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Kyodo news summary -5-(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TOKYO, May 2 -- (Kyodo) _ ---------- Annual sand festival opens in Kagoshima featuring animal sculptures KAGOSHIMA, Japan - An annual sand art festival opened Thursday at a beach in Kagoshima Prefecture on the southern tip of Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu, featuring an array of animal-shaped sand sculptures. An elephant, a whale and a mythical unicorn are among some 100 sculptures produced by artists from Japan and abroad at the site of the 11-day event at Fukiagehama beach in the city of Minamisatsuma facing the East China Sea. The largest sculpture on display measures 14 meters high and 10 meters wide. ---------- Crown princess meets parents in Netherlands AMSTERDAM - Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako on Wednesday afternoon met with the princess's father Hisashi Owada, a judge on the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and her mother Yumiko at their hotel in the Netherlands. Owada told reporters he and his wife talked over tea with the imperial couple and that they seemed to be relieved after attending the coronation of the new Dutch king on Tuesday, while expressing gratitude to the Netherlands for the invitation. ---------- Dentsu acquires Canadian digital agency NVI Solutions TOKYO - Japanese advertisement agency Dentsu Inc. said Thursday its London unit Dentsu Aegis Network Ltd. has acquired Canadian digital agency NVI Solutions to enhance digital ad operations in Canada, the ninth-largest ad market in the world. Aegis Media under the umbrella of Dentsu Aegis will use Montreal-based NVI Solutions to develop its iProspect global network brand in the Canadian market, where Aegis Media has already introduced three other brands -- Carat, Vizeum and Isobar. ---------- Japan, UAE set to sign nuclear agreement as Abe visits ABU DHABI - Japan and the United Arab Emirates are set to sign a nuclear agreement on Thursday as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is visiting the country, pushes his bid to sell Japanese nuclear technology overseas. The two countries' representatives will ink the deal following a meeting between Abe and UAE Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in Dubai. ---------- KDDI ties up with Swedish firm to provide M2M solution services TOKYO - Japanese telecommunications company KDDI Corp. said Thursday it has agreed with Swedish machine-to-machine communications service provider Telenor Connexion AB to offer M2M solution services to corporate customers in Japan. The services, starting next Wednesday, will allow companies in Japan to monitor and control industrial and other machines in operation in some 200 countries and regions through Telenor's M2M communications platform. ---------- N. Korea sentences U.S. citizen to 15 years of labor BEIJING - North Korea's Supreme Court has sentenced a Korean-American man to 15 years of compulsory labor for "committing hostile acts" against the country, its official Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday. Meanwhile, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter may soon travel to North Korea to work for the release of the man, who has been detained there for nearly half a year, and to broker resumption of dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington. ---------- Suicide remains leading cause of death among young South Koreans SEOUL - Suicide was the leading cause of death among people aged 15-24 in South Korea in 2011, a report by Statistics Korea said Thursday. Suicide has been the single largest cause of death among young Koreans since 2010. ---------- Cruise ship to, from China cancels call to Sakai port TOTTORI, Japan - A U.S. shipping firm has canceled a cruise from China to Japan scheduled for August, according to officials from Sakai port in Tottori Prefecture, where the large passenger ship was to have berthed. The cancellation apparently reflects the deteriorating ties between Japan and China over the sovereignty of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, as the shipping firm told the Sakai Port Authority that it could not attract enough passengers. ---------- Mitsubishi unit starts natural gas operations in Iraq TOKYO - Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp. said Thursday its joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell plc and Iraq's state-run South Gas Co. has started commercial natural gas operations in southern Iraq. Basra Gas Co., the joint venture established last October, will collect raw gas from the Rumaila, Zubair and West Qurna Phase 1 oil fields in southern Iraq and process it into natural gas, condensate and liquefied petroleum gas, Mitsubishi said. (c) 2013 Kyodo News International, Inc. |