News - Sun 8 Jun 2008
Man hoping to cash in stolen lottery ticket winds up under arrest
WAKAYAMA -- A man who turned up at a bank to cash in a stolen winning lottery ticket got more than he bargained for when police arrested him for theft.Views: 27
Japan and Turkey agree to boost trade, economic and political ties
TOKYO (AP) -- Japan and Turkey have agreed to boost economic, cultural and political exchanges in an effort to strengthen their relationship.Views: 21
Tokyo lets local gov'ts accept 'Taiwan' as listing on resident certificates
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has decided to allow local government offices to accept "Taiwan" on certificates of residence, it has been learned.Views: 19
Zookeeper dies after attack by Amur tiger
KYOTO -- A zookeeper died on Saturday after he was apparently attacked by a tiger while cleaning its cage, police said.Views: 11
Student arrested for illegally importing Ritalin
KYOTO -- A university student has been arrested for illegally importing the psychotropic drug Ritalin, police said.Views: 21
Three men arrested for possessing cannabis in Kofu
KOFU -- Three men in their 20s, including a university student, have been arrested for possessing marijuana, police said.Views: 19
Tokyo cop collared for sneaking into women's restroom at park
ICHIHARA, Chiba -- A Tokyo police officer faces charges for sneaking into a women's restroom at a park here, police said.Views: 9
Prosecutors find woman accused of strangling son insane, drop charges
HACHINOHE, Aomori -- Public prosecutors have decided not to charge a 30-year-old woman over the strangling of her 9-year-old son at their home here in April, deeming her to be insane at the time of the crime.Views: 12
Shuttle Discovery flight hits halfway mark, astronauts face more lab work
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- As their flight hit the halfway mark, shuttle Discovery's astronauts faced more work with the space station's new science lab on Saturday.Views: 23
Cop booted off force for trying to buy computer with colleague's credit card
A Tokyo police officer arrested for attempting to buy a computer using a colleague's credit card has been dismissed, police officials said.Views: 22
JAL jet forced into emergency landing at Haneda
A Japan Airlines (JAL) jet made an emergency landing at Tokyo's Haneda Airport Saturday morning after suffering an engine fault, airline officials said.Views: 28
Draft cluster bomb ban prompts U.S. threats to pull out of peacekeeping, humanitarian missions
A draft treaty for a ban on cluster munitions was adopted in Dublin on May 30, despite vocal protests from the United States, which is not a signatory, in what is being viewed as a victory for the Oslo Process -- a demilitarization conference spearheaded by volunteer countries and non-governmental organizations.Views: 9
Water begins draining from China's main quake lake
Water began draining Saturday morning from a sluice channel dug from a major quake lake to alleviate flooding fears, said an official of Mianyang, Sichuan Province. About 250,000 people in lower lying areas evacuated the areas for fears of flooding as water reached the critical point on the Tangjiashan quake lake as of early Saturday.Views: 10
Rising oil prices not led by speculation: U.S. energy chief
U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Saturday that the current high level of crude prices is not being driven by speculative activity on the oil market but imbalance of supply and demand. Bodman's remarks came after crude prices registered the largest-ever single-day gain of more than $10 and topped $139 per barrel for the first time in New York on Friday.Views: 24
Rising oil prices not led by speculation: U.S. energy chief
U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Saturday that the current high level of crude prices is not being driven by speculative activity on the oil market but imbalance of supply and demand. Bodman's remarks came after crude prices registered the largest-ever single-day gain of more than $10 and topped $139 per barrel for the first time in New York on Friday.Views: 18
Gist of joint statement for meeting of 5 key oil-using nations
The following is the gist of the joint statement issued Saturday at the end of a one-day meeting of five major oil-consuming nations -- China, India, Japan, South Korea, the United States. -- The five nations share serious concerns over the current level of oil prices.Views: 18
Chronology of major recent events in Japan-N. Korea relations
The following is a chronology of major recent events involving Japan and North Korea. 2002Views: 26
NGO to end medical activities in Afghanistan if Japan sends troops
Tetsu Nakamura, a doctor who represents medical activities in Afghanistan of the nongovernmental organization Peshawar-kai, said Saturday the group will completely withdraw from the war-torn nation if Japan sends the Self-Defense Forces to Afghanistan for reconstruction support missions. ''Anti-Japanese sentiment will increase and we will not be able to protect our Japanese staff,'' Nakamura said at a press conference in this southwestern Japanese city, where the Peshawar-kai is headquartered.Views: 5
Police arrest 4 men for alleged robbery of ID from policeman
Police arrested three gangsters and an unemployed man early Saturday morning on suspicion of robbing a plainclothes policeman of his identification earlier this week in Fukuoka Prefecture. The four, three of them belonging to the Dojin-kai crime syndicate, said they attacked two policemen mistaking them as members of rival gang group Seido-kai, according to the police.Views: 28
Japan, N. Korea to hold formal talks on ties next week
Japanese and North Korean envoys agreed Saturday on the need to make progress in improving relations and decided to hold formal talks next week on disputes preventing them from doing so, Japan's delegate said. The working-level talks will take place in Beijing on Wednesday and Thursday between Akitaka Saiki, director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and Song Il Ho, North Korea's ambassador for normalization talks with Japan.Views: 21
Japan, U.S. ink cooperation pact on methane hydrate
Japan and the United States agreed Saturday to accelerate their efforts to research and develop methane hydrate, seen as a promising new next-generation energy source generally trapped beneath the ocean floor. The two governments will mainly focus on exchanging scientific information and carry out field testing of the output capability of Alaskan North Slope hydrate reservoirs, the officials said.Views: 17
H.K. bans mainland chicken imports and local farm sale over bird flu
Hong Kong banned with immediate effect Saturday mainland chicken imports and local chicken-farm sales after finding the often deadly strain of bird flu virus in feces samples collected from chicken stalls in a wet market, the health chief said. About 2,700 chickens in the Sham Shui Po wet market were culled after five feces samples taken from three of nine chicken stalls in the market tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu virus last week.Views: 8
U.S., Asian economic powers voice concern over oil prices
Five of the world's major oil-consuming countries, including China, Japan and the United States, voiced on Saturday a sense of crisis over skyrocketing fuel prices following a meeting on energy issues in the northeastern Japanese city of Aomori. ''We share serious concerns over the current level of oil prices,'' the countries, also including India and South Korea, said in a joint statement at the one-day meeting, a day after crude prices topped $139 per barrel for the first time in New York by registering the largest-ever single-day gain of more than $10.Views: 12
Key oil-using nations voice strong concerns over prices
Five major oil-consuming countries, including China, Japan and the United States, on Saturday voiced their sense of crisis over skyrocketing fuel prices following a meeting on energy issues in the northeastern Japanese city of Aomori. ''We share serious concerns over the current level of oil prices,'' the countries, also including India and South Korea, said in a joint statement at the one-day meeting, a day after crude prices topped $139 per barrel for the first time in New York.Views: 8
Tiger attacks, kills zoo keeper at Kyoto zoo
A tiger weighing about 150 kilograms attacked and killed a male zoo keeper Saturday at a Kyoto zoo, zoo officials said. Atsushi Ito, 40, was pronounced dead at a hospital about three hours after sustaining injuries to his head, face, neck and hands in the attack, according to the zoo.Views: 6
Fire-damaged U.S. carrier needs repairs on electrical cabling, parts
A shipboard fire last month damaged electrical cabling and components in some areas of the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington, requiring structural and mechanical repairs, the U.S. Naval Forces Japan said Saturday. Due to repair work, the George Washington may miss RIMPAC-2008, the U.S.-led joint military exercises off the coast of Hawaii, slated to start in late June with allied forces like South Korean forces and Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force, military watchers said.Views: 23
Japanese, S. Korean scholars announce issues to be taken up at history talks
A group of Japanese and South Korean scholars on histories and relations of the two countries announced on Saturday issues to be taken up in a second round of joint history study, but they showed conflicting views on whether to discuss the issues of South Korean ''comfort women'' and a pair of South Korean-controlled islets. The scholars on the 34-member joint research committee agreed to include ''the process of establishment of modern nation-states of Japan and South Korea and their correlations'' in the issues to be taken up in the joint study, the leaders of the group said in a news conference after a one-day meeting in Tokyo.Views: 9
