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Arrest highlights U.S. Russian spies’ rich history
WASHINGTON - The embarrassing arrest of a suspected CIA officer in Moscow is the latest reminder that, even after the Cold War, the U.S. and Russia are engaged in an espionage battle with secret tactics, spying devices and training that sometimes isn’t enough to avoid being caught. The most recent skirmish involves Russian security services ambushing a 29-year-old diplomat who they say ...
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‘All issues on table’ in China-India talks
NEW DELHI - India says all issues will be ';on the table,'; including a recent border spat and a festering trade imbalance, during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to the South Asian giant, which started Sunday. At the same time, New Delhi thinks ';very highly'; of Li’s decision to make India his first overseas stop since taking charge as premier, Indian ...
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Product names show language creativity at work
Recently I was asked to write a blurb for a new liquid plant-nutrient. As soon as I saw the name of the product, ???? (Hayane Hayaoki), I smiled at this example of linguistic creativity. The four characters translate loosely as ';early root, early sprouting';; ...
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E-cigarettes blow fog into ban on D.C. Metro
WASHINGTON - Smoking’s not allowed on Washington’s Metro system. But what about e-smoking? The week before last, I was riding on the Orange Line when I saw a woman holding what I thought was a high-end felt-tip marker. It had a round barrel that tapered to a narrower point. Then she stuck the narrow end in her mouth, sucked, and blew out a white cloud. It didn’t smell like ...
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Creating roadblocks to cuts in nuclear arms
The identification of a geological fracture zone beneath a Tsuruga nuclear plant reactor as an active fault may force the decommissioning of the reactor in Fukui ...
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Green sovereign wealth offering benefits to all
PARIS - At the end of 2011, sovereign wealth funds’ assets under management amounted to $3 trillion, following 237 direct investments worth $81 billion that year. Some experts even estimate SWFs’ assets to be worth $6 trillion. This means that SWFs, the avatars of state capitalism, are now twice as rich as the world’s hedge funds, the totems of liberal capitalism’s ...
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France must lead breakuup of euro
LONDON - France played a decisive role in shaping not only the euro system but the entire European project. This history has predisposed French leaders to the goal of preserving the euro at all costs. Those costs, as we explained in Part 1 of this article, have become quite insupportable. A new strategy is needed, and France’s role in shaping it will once again be pivotal. France sits on ...
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For a more ‘friendly’ Japan
Life in Japan just seems tailor-made for certain foreign residents, who slip into the fabric of this society as smoothly as a hand slides into a glove. American Curtis Patterson, a professional koto player and music teacher, is a case in point. Not only ...
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For a more ‘friendly’ Japan
Life in Japan just seems tailor-made for certain foreign residents, who slip into the fabric of this society as smoothly as a hand slides into a glove. American Curtis Patterson, a professional koto player and music teacher, is a case in point. Not only ...
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Avoiding food allergy tragedies
The death of an 11-year-old student who was allergic to dairy products after she ate a school lunch in Chofu, Tokyo, in December 2012 has prompted a public discussion of how to prevent similar tragedies at school. To this end, the education ministry in March 2013 instructed boards of education across the nation to take necessary measures. This month, the ministry also plans to establish a panel ...
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U.S. shale gas alters Japan’s energy plans
Japan has made progress in its attempts to curtail soaring fuel costs since the 2011 Fukushima disaster and Washington on Friday gave it the green light to import cheap liquefied natural gas. Since Japan is poor in natural resources, it has been longing to import U.S.-produced LNG emerging from the shale gas boom. This is not only because the price of U.S. natural gas is around a quarter of ...
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Book with Ikeda elementary killer’s psych exam to challenge privacy law
OSAKA - A doctor who conducted a psychiatric evaluation of Mamoru Takuma, who was executed in 2004 for stabbing to death eight children at an Osaka school, will publish a book containing nearly the entire report, it has been learned. The book — titled ';Takuma Mamoru Seishin Kanteisho'; (';Mamoru Takuma Psychiatric Evaluation Report';) — contains statements made ...
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‘Comfort women’ rap unfair Hashimoto
Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) coleader Toru Hashimoto said Sunday he doesn’t believe the so-called comfort women, over whom his controversial remarks have drawn flak, were ';sex slaves who were unwillingly forced into service by the country through violence, threat and abductions.'; Hashimoto, who is also the mayor of Osaka, said on a TV program he will clarify ...
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Japan film makes splash at Cannes
The politics of immigration in Japan involve anxieties about national identity and worries about crime. Looking at other countries with large numbers of immigrants, the Japanese government has said ';no thanks.'; There are, however, strong economic reasons for Japan to let down the drawbridges. ...
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The Sheikha Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation announces the Art Trip to Tokyo
WAM ABU DHABI, May 19th, 2013 (WAM) --The Sheikha Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation (SSHF) announced a new programme - The Art Trip, an educational art trip to Tokyo for ten Junior High School students from the 18th - 24th May 2013. As part of the Foundation's strategy to support emerging artists at the earliest stages of their development, the Foundation has selected ten passionate ...
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North Korea has test-launched one more shorter-range missile from its eastern coast in the Sea of Japan
TOKYO, May 19 (Itar-Tass) - North Korea has test-launched one more shorter-range missile from its eastern coast in the Sea of Japan on Sunday, the South Korean news agency Yonhap ...
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Japans child kidnapping problem
the problem is that when a Japanese national divorces a foreigner overseas, he or she can abduct their children, bring them back to Japan and the law ensures that the parent left behind has no rights to see the children or take them back home. The U.S. State Department reports that there have been over a hundred such kidnappings since 1994-according to a source, the number is closer to 400. ...
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Danish singer wins Eurovision contest - Sun 19 May 2013 PST
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Japan PM vows to seek talks with North Korea over kidnapping
Shinzo Abe made the comment after a surprise visit to North Korea by one of his advisers last week has irritated the United States and South Korea as a possible damper to their efforts to forge a united front against Pyongyang. "I want to pursue negotiations or dialogue" with North Korea, he told reporters in Fukuoka, southern Japan, according to Japanese media. "I will definitely ...
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Aussie trio solid in Japan
Brendan Jones, Paul Sheehan and Scott Strange have recorded top-15 finishes at the PGA Championship Nissin Cupnoodles Cup on Sunday.The trio finished tied for 15th at two over at the Sobu Country Club Sohbu Course near Tokyo, with Jones and Strange the best of the group on the final day with even-par 71s while Sheehan shot two over.South Korea's Kim Hyung-Sung claimed the Japan Golf Tour ...
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Support rate for Japans Abe down to 70.9 pct
Support rate for the Cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has edged down almost 2 percent to 70.9 percent, compared with 72.1 percent in the previous poll last month, according to a Kyodo News survey showed on Sunday.It was the fourth time that the Cabinet approval rating has surpassed 70 percent in the monthly surveys since Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) took power in ...
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Japan defends PM aides surprise N.Korea trip
TOKYO (AFP) - A Japanese minister on Sunday defended a surprise visit to North Korea by one of the prime minister's aides which Washington and Seoul said could not help efforts to forge a united front against Pyongyang.Akira Amari, state minister of economic revitalisation, said the four-day trip by Isao Iijima reflected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's resolve to have North Korea come ...
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Council proposes lowering age for English education
An expert panel on education will recommend that the government lower the grade when primary school students start studying English from the fifth year and make it a regular subject for fifth and sixth graders, sources ...
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Toyota plans to increase lithium-ion car battery output-Nikkei
TOKYO | Sun May 19, 2013 2:40am EDT TOKYO May 19 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp is planning to increase production of lithium-ion batteries by six times, as the automaker prepares to eventually use them in its flagship Prius gasoline-electric hybrid cars, the Nikkei business daily reported on Sunday. Currently, most of Toyota's hybrid vehicles use nickel-metal hydride batteries but ...
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Weak yen helps drive Japan earnings but no cure-all
Japan's earnings season has drawn to a close with the sharply weaker yen helping inflate profits at some of the nation's top exporters, but, warn some commentators, the drop is not all good news. Sony booked its first annual profit in five years, Toyota more than tripled its earnings in the fiscal year to March and the head of rival automaker Nissan hailed the taming of the currency. ...
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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