TMCnet News
Kyodo Top12 News (18:50)(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) ---------- M6.7 quake rocks Guam, no major damage reported MANILA - A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 rocked Guam on Wednesday afternoon, but the U.S. Pacific island territory's government said the situation is "fine," with no reports of major damage or casualties. "By all accounts, Guam was not affected in a major way by this strong earthquake," the government said in an update on its website. The quake did, however, cause some temporary power outages in the southern part of the island. It occurred at 4:14 p.m. with its epicenter located some 45 kilometers northwest of Guam, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which originally measured the quake's magnitude at 7.1. The USGS estimated the quake's depth at 136.7 km. ---------- Iranian official charged with sexual harassment banned from Games INCHEON, South Korea - The Iranian men's football team official charged with sexually harassing a volunteer at the Asian Games has been identified as Amereh Ahmad, Kyodo News learned Wednesday. The Olympic Council of Asia has investigated the case and after meeting with Incheon Asian Games organizers (IAGOC), the OCA has banned Ahmad from the competition. It is also understood that the OCA asked the Iranian Olympic Committee to send Ahmad home immediately, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. Reportedly, Ahmad, said to be 38, harassed the volunteer while taking a photo together at Ansan Wa Stadium on Monday, when Iran lost 4-1 to Vietnam. ---------- Chinese minority Uyghur scholar accused of separatism goes on trial BEIJING - A prominent scholar of China's Uyghur ethnic minority accused of advocating independence for the country's restive Xinjiang region went on trial Wednesday amid a stepped-up crackdown on what Beijing says is terrorism committed by separatists. Ilham Tohti, who formerly taught economics at Minzu University of China in Beijing, is known as a moderate critic of the government's policies in the far-western region divided between Uyghurs, a Muslim Turkic-speaking people, and Han Chinese, the country's dominant ethnic group. Since Tohti was detained in January, the European Union, the United States and international rights groups have called for his release. Tohti has denied any wrongdoing and involvement in separatism, according to his lawyers. ---------- Independent Taipei mayoral candidate to visit Japan TAIPEI - Independent Taipei mayoral aspirant Ko Wen-je said Wednesday that he will visit Japan later this month to gain city management and election experience. The three-day visit will take Ko to Osaka on Sept. 27 and Tokyo on Sept. 28 and 29. The Taipei mayor is one of the most powerful political figures in Taiwan. Taipei has been a stronghold of the ruling Nationalist Party (KMT) since the popular election of Taipei mayor was introduced in 1994. Taiwanese voters will elect more than 11,000 local officials on Nov. 29, including the mayors of Taipei and five other special municipalities. The November election will pit Ko against Sean Lien of the KMT. ---------- Japan gov't, Okinawa "on same page" as key U.S. base transfer vital NAHA, Japan - Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima on Wednesday that they are "on the same page" about the planned transfer of a key U.S. military base in the southern island prefecture, saying dangers posed by the facility to local people should be removed. "What we must avoid at any cost is keeping the Futenma base as it is. The central government and Okinawa are on the same page," Suga said during his meeting with Nakaima in Naha, Okinawa. In line with a bilateral agreement with the United States, the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is trying to advance the long-stalled relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station from densely populated Ginowan to a coastal area in Nago within the prefecture despite opposition from many locals. ---------- Eel producers agree to limit volume of young eel in aquaculture ponds TOKYO - Representatives of Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan agreed Wednesday at a multilateral forum on the conservation of the endangered Japanese eel to limit the volume of young eels put into aquaculture ponds. The deal, which will implement the restrictions on farmed eels from November, was reached by Japan and its neighbors under the first international framework on managing the species as a marine resource. The representatives, who began their meeting in Tokyo from Tuesday, also agreed to set up an entity which will manage the production of eels. Masanori Miyahara, adviser to the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, told reporters after the meeting that the delegates were able to come up with an agreement because of a shared view that measures must be taken to prevent the extinction of the Japanese eel. ---------- No. of foreign visitors to Japan in Aug. reaches nearly 1.11 mil. TOKYO - The estimated number of foreign visitors to Japan in August soared 22.4 percent from a year before to about 1.11 million, a record figure for the month, government data showed Wednesday. The growth was attributable to expanded international flights at Tokyo's Haneda airport and increased charter flights from Asian countries to regional airports in Japan, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. The estimated number of foreign passenger arrivals in Japan between January and August stood at 8,637,800, up 25.8 percent from a year earlier, the government body said. The number of visitors from China jumped 56.5 percent to 253,900 in August mainly due to 14 port calls to Japan by large cruise ships and chartered flights to Hokkaido, Okinawa and Niigata prefectures. ---------- No change in Japan's legal stance over "comfort women" TOKYO - Japan will not change its legal stance on so-called "comfort women," Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said Wednesday, in response to South Korean President Park Geun Hye's call for Tokyo to make a "courageous decision" to help resolve the contentious issue. "We have repeatedly said that Japan and South Korea already resolved the issue of the right (for South Koreans) to seek compensation," the government spokesman said at a press conference, adding that this stance is not subject to change. Comfort women were mostly Asian women coerced into working at brothels for Japanese soldiers during World War II. The issue has prevented Tokyo and Seoul from improving bilateral ties, which have also been chilled by a territorial dispute. ---------- Sony projects increased loss in FY 2014 on weak mobile business TOKYO - Sony Corp. said Wednesday it expects to book a 230 billion yen ($2.1 billion) group net loss for the current business year through next March, after earlier forecasting a 50 billion yen loss, as it now plans to book a big charge to write down the value of its mobile communications business. That would be the sixth loss in seven years for the Japanese technology and entertainment company, which is struggling to rebuild its troubled electronics business. Sony logged a group net loss of 128.40 billion yen in the previous year. Sony said in a statement that it will book an impairment charge of about 180 billion yen, the entire amount of goodwill in the mobile communications segment, in the second quarter of this business year. ---------- Smoke suspends shinkansen operations for 2 hours TOKYO - Bullet train operations on northbound shinkansen lines were suspended for two hours on Wednesday after smoke was detected from below a platform at Tokyo Station, East Japan Railway Co. said. JR East resumed operations shortly past noon on the Tohoku, Joetsu, Nagano, Yamagata and Akita shinkansen lines after firefighters found no fire at the site. The operator said a station employee detected the smoke at around 9:50 a.m. The incident caused the cancellation of 20 trains and delays of up to two hours for 48 trains, affecting about 33,000 passengers, according to JR East. During the suspension Tokyo Station was crowded with passengers. ---------- Tokyo stocks end lower, dollar stays in lower 107 yen zone TOKYO - Tokyo stocks ended slightly lower Wednesday, weighed down by selling amid a cautious mood ahead of the closure of the U.S. Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting later in the day. The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average edged down 22.86 points, or 0.14 percent, from Tuesday to 15,888.67. The broader Topix index finished 5.90 points, or 0.45 percent, lower at 1,304.96. On the currency market, the U.S. dollar remained in the lower 107 yen range. At 5 p.m., the dollar fetched 107.26-28 yen compared with 107.08-18 yen in New York late Tuesday afternoon. It moved between 107.10 yen and 107.31 yen during the day. The euro was quoted at $1.2959-2961 and 139.00-04 yen against $1.2956-2966 and 138.82-92 yen in New York. ---------- Weather forecast for key cities in Japan TOKYO - Weather forecast for Thursday: Tokyo=cloudy, occasionally rain; Osaka=fair, occasionally cloudy; Nagoya=fair; Sapporo=cloudy, occasionally rain; Sendai=cloudy, then fair; Niigata=cloudy, occasionally fair; Hiroshima=fair, occasionally cloudy; Takamatsu=cloudy, then occasionally fair; Fukuoka=fair, occasionally cloudy; Naha=fair. (c) 2014 Kyodo News |