The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
----------
Japan government may seek to dissolve Unification Church: source
TOKYO - The Japanese government is considering pursuing a court order to disband the contentious Unification Church, which has been at the center of a political scandal since the killing of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022, a government source said Sunday.
If the evidence and victims' testimonies gathered so far are deemed adequate, a request for the group to disband could be filed with the Tokyo District Court as soon as October, following a meeting of the government's religious organization council, the source said.
----------
Japan to up response to quasi-legal drugs amid rising health fears
TOKYO - The Japanese government is planning to bolster its response to technically legal drugs amid a spate of recent cases where young people have experienced serious adverse effects from certain substances, health ministry officials said Sunday.
Some of the products, which include a partially-altered form of cannabis, have been confirmed to be more harmful than cannabis itself, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said. With concerns of more cases emerging, the ministry is investigating sellers and has added the substances to its list of illegal "dangerous drugs."
----------
Basketball: Co-host Japan fulfills Olympic goal at FIBA World Cup
TOKYO - By securing direct Olympic qualification at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup, co-host Japan achieved the lofty goal set by head coach Tom Hovasse and his players before the tournament.
World No. 36 Japan claimed Asia's only direct ticket to next summer's Paris Games by finishing first among Asian teams at the Aug. 25 to Sept. 10 World Cup in Okinawa, the Philippines and Indonesia, following an 80-71 victory over Cape Verde on Saturday.
----------
North Korea fired 2 cruise missiles on Sept. 2 in nuclear attack drill:KCNA
BEIJING - North Korea launched two long-range cruise missiles early on Saturday as part of a tactical nuclear strike drill in response to recent U.S.-South Korea joint exercises, North Korea's state media reported.
Tipped with mock nuclear warheads, the missiles flew for more than two hours in figure-eight patterns over the Yellow Sea off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula, racking up a total distance of about 1,500 kilometers, the official Korean Central News Agency said Sunday.
----------
Orient ties up with banks on service to help purchases of empty houses
TOKYO - Japanese consumer credit company Orient Corp. will tie up with more than a dozen regional banks nationwide in October to expand its new loan business aimed at helping people buy empty houses, company officials said.
The service, "Akikatsu Loan," is expected to help reduce the growing number of unoccupied houses in the country, driven by a falling population and a rapidly aging society.
----------
FEATURE: Kani city using performance to promote empathy across cultures
GIFU, Japan - Foreigners make up over 8 percent of the population of the central Japan city of Kani, making it one of the country's most multicultural cities, and this has inspired a local performance project that aims to bring people of various backgrounds closer and help them understand their differences.
Scripts for the plays performed in the Gifu Prefecture city are based on the participants' real-life experiences. The organizer, Kani City Arts Foundation, sees the project as "indispensable" for community building and hopes to promote mutual understanding and more meaningful cross-cultural relationships.
----------
India launches 1st space mission to sun, days after lunar landing
NEW DELHI - India on Saturday successfully launched its first space mission to the sun, just days after it made history in landing a spacecraft near the Moon's unexplored south pole.
The Aditya-L1 orbiter took off aboard a spacecraft from the country's main space center in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. According to the Indian Space Research Organization, it will travel around 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth over four months.
----------
Football: Former Spain attacker Mata joins J1 title chasers Kobe
KOBE - Former World Cup and Champions League winner Juan Mata has joined Vissel Kobe, the J-League first-division club said Sunday.
The 35-year-old Spanish playmaker has been without a club after leaving Turkish club Galatasaray this summer and will join a Kobe side in the thick of the J1 title race.
----------
Video: Flying drone in Ukraine to report on war's toll
