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Japan Times

Ticket sales sluggish with Asashoryu gone

OSAKA — Things just got really lonely at the top. After perennial troublemaker Asashoryu quit sumo following allegations he attacked a man outside a Tokyo nightspot, Hakuho remains as the sole yokozuna and hot favorite to cart home the Emperor's Cup at the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament getting under way ...

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:56 PM

Real gains from tobacco tax hike

The March 7 cartoon above Readers in Council reminded me how unfair life is. I smoked for 36 years — a habit that could give me lung cancer or a number of other diseases. I recently heard from a nonsmoking friend from junior high school that he has lung cancer. ...

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:55 PM

Paramedics thought Tiger had been assaulted

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) The ambulance crew that responded after Tiger Woods crashed his SUV would not allow his wife to ride with him to the hospital because they suspected domestic violence, documents released Friday by the Florida Highway Patrol show. But a police officer who responded said he didn't know ...

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:54 PM

DPJ's Kobayashi grilled over funds

SAPPORO (Kyodo) Prosecutors questioned ruling Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Chiyomi Kobayashi on a voluntary basis Saturday in connection with a fund scandal involving her election campaign, sources said. During the questioning, which lasted about four hours at a Tokyo hotel, the House of Representatives member said she did not ...

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:53 PM

Dazzling, difficult debut is anything but a throwaway

If you live in Japan for many years, you see a lot of people come and go. The expat crowd is notoriously transitory, and no subset is more ubiquitously "temporary" than English teachers. Wave after wave of JET teachers come for a year or two, have their bite-sized exotic experience, ...

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:52 PM

Henin felled by Dulko in 2nd round

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP) Second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki rallied for a win in her first tournament in a month. However, former champion Justine Henin's comeback hit a roadblock. Henin, playing her third tournament since ending a 19-month retirement, trailed 4-1, in the third set Friday and lost to Gisela Dulko of ...

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:51 PM

Japan's first Spelling Bee winner bound for U.S. finals

Students from international schools across the country competed Saturday in Japan's first-ever Spelling Bee, battling to correctly spell English words and book a ticket to the finals in the United States. Sonia Ann Schlesinger, 13, emerged as the winner among the 55 contestants aged 6 to 14 from 28 international ...

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:50 PM

Cheap shot at Catholic Church

Why does Pacifico Falayfay, in the March 7 letter "Knowledge of Middle East lacking," attribute his past ignorance of Mideast history and culture to the teachings of the Catholic Church, which he says tends to "paint the Arabs and Muslims in a bad light"? If Falayfay had even a slight ...

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:49 PM

Unlocking cancer drug mechanism may avoid risk of birth defects

Scientists have uncovered how a drug used in blood cancer medicines leads to short or missing limbs in babies, moving closer to developing treatments without the risk of such birth defects. Thalidomide, the drug known for causing deformed arms and legs in fetuses, binds with the cereblon protein to inhibit ...

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:48 PM

Liu returns to spotlight at worlds

DOHA (AP) Liu Xiang's global comeback was a success on Friday although the Chinese hurdler admitted that it would be a far cry to imagine him contending for a podium place in 60-meter hurdles at the IAAF World Indoor Championships. Liu, the defending champion, said he had felt no nerves ...

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:47 PM

Arrest follows man's YouTube threat against singer Elton John

ATLANTA (AP) A man who posted a video of himself on the Internet holding a sign that said "Elton John must die" has been arrested in the United States for making terroristic threats. Neal Horsley, 65, was arrested early Wednesday in Carrollton, Georgia, about 80 km west of Atlanta, said ...

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:46 PM

Billions spent on flu shot oversupply

Japan has a surplus of 99 million shots of imported H1N1 flu vaccines, bought for ¥112.6 billion, health ministry officials said Saturday. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is negotiating the cancellation of part of the purchases with GlaxoSmithKline PLC of Britain and Novartis AG of Switzerland.

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:45 PM

Four arrested at Hong Kong broadcaster

HONG KONG (AP) The general manager of Hong Kong's leading broadcaster and three other employees have been arrested by an antigraft body on suspicion of corruption, a station official said Friday, in a case that has shocked the territory's entertainment industry. Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption said in a ...

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:44 PM

Patient's tale casts a sublime lightness on some awful scars of war

"Elephant," by Minoru Betsuyaku, is a postwar classic of Japanese drama. One of the very few Japanese plays written about the aftermath of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, it has been performed many times in this country since its premier nearly 50 years ago.

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:43 PM

Symbols of heaven on Earth

There are about 80,000 torii-gated Shinto shrines in Japan, many of them unassuming little roadside structures at which, from time to time, you might see a passerby pause, briefly join his or her hands in prayer and move on, enriched and refreshed in ways an outsider can hardly presume to ...

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:42 PM

Vonn locks up 3rd straight overall World Cup crown

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany (AP) Olympic downhill gold medalist Lindsey Vonn capped an historic season with her third straight overall World Cup title on Friday. Vonn won the final super-G race of the season for her 33rd World Cup win, eclipsing Bode Miller as the most decorated American skier.

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:41 PM

Don't exclude 'Chosen' schools

The Diet is deliberating on a bill to make public high school tuition free and provide ¥120,000 yearly to those attending private schools or certified educational institutions. But Mr. Hiroshi Nakai, minister in charge of the North Korean abduction issue, aired the view in February that pro-North Korean high schools ...

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:40 PM

Toyota report causes headache for ABC News

NEW YORK (AP) ABC News has called into question its reporting on acceleration problems with Toyota vehicles. The network's handling of a Feb. 22 "World News" story about potential problems with computer systems in Toyotas has created ethical questions and intensified bitter feelings the besieged automaker already had toward ABC.

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:39 PM

Cheating film director called 'Singapore's Tiger Woods'

SINGAPORE (AP) Columnists and bloggers are calling him Singapore's Tiger Woods — not for his golfing skills but for an extramarital affair that has tarnished the image of the city-state's most beloved film director. On Thursday, in a news conference reminiscent of Wood's confession on live television last month, director ...

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:38 PM

Empress of ennui beloved in Japan

She was a caged wife with an insatiable thirst for love and freedom. She was a famed beauty and fitness freak. She defied royal protocol and was often at odds with conservatives around her, including her mother-in-law. No, we're not talking about the late Princess Diana here, or making a ...

Posted on March 13, 2010 at 8:37 PM