The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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70% of tsunami-risk areas in Japan have not run winter shelter drills
TOKYO - Nearly 70 percent of 108 Japanese coastal municipalities at risk of damage from tsunami triggered by a powerful earthquake have never conducted drills for operating evacuation centers in the winter, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday.
The survey, which examined 108 municipalities spanning seven prefectures from Chiba to Hokkaido, assessed preparedness in the event of a tsunami caused by an earthquake in the Japan and Chishima trenches in the Pacific Ocean. It revealed delays in implementing measures to address the severe coldness of shelters in the winter.
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Australia looks to Japan for collaboration with AUKUS on defense tech
SYDNEY - Australia is keen to see Japan collaborate with the AUKUS security partnership, also involving the United States and Britain, on defense technology development in the future, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles said in a recent interview.
While ruling out Tokyo's participation in the centerpiece project for AUKUS to deliver nuclear-powered submarines to Canberra, Marles said Australia wants to "work more closely with Japan" on technological developments, acknowledging that the Asian nation is a "place of innovation" and is "at the cutting edge of technology."
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G7 agrees to continue supporting Ukraine
MUNICH/ROME - Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven on Saturday agreed to continue providing military and economic support to Ukraine ahead of the two-year anniversary of the start of Russian aggression against its neighbor.
The ministers observed a minute's silence at the start of their meeting in Munich, Germany, in memory of Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition activist and prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin who died Friday at a jail in the Arctic region.
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Ex-Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra released on parole: local reports
BANGKOK - Convicted former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was released on parole Sunday after serving six-months of a one-year sentence, local reports said.
Thaksin, 74, accompanied by his children, left the Police General Hospital in Bangkok around 6 a.m. and headed to his private residence in western capital. He served his sentence in hospital due to illness after spending just hours in prison.
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Detained senior police officer commits suicide amid rape accusations
HIROSHIMA - A senior superintendent who had been detained over accusations of raping at least three women last year died in a police cell in Hiroshima in an apparent suicide, police said Sunday.
Koichi Iwamoto, 58, was found unconscious with his long johns around his neck and tied to the door of the toilet in his cell in Hiroshima Chuo Police Station at around 8:20 p.m. Saturday and pronounced dead at a hospital, the police said.
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Speed skating: Miho Takagi wins 1,000 for 1st world single distance gold
CALGARY, Canada - Japan's Miho Takagi won her first individual gold medal of the world speed skating single distances championships Saturday in the women's 1,000 meters.
The Beijing Olympics winner over the distance clocked 1 minute, 12.83 seconds at Calgary Olympic Oval, finishing 0.44 ahead of Chinese runner-up Han Mei. Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands was another 0.01 behind in third.
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Character bento classes boost restaurant potential amid Japan boom
TOKYO - Workshops for foreign visitors to make bento box lunches with food items arranged in the shapes of cute characters could help uncover new possibilities for restaurants seeking to cater to the inbound tourist trade.
While cooking classes for tourists are not a new concept, the newly-launched "kyaraben" classes by event-organizing group Umami Experience are hosted by dining establishments, effectively utilizing the gap between mealtimes to generate new revenue streams.
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Japan refuses to grant visa to ex-Guantanamo Bay detainee now author
TOKYO - Japan refused to issue a visa to an internationally acclaimed Mauritanian author who was formerly detained for 14 years without charge by the United States at its Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, sources close to the matter said Sunday.
The Japanese government denied Mohamedou Slahi the visa in January. It was the second time Slahi, who was cleared for release by the United States in October 2016, has been denied entry to Japan after a separate application in 2020 was also rejected.
Video: Celebrities appear in a Chinese New Year's parade
