Sep 02 Japan finds fresh suspected foot-and-mouth case (AFP)
Japan discovered a suspected case of foot-and-mouth disease in a cow in its southern prefecture of Miyazaki, just days after it lifted a state of emergency, an official said. "We cancelled two auctions of cows in the prefecture after a suspected case of foot and mouth was discovered on a farm," a prefecture official told AFP. The region reported the case to the farm ministry and was awaiting the test result to determine if it is a fresh foot-and-mouth case.
Sep 02 No. of Internet crime cases hits record high in 1st half (AP)
Police responded to a record 2,444 Internet crime cases nationwide in the first half of this year, a National Police Agency survey showed Thursday. The number, up 586 or 31.5 percent from a year earlier, represented a new high since the NPA started gathering statistics for Internet crimes, defined as crimes which use a computer network, on a half-year basis in 2004. Of the total, the number of fraud cases, such as swindling money from a successful bidder by posting false information in an online auction, climbed 22.8 percent to 867 cases.
Sep 02 Threats keep dolphin protest out of Japan village (AP)
The star of "The Cove," an Oscar-winning documentary about a Japanese dolphin hunt, is back in Japan to protest the slaughter but had to cancel his trip to the village at the center of the controversy because of threats from an ultranationalist group. Instead, Ric O'Barry, the former dolphin-trainer for the 1960s "Flipper" TV show, is playing host to a reception Wednesday for some 100 animal-lovers at a Tokyo hotel. On Thursday, he will take a petition signed by 1.7 million people from 155 nations demanding the end of the dolphin hunt to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, escorted by police security.
Sep 02 Naked romp lands man, woman before prosecutors (Japan Times)
Police turned over to prosecutors Wednesday their case against a 21-year-old man who walked naked on a street in Yokohama last month and a 22-year-old woman who ordered him to do so, alleging they committed acts of public indecency. The woman and the man had been living together since January. She was angry with him for not paying rent and was quoted as telling him to, "Take off your clothes" and "follow my bicycle."
Sep 01 Japanese-Argentine couple win world tango championships (AP)
A Japanese-Argentine couple won the stage dancing division of the Eighth World Tango Championships held Tuesday in Buenos Aires, reports from Argentina said. The achievement by Japanese dancer Chizuko Kuwamoto and Diego Ortega from Argentina follows the victory in last year's contest by Japanese married couple Hiroshi and Kyoko Yamao in the salon dancing category. In this year's competition, in which 405 pairs from 18 countries took part, another Japanese dancer, Naoko Tsutsumizaki, and her Argentine partner, Cristian Lopez, came in third in both stage and salon dancing.