miscarriage Wednesday after nine hospitals refused to admit her and an ambulance carrying her collided with a minivan in Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, while on its way to another hospital, police and local firefighters said.

The 38-year-old woman from Nara Prefecture, who was in the sixth month of her pregnancy, and the ambulance workers did not sustain injuries in the collision. But it took about three hours for the woman to finally reach the 10th hospital located about 40 kilometers away, they said.

---------- Sandstorms destroy section of Great Wall

BEIJING - Sandstorms have destroyed a large section of the Great Wall of China, widely acknowledged as one of the architectural wonders of the world, state media reported Wednesday.

Archaeologists say 40 kilometers of the wall in the northeastern province of Gansu have disappeared in the past 20 years, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

---------- China navy provoking Taiwan with warship intrusions: report

TAIPEI - A Chinese navy fleet led by guided-missile destroyers steamed through Taiwanese and Japanese waters on two occasions in April and May, Taiwan Defense Minister Lee Tien-yu was quoted as saying in a report in Wednesday's Liberty Times, Taiwan's biggest daily.

Lee confirmed local media reports claiming a Chinese fleet of some five vessels, mostly Luhu-class missile destroyers and distilling ships, based in Qingdao, China, had passed between Okinawa and Miyakojima islands before turning south and traveling along Taiwan's east coast and passing its southern tip on two occasions in the periods between April 28 and May 11, and May 18 and May 27, the report said.

---------- U.S. woman to get ovarian tissues from sister with Japan technology

TOKYO - A 31-year-old American woman will receive a transplant of frozen ovarian tissues taken from her elder sister at a U.S. clinic, possibly in October, using Japanese technology, a Japanese researcher said Wednesday.

The woman whose ovarian functions have been lost due to a bone-marrow transplant will undergo the ovarian transplant at St. Luke's Hospital in Missouri, in a tie-up with Kato Ladies Clinic of Tokyo, said the researcher Masashige Kuwayama of the clinic.