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Fear blamed for U.K. measles surge
Better late than never: Lucy Butler,15, prepares to receive a measles shot at All Saints School in Ingleby Barwick, northern England, in April. Britain has launched a vaccination catchup campaign to curb a rise in measles cases. | ...
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Yahoo’s Tumblr deal carries risks rewards
WASHINGTON - Yahoo has concluded that Tumblr, the social blogging service, is worth a whopping $1.1 billion. Will the bet prove a good one? The answer depends on whether the combined company can turn its many millions of users into a interlocking set of services that no competitor can hope to replicate. In short, the question is whether Yahumblr, or Tumbloo, or whatever we want to call it, is ...
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Mobile shop is godsend for elderly in Mie town with falling population
Needed service: An elderly woman checks out food items sold by Mao Higashi, sitting outside her truck during a stop in a village outside Kihoku, Mie Prefecture, on March 14. | ...
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Tests don’t end provocation pause U.S.
SEOUL/WASHINGTON - North Korea’s test-firings of six short-range projectiles in three days may not reflect a return to a pattern of provocations by Kim Jong Un’s regime, according to the U.S. military’s top spokesman. The launches don’t in themselves end a ';provocation pause'; and ';do not necessarily violate'; North Korea’s international ...
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U.S. Chinese leaders to hold summit in June
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will hold his first summit with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in California next month, with Sino-U.S. relations rattled by alleged cyberspying by Beijing and tensions in the Pacific. Obama will welcome Xi to the plush Sunnylands estate resort in Palm Springs on June 7-8, as Washington seeks Chinese help to subdue North Korean belligerence. The talks ...
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Retired teachers stay busy as bees
Keeping up on the buzz: Chizuko Nozaka (left), Tadao Murota (center) and Hideyoshi Kurokawa gather near Lake Kitagata in Awara, Fukui Prefecture, on April 5 to collect bees as part of their research into the insect's habitat. | ...
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Osaka takes plunge with canal pool
OSAKA - If an Osaka company has its way, getting roaring drunk and jumping, or falling, into Dotonbori Canal after either a Hanshin Tigers victory or a wild night out in neighboring Shinsaibashi will be less risky, healthwise, but it will no longer be free. That’s because plans are moving forward to build an 800-meter-long swimming pool in the heart of the canal, the area that runs from ...
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Toyoda takes second in car race
A sit-in by visa violators and their families entered its second day Tuesday in front of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau with protesters seeking government good will. The action at the bureau in Minato Ward is being organized by the Asian People’s Friendship Society, ...
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Yahoo unveils makeover of Flickr photo hosting site
Fix for Off-canvas flickr --> This site is optimized with the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin v1.4.3 - http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/ ...
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Flawed strategy mistakes jeopardizing Tokyo’s bid to host 2020 Olympics
When speaking of Japanese art, people use words such as wabi and sabi, words that speak of a delicate sensibility and an ephemeral existence. Viewing the retrospective currently being hosted at the Musee Tomo in Tokyo’s central Toranomon district in celebration of the 100th ...
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Corbin fans 10 improves to 7-0
DENVER - Patrick Corbin tossed a three-hitter and struck out a career-high 10 to lift the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 5-1 win over the Colorado Rockies on Monday night. ';That’s what you’re trying to do every time you go out there,'; Corbin modestly said. Starts like this have pretty much been the standard for Corbin. The 23-year-old, in his second season in the big ...
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Injuries gave marathon runner Noguchi valuable lessons about training
Lightly laughing, Mizuki Noguchi insisted that aging isn’t necessarily so bad. The injury-prone runner said so because she thinks she is in her best physical condition in years. It’s not that she’s fortunate or anything, but she now can distinguish what kind of status her body is. ';I’ve had numerous injuries after Beijing (Olympics) in 2008,'; the gold ...
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Mourinho out at Real Madrid
MADRID - Jose Mourinho will leave Real Madrid after three years as manager, paving the path for his return to England and a second stint as Chelsea’s manager. Real Madrid president Florentino Perez announced at a news conference following a board meeting Monday that a mutual agreement was reached for Mourinho’s departure. The 50-year-old Portuguese coach has two matches remaining ...
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Stranger than fiction Ryukyu fires Toyama after setting wins record
The Ryukyu Golden Kings failed to reach the Final Four for the first time since 2007-08, their inaugural season in the bj-league. That result proved to be unacceptable to team management. Thus, despite a league-record 42-10 record, head coach Koto Toyama’s contract was not renewed. The decision to not bring Toyama back for a second season in charge was quietly announced on Sunday, when ...
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A fortunate life among hot springs
Kazuhiro Shiraishi, 66, is a guest-house manager in the Izu-kogen Highlands, a famous resort area on the Izu Peninsula of Shizuoka Prefecture. Looking out onto the Pacific Ocean, and just 90 minutes by train from Tokyo, Izu has a warm climate all year round and a gorgeous coastline dotted with open-air hot springs. Shiraishi has been working for Izu’s hotels ...
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Power and mastery of the blank space — Toko Shinoda
, words that speak of a delicate sensibility and an ephemeral existence. Viewing the retrospective currently being hosted at the Musee Tomo in Tokyo’s central Toranomon district in celebration of the 100th birthday of Toko Shinoda, the first word that comes to mind is ';power.'; The power is observed in the elements that constitute Shinoda’s paintings — the strength ...
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Why China’s developmental state says no to liberalism
NEW YORK - Modern history is the story of how liberal democracy, originating in Britain and America, spread around the world. This may sound like an absurd fantasy. In actuality, this Whiggish narrative of progress underpins most newspaper editorials, political commentary and speeches in the West, and frames larger views of political developments in the non-West. It accounts for the gloomy ...
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Substitute question marks for exclamation marks
CANBERRA - A terrible tragedy is unfolding in (fill in the name of your favorite trouble spot). Something must be done. This (choose from sending troops, air strikes, enforcing a no fly zone, arming rebels) is something. Therefore it must be done. Such is what passes for much of policy advice by some analysts, many unembarrassed by their dismal record on Iraq 10 years ago. The latest trouble ...
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Why Abenomics hurts women
WASHINGTON - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s acknowledgement of the unleashed potential of women should herald a new beginning for female empowerment in Japan. Yet his proposals to encourage more women to remain in the workforce actually may do more to hurt their prospects by merely reinforcing existing prejudices toward female workers and the role of women in society in general. In fact, his ...
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How modern nationalism gave birth to terrorism
Modern history is the story of how liberal democracy, originating in Britain and America, spread around the world. This may sound like an absurd fantasy. In actuality, this Whiggish narrative of progress underpins most newspaper editorials, political commentary and speeches in the West, and ...
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Five myths about Benghazi
WASHINGTON - The events surrounding the deaths of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, look dramatically different depending on your politics. Republicans tend to see a cover-up and a scandal. Democrats see an attempt to damage President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A Pew poll suggests that the public is ...
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Clock is running out for some key Asian reformers
A sit-in by visa violators and their families entered its second day Tuesday in front of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau with protesters seeking government good will. The action at the bureau in Minato Ward is being organized by the Asian People’s Friendship Society, ...
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Recovery only benefiting a few
The Cabinet Office on May 16 announced that Japan’s real gross domestic product (GDP) in the January-March period increased 0.9 percent, or an annualized 3.5 percent, from the previous quarter. But ordinary households have yet to feel tangible benefits from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic policy, the main component of which is massive monetary easing by the Bank of Japan. ...
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Managing Mount Fuji’s fame
Chances have increased that Mount Fuji will become a World Heritage site in June following an April 30 recommendation by a UNESCO panel. The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) noted that the volcano is a national symbol of Japan and blends religious and artistic traditions. Mount Fuji is regarded as a symbol of nature worship in Japan and has long served as a source of ...
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Hundreds outside Fukushima affected by Japanese nuclear disaster seek compensation
Koji Otani, a lawyer representing hundreds of residents and evacuees from just outside Fukushima, points at the Hippo district of Miyagi prefecture as he speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, Tuesday, May 21, 2013. The residents said Tuesday they have been unfairly denied full compensation despite high radiation levels in their area caused by Japan’s 2011 nuclear disaster. Nearly 700 ...
Tokyo in Focus
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Tokyo's new international airport making waves
Haneda airport was renamed Haneda International Airport with the opening of the new International Terminal, which will see several million passengers pass through it each year as the airport regains its status as a global airport with connections to major cities across the world.
When Haneda first opened in 1931 it was the largest civilian airport in the whole country and during the Second World War became a major US Air Base after the invasion of Japan and the country’s surrender. Read more
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