TMCnet News
Kyodo news summary -5-+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, March 1_(Kyodo) _ ---------- Koizumi urges S. Korea to look at Japan's efforts for peace TOKYO - Japan urged South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun on Wednesday to recognize its efforts to establish a peaceful world, following Roh's opposition to any change in Japan's pacifist Constitution. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters at his official residence, "I want him to take a close look at Japan's footsteps in the 60-year postwar period and strive for Japan-South Korea friendship." ---------- Letter containing bullet mailed to kin of new mayor in Tokyo TOKYO - An envelope containing a bullet has been mailed to the home of a relative of the newly elected mayor of Tokyo's Machida city, police said Wednesday. The Metropolitan Police Department has begun an investigation suspecting the blackmailing of Joichi Ishizaka, 58, who won the election Sunday. ---------- Chinese scholar defends article that led to media suspension HONG KONG - The author of an article critical of China's history textbooks that prompted authorities there to suspend a mass-circulation newspaper supplement that published it is seeking an opportunity to defend himself against government-backed critics. The China Youth Daily's weekly supplement, named Bingdian or Freezing Point, was suspended on Jan. 25 for publishing an article written by Yuan Weishi, a professor at Sun Yat-sen University in China's southern province of Guangzhou, though it was allowed to relaunch on Wednesday. ---------- Iranian foreign minister criticizes U.S., Europe over nuke row TOKYO - Visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki criticized the United States and European countries Wednesday over their handling of the Iranian nuclear crisis. Mottaki, who is wrapping up a three-day visit to Japan that began Monday, left open the possibility of a compromise in the crisis ahead of a key International Atomic Energy Agency meeting next week with a Russian proposal still "on the table." ---------- 'Polygamist' arrested over attempt to get woman to join group TOKYO - Police served a fresh arrest warrant Wednesday on a man who was living with 11 women in Tokyo for allegedly threatening a woman to get her to join the group, police said. Besides Hirohito Shibuya, 58, police arrested Chiaki Shibuya, 26, one of his former wives who was living with him, for conspiring with him to get the woman, then 25, to join the group, which included a baby. |