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  • Japan clarifies report on North Korean missile launches

    While confirming North Korea's missile launches Saturday, the Japanese government clarified none of the missiles landed in its territorial waters, Xinhua reported. South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, citing its country's defence ministry, had reported that North Korea launched three short-range guided missiles into the Sea of Japan. The ministry had detected two missiles being launched in the ...

  • Nissan Expands in Japan’s Minicar Market With First Joint Model

    Japan next month amid increasing demand from the nation's consumers for smaller and cheaper vehicles. The automaker, based in Yokohama, Japan, began production of the minicar at Mitsubishi's Mizushima plant in Okayama prefecture today. The model will be sold as the Nissan DAYZ and Mitsubishi eK Wagon in June, according to the companies. Nissan, which previously sold rebadged ...

  • Arrest highlights U.S. Russian spies’ rich history

    WASHINGTON - The embarrassing arrest of a suspected CIA officer in Moscow is the latest reminder that, even after the Cold War, the U.S. and Russia are engaged in an espionage battle with secret tactics, spying devices and training that sometimes isn’t enough to avoid being caught. The most recent skirmish involves Russian security services ambushing a 29-year-old diplomat who they say ...

  • ‘All issues on table’ in China-India talks

    NEW DELHI - India says all issues will be ';on the table,'; including a recent border spat and a festering trade imbalance, during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to the South Asian giant, which started Sunday. At the same time, New Delhi thinks ';very highly'; of Li’s decision to make India his first overseas stop since taking charge as premier, Indian ...

  • Product names show language creativity at work

    Recently I was asked to write a blurb for a new liquid plant-nutrient. As soon as I saw the name of the product, ???? (Hayane Hayaoki), I smiled at this example of linguistic creativity. The four characters translate loosely as ';early root, early sprouting';; ...

Movie Review

Space Cowboys

Clint Eastwood's Space Cowboys is a somewhat clumsy, but nevertheless enjoyable ode to the aged who aren't ready to declare themselves over the hill, a space adventure in which the heroes' mean age is well above 65. It is a movie where the young are mocked for being obnoxious and know-it-all, while the elderly are respected for their experience and knowledge. Of course, the fact that those ... ...

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  • E-cigarettes blow fog into ban on D.C. Metro

    WASHINGTON - Smoking’s not allowed on Washington’s Metro system. But what about e-smoking? The week before last, I was riding on the Orange Line when I saw a woman holding what I thought was a high-end felt-tip marker. It had a round barrel that tapered to a narrower point. Then she stuck the narrow end in her mouth, sucked, and blew out a white cloud. It didn’t smell like ...

  • Creating roadblocks to cuts in nuclear arms

    The identification of a geological fracture zone beneath a Tsuruga nuclear plant reactor as an active fault may force the decommissioning of the reactor in Fukui ...

  • Green sovereign wealth offering benefits to all

    PARIS - At the end of 2011, sovereign wealth funds’ assets under management amounted to $3 trillion, following 237 direct investments worth $81 billion that year. Some experts even estimate SWFs’ assets to be worth $6 trillion. This means that SWFs, the avatars of state capitalism, are now twice as rich as the world’s hedge funds, the totems of liberal capitalism’s ...

  • France must lead breakuup of euro

    LONDON - France played a decisive role in shaping not only the euro system but the entire European project. This history has predisposed French leaders to the goal of preserving the euro at all costs. Those costs, as we explained in Part 1 of this article, have become quite insupportable. A new strategy is needed, and France’s role in shaping it will once again be pivotal. France sits on ...

  • For a more ‘friendly’ Japan

    Life in Japan just seems tailor-made for certain foreign residents, who slip into the fabric of this society as smoothly as a hand slides into a glove. American Curtis Patterson, a professional koto player and music teacher, is a case in point. Not only ...

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