[Biography of the Day] from [Britannica]
Al Pacino
American actor Al Pacino, known for his intense, sometimes over-the-top acting style and for his gangster portrayals in The Godfather trilogy (1972–90) and Scarface (1983), was born in New York City this day in 1940.
[On This Day] from [Britannica]
1990: Hubble Space Telescope sent into orbit
The Hubble Space Telescope, a sophisticated optical observatory built in the United States under the supervision of NASA, was placed into operation this day in 1990 by the crew of the space shuttle Discovery.
[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Missing girl found dead; abuse probed
（不明女児：死体で発見；虐待判明）
Mom, two male friends held; fears ignored
OSAKA (Kyodo) Police have arrested the mother of a 9-year-old Osaka Prefecture girl who had not been seen since March and two male acquaintances after one of the two led them to the child's body buried in a Nara mountain graveyard.
Police suspect that Seika Matsumoto had been abused and that child welfare authorities were not alerted to her plight even though neighbors and her school suspected something was amiss.
Police planned Friday to perform an autopsy on Matsumoto, who was a fourth-grader at an elementary school in Nishiyodogawa Ward, Osaka.
She had been absent from school since March 11, and police started searching for her two weeks ago.
The police arrested Matsumoto's mother, Mina, 34, her live-in boyfriend, Yasuhiro Kobayashi, 38, and Mitsuhiro Sugimoto, 41, an acquaintance of the two. The three were turned over to prosecutors Friday.
Kobayashi's confession led investigators Thursday night to the graveyard in Nara Prefecture, where they found the body. The three suspects were later arrested that night.
Police said Sugimoto had been a regular visitor to Matsumoto and Kobayashi's apartment, and his car may have been used to take the girl's blanket-wrapped body to the cemetery. She was buried naked.
The mother has claimed she found the girl dead in her kitchen on April 5, but Kobayashi said he found her dead on the apartment's balcony on April 6, authorities said.
Police suspect Kobayashi had been abusing the girl for some time. Witnesses have told police they saw Kobayashi leave her on the apartment's balcony almost every day in late March, they said.
According to Tsukuda Nishi Elementary School, a school nurse in January asked the girl about a bruise on her cheek and was told that Kobayashi had hit her. The girl also said she was sometimes deprived of food and sleep. She said her mother did not intervene, they said.
The girl's homeroom teacher contacted the mother and asked to meet with her, but was refused. The mother made the excuse that she was visiting her grandparents in Wakayama Prefecture.
The Osaka Child Welfare Consultation Center said the school should have reported the suspected child abuse.
Until the end of last year, the girl had lived with her biological father and twin sister and attended a different school.
Tsukuda Nishi Elementary Principal Nobuyuki Horiichi said officials should have visited the home despite the mother's refusal to cooperate, saying, "It is regrettable that during her absence, we only made contact with the mother over the phone."
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Kusanagi apologizes for naked escapade
（草：破廉恥な全裸行為に謝罪）
(Kyodo News) Pop star Tsuyoshi Kusanagi faced reporters Friday night and apologized to fans and fellow SMAP members over his arrest the previous day for stripping naked while drunk in a central Tokyo park — an episode he can't remember.
"I drank lots of alcohol and fell into a state where I couldn't figure out what I was doing," said Kusanagi, 34, in dark suit and tie. "I did something I'm ashamed of as an adult and I deeply regret it."
He is unlikely to appear on TV programs or commercials for the time being.
After visiting the Tokyo prosecutor's office earlier Friday, the member of popular music group SMAP was taken back to Harajuku Police Station, where he was freed.
Kusanagi was apprehended on a charge of public indecency at around 3 a.m. Thursday at a park next to the Tokyo Midtown complex in the Roppongi-Akasaka district, after a man living nearby called the police to report a disturbance.
The pop star will probably not be charged.
Kusanagi has been a regular performer on Fridays on Fuji Television Network Inc.'s daily lunchtime show "Waratte Iitomo!" ("You Can Laugh!"), but Fuji TV announcer Rio Hirai said in the latest feed that he "is absent today because of the situation as reported in the news."
Fuji TV also plans to remove images of Kusanagi from its Monday night program "SMAP X SMAP," which features all the band's five members, by recomposing it with footage from previous shows, while TV Asahi Corp. will cut footage in its Tuesday night program in which Kusanagi appears.
Kusanagi is believed to have drunk more than 10 glasses of beer and "shochu" distilled spirits over a period of about six hours before his arrest, police investigators said Friday.
After his arrest, he was taken to a hospital and put on a drip due to his weak physical condition, but recovered Friday morning, police said.
He drank alcohol at a bar in Akasaka, Minato Ward, from around 8 p.m. Wednesday through around 1 a.m. Thursday and then went to another bar nearby, leaving that premises at around 2 a.m. to walk to the park, the police said.
A lawyer quoted Kusanagi as saying, "I went to the first bar and ate and drank alone, and then drank with its owner and a female employee after the bar closed."
He said he regrets what he did but does not remember how he got to the park or why he stripped, the police said.
Kusanagi's arrest has had huge repercussions in not only the entertainment industry but also in quarters ranging from business to the government.
An angry Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Kunio Hatoyama called Kusanagi a "bastard" Thursday as the ministry had designated him to promote Japan's shift to digital terrestrial TV broadcasting. But in the face of protests from a sympathetic public, Hatoyama retracted the comment Friday, saying he used "too strong a word."
[BUSINESS NEWS]
Saturday, April 25, 2009
JAL, ANA may end fuel surcharges in July
（日航・全日空：燃油特別付加運賃；７月からゼロへ）
Compiled from Bloomberg, Kyodo
Japan Airlines Corp. and All Nippon Airways Co., the nation's two largest carriers, may eliminate fuel surcharges in July for the first time since 2005 to match a decline in jet kerosene prices, they said Friday.
The airlines, which slashed surcharges by up to 92 percent this month, will cut the fees if jet kerosene stays around the $50 per barrel level, JAL spokesman Satoru Tanaka said Friday. Nana Kon, an ANA spokeswoman, also said separately that fuel surcharges may be cut to zero in July.
The airlines, which introduced fuel surcharges for the first time four years ago, will remove them if jet kerosene averages below $60 a barrel over a three-month period, the threshold for adding the levies, they said in February.
While eliminating fuel surcharges would slash their income, the carriers hope to offset this loss by attracting budget-conscious travelers stung by the recession during the summer holidays.
"I expect tourists will increase," said Ryota Himeno, an analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. "It won't have a big impact on business travel though. That's dropping because companies are cutting back on business trips."
During the Golden Week holidays from late April to early May, the number of overseas travelers is expected to increase by 10 percent from the same period last year, according to the travel industry.
The average price of jet kerosene from February to Thursday has fallen 56 percent to $54.86 from a year ago, according to figures compiled by Bloomberg.
Al Pacino
American actor Al Pacino, known for his intense, sometimes over-the-top acting style and for his gangster portrayals in The Godfather trilogy (1972–90) and Scarface (1983), was born in New York City this day in 1940.
[On This Day] from [Britannica]
1990: Hubble Space Telescope sent into orbit
The Hubble Space Telescope, a sophisticated optical observatory built in the United States under the supervision of NASA, was placed into operation this day in 1990 by the crew of the space shuttle Discovery.
[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Missing girl found dead; abuse probed
（不明女児：死体で発見；虐待判明）
Mom, two male friends held; fears ignored
OSAKA (Kyodo) Police have arrested the mother of a 9-year-old Osaka Prefecture girl who had not been seen since March and two male acquaintances after one of the two led them to the child's body buried in a Nara mountain graveyard.
Police suspect that Seika Matsumoto had been abused and that child welfare authorities were not alerted to her plight even though neighbors and her school suspected something was amiss.
Police planned Friday to perform an autopsy on Matsumoto, who was a fourth-grader at an elementary school in Nishiyodogawa Ward, Osaka.
She had been absent from school since March 11, and police started searching for her two weeks ago.
The police arrested Matsumoto's mother, Mina, 34, her live-in boyfriend, Yasuhiro Kobayashi, 38, and Mitsuhiro Sugimoto, 41, an acquaintance of the two. The three were turned over to prosecutors Friday.
Kobayashi's confession led investigators Thursday night to the graveyard in Nara Prefecture, where they found the body. The three suspects were later arrested that night.
Police said Sugimoto had been a regular visitor to Matsumoto and Kobayashi's apartment, and his car may have been used to take the girl's blanket-wrapped body to the cemetery. She was buried naked.
The mother has claimed she found the girl dead in her kitchen on April 5, but Kobayashi said he found her dead on the apartment's balcony on April 6, authorities said.
Police suspect Kobayashi had been abusing the girl for some time. Witnesses have told police they saw Kobayashi leave her on the apartment's balcony almost every day in late March, they said.
According to Tsukuda Nishi Elementary School, a school nurse in January asked the girl about a bruise on her cheek and was told that Kobayashi had hit her. The girl also said she was sometimes deprived of food and sleep. She said her mother did not intervene, they said.
The girl's homeroom teacher contacted the mother and asked to meet with her, but was refused. The mother made the excuse that she was visiting her grandparents in Wakayama Prefecture.
The Osaka Child Welfare Consultation Center said the school should have reported the suspected child abuse.
Until the end of last year, the girl had lived with her biological father and twin sister and attended a different school.
Tsukuda Nishi Elementary Principal Nobuyuki Horiichi said officials should have visited the home despite the mother's refusal to cooperate, saying, "It is regrettable that during her absence, we only made contact with the mother over the phone."
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Kusanagi apologizes for naked escapade
（草：破廉恥な全裸行為に謝罪）
(Kyodo News) Pop star Tsuyoshi Kusanagi faced reporters Friday night and apologized to fans and fellow SMAP members over his arrest the previous day for stripping naked while drunk in a central Tokyo park — an episode he can't remember.
"I drank lots of alcohol and fell into a state where I couldn't figure out what I was doing," said Kusanagi, 34, in dark suit and tie. "I did something I'm ashamed of as an adult and I deeply regret it."
He is unlikely to appear on TV programs or commercials for the time being.
After visiting the Tokyo prosecutor's office earlier Friday, the member of popular music group SMAP was taken back to Harajuku Police Station, where he was freed.
Kusanagi was apprehended on a charge of public indecency at around 3 a.m. Thursday at a park next to the Tokyo Midtown complex in the Roppongi-Akasaka district, after a man living nearby called the police to report a disturbance.
The pop star will probably not be charged.
Kusanagi has been a regular performer on Fridays on Fuji Television Network Inc.'s daily lunchtime show "Waratte Iitomo!" ("You Can Laugh!"), but Fuji TV announcer Rio Hirai said in the latest feed that he "is absent today because of the situation as reported in the news."
Fuji TV also plans to remove images of Kusanagi from its Monday night program "SMAP X SMAP," which features all the band's five members, by recomposing it with footage from previous shows, while TV Asahi Corp. will cut footage in its Tuesday night program in which Kusanagi appears.
Kusanagi is believed to have drunk more than 10 glasses of beer and "shochu" distilled spirits over a period of about six hours before his arrest, police investigators said Friday.
After his arrest, he was taken to a hospital and put on a drip due to his weak physical condition, but recovered Friday morning, police said.
He drank alcohol at a bar in Akasaka, Minato Ward, from around 8 p.m. Wednesday through around 1 a.m. Thursday and then went to another bar nearby, leaving that premises at around 2 a.m. to walk to the park, the police said.
A lawyer quoted Kusanagi as saying, "I went to the first bar and ate and drank alone, and then drank with its owner and a female employee after the bar closed."
He said he regrets what he did but does not remember how he got to the park or why he stripped, the police said.
Kusanagi's arrest has had huge repercussions in not only the entertainment industry but also in quarters ranging from business to the government.
An angry Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Kunio Hatoyama called Kusanagi a "bastard" Thursday as the ministry had designated him to promote Japan's shift to digital terrestrial TV broadcasting. But in the face of protests from a sympathetic public, Hatoyama retracted the comment Friday, saying he used "too strong a word."
[BUSINESS NEWS]
Saturday, April 25, 2009
JAL, ANA may end fuel surcharges in July
（日航・全日空：燃油特別付加運賃；７月からゼロへ）
Compiled from Bloomberg, Kyodo
Japan Airlines Corp. and All Nippon Airways Co., the nation's two largest carriers, may eliminate fuel surcharges in July for the first time since 2005 to match a decline in jet kerosene prices, they said Friday.
The airlines, which slashed surcharges by up to 92 percent this month, will cut the fees if jet kerosene stays around the $50 per barrel level, JAL spokesman Satoru Tanaka said Friday. Nana Kon, an ANA spokeswoman, also said separately that fuel surcharges may be cut to zero in July.
The airlines, which introduced fuel surcharges for the first time four years ago, will remove them if jet kerosene averages below $60 a barrel over a three-month period, the threshold for adding the levies, they said in February.
While eliminating fuel surcharges would slash their income, the carriers hope to offset this loss by attracting budget-conscious travelers stung by the recession during the summer holidays.
"I expect tourists will increase," said Ryota Himeno, an analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. "It won't have a big impact on business travel though. That's dropping because companies are cutting back on business trips."
During the Golden Week holidays from late April to early May, the number of overseas travelers is expected to increase by 10 percent from the same period last year, according to the travel industry.
The average price of jet kerosene from February to Thursday has fallen 56 percent to $54.86 from a year ago, according to figures compiled by Bloomberg.
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