SEOUL, May 23 (Yonhap) -- Lotte Chemical Corp., a South Korean petrochemicals maker, said Thursday that it held the completion ceremony of its polypropylene catalyst plant built in collaboration with Japan's Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. The plant built in Yeosu, a port city 455 kilometers south of Seoul, will annually produce 100 tons of catalysts for the production of polypropylene, which is used to make plastic bottles, textiles and plastic shopping bags, Lotte Chemical said.

One of the oldest salt mines in Europe, Poland's Wieliczka, on Tuesday called for photos of salt from across the globe for a contest and show at its underground museum. "We thought it would be good to learn about the rest of the world's salt and compile a portrait of it," museum spokeswoman Malgorzata Bogucka told AFP. She said submissions should focus on how NaCl is made, clarifying that a snapshot of a salt shaker would not make the cut.

By Toni Clarke WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Merck & Co's experimental insomnia drug moved a step closer to U.S. approval on Wednesday after a panel of medical experts said it is effective and safe at lower doses. The advisory panel was convened to help the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decide whether to approve the drug, suvorexant, which would be the first in a new class of sedatives that block chemicals in the brain called orexins that help keep people awake. The drugs are designed to help people fall asleep and stay asleep.

WASHINGTON - A federal panel of medical experts said that an experimental insomnia drug from Merck A majority of Food and Drug Administration panelists voted Wednesday that Merck's sleeping aid, suvorexant, helped patients get to sleep and stay asleep. In a separate set of votes, the panel voted that the drug appears safe at the starting doses proposed by the company. The FDA is not required to follow the recommendations of its experts, though it often does.