遥かなる外国語マスターへの道

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LONDON (Reuters) - A square yard of
prime "space in a case" is up for auction in a London museum and the
winning bidder can exhibit whatever they want.

The exhibit must represent the winner's
life in the capital.

"You can give us a case history, a
family heirloom,
or a found
treasure, your grandparents' wedding photographs," the Museum of London
said in a statement.

"It's your place and your
case." The winning exhibit will be put on display until February following
the 10-day eBay auction.

　

1. 2006/11/21(火) 03:30:53|
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SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A Singaporean
student broke the Guinness World Record for the shortest time needed to type a
160-character SMS message on Sunday after whizzing
through the task in less than 42 seconds in a competition.

Sixteen-year-old Ang Chuang Yang typed
the SMS (short message service) message in 41.52 seconds, beating the previous
record of 42.22 seconds set by American Ben Cook in July, according to Singapore
Telecommunications, organizers of the competition.

"I'll try for 39 seconds next
year," said Ang, adding that the trick to speedy text messaging was to use
a mobile phone with larger keys on the dial pad.

SMS messaging competitions around the
world use the same SMS text provided by the Guinness organization -- "The
razor-toothed piranhas
of the genera
Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious
freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human."

1. 2006/11/17(金) 02:57:37|
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BAGHDAD (AFP) - Kidnappers tortured
many of the dozens of hostages seized
in a daylight raid
on a government building and killed some of them, a minister said as he
warned that he felt

Iraq

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Iraq
no longer had an effective government.

Higher Education Minister Abed Dhiab
al-Ujaili, a Sunni Arab member of the Shiite-led unity
government, said some 75 hostages remained in captivity
after the raid by militiamen
wearing police-style uniforms, 40 of them his ministry's staff.

The minister's comments came as the sectarian
violence in the capital showed no let-up.

Gunmen stormed a bakery
in the mixed Zayuniyah neighbourhood and killed nine Shiite
workers in the latest in a spate
of attacks by Sunni insurgents
on a trade
that has traditionally been carried out by the majority community.

Five other civilians were killed in
attacks around Baghdad, including two in a car bomb attack near a court in the restive
Palestine Street neighbourhood.

Ujaili said he was stepping
down from the government until the government secures
the release of all hostages and takes action against militias
suspected of carrying out kidnappings.

"Those who were set free told us
that a few of the hostages have been killed, while most of them were tortured,"
he told AFP.

"I'm very much concerned about
their welfare,"
he said of the remaining hostages.

Ujaili said effective action was needed
against the militias
before he could resume
his ministerial
duties.

"I'm stepping down until something
has been taken actively, there's not just talking," the minister told the
BBC. "The police force should be investigated and should put the right
people in the right place."

When asked if he felt there was
currently no effective government in Iraq, the minister replied: "That's
right, I feel, yeah, there is no effective government."

He also told state television Al-Iraqiya
he had asked for 800 guards for all universities across Iraq prior
to Tuesday's abductions.

"But it was not approved," he
said.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh on
Wednesday had played down the mass abduction of higher education ministry staff
and visitors, insisting that only 39 people had been abducted, of whom just two
were still held captive.

The blow to the hard-won Sunni
representation in Iraq's national unity government came as the United States too
piled on the pressure for more effective action against the militias.

A freed hostage and an eyewitness said
that the carloads of militiamen who carried out the audicious daylight raid on a
normally peaceful neighbourhood of Baghdad were wearing police uniforms.

A university professor who was briefly
kidnapped said the gunmen first seized their captives' mobile telephones.

"They also stripped the
(building's) guards of their weapons. After that they put us all in one place
and started blindfolding us," before leading the hostages at gunpoint to a
number of waiting cars.

"We were all huddled together and
after 20 minutes or so of driving we went over a bridge but not very far away
from where we were picked up," said the professor.

He said the hostages were later bundled
into a hall and questioned for a long time, being he was set free in Palestine
Street with a warning not to talk about his experience.

An eyewitness, a woman, told AFP that a
man dressed in a yellow business suit was directing the raid from inside a black
car parked outside the building.

She said she saw the gunmen in police
commando uniforms handcuff the hostages. "They brought all the men in the
parking lot, took their car keys and loaded them in the cars and drove
off."

The top US commander in the Middle
East, General John Abizaid, revealed that he had pressed Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
to disband the militias "very soon", only a day before the mass
kidnapping.

"He must disband the Shia
militia," Abizaid told a Senate committee Wednesday, referring to the Iraqi
prime minister.

Abizaid warned that US and Iraqi forces
have four to six months to bring the levels of sectarian violence down before
the conflict tips into all-out civil war.

Maliki has slammed the kidnappers as
"worse than extremists" for targeting scientific professionals and
demanded their swift arrest.

But in the past the premier has refused
permission for proposed US-backed operations against militia bastions, like the
Sadr City neighbourhood of Baghdad.

The US commander said he believed the
144,000 troops Washington currently had in Iraq was the right number.

But his steady-as-you-go message was
belied by other US officials.

US National Security Advisor

Stephen Hadley

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Stephen
Hadley confirmed that a
formal review was under way on Iraq policy. The review had been launched
"fairly discreetly" several weeks ago, he said.

The US military announced it had lost
four more troops in Iraq since Tuesday, bringing its losses since the 2003
invasion to 2,858, according to an AFP count based on

Pentagon

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Pentagon
figures.

The military also said its forces have
killed nine members of the group Al-Qaeda in Iraq in a raid near the town of
Yusifiyah, south of Baghdad.

1. 2006/11/17(金) 02:22:22|
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Donald Richie knows a thing or
two about Japanese film. A prolific
author, critic and Japan resident for almost 60 years, he has written authoritative
works on two of Japan's best-known directors, Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu.
But lesser known are his own experimental short films, five of which will be
screened as part of "Japanese Cinema Eclectics"
to be held at SuperDeluxe in Nishi-Azabu, Tokyo, on Nov. 15.

　

1. 2006/11/17(金) 01:34:47|
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Girl killed at cram school

Teacher admits stabbing student after 'dispute'




KYOTO (Kyodo) A 12-year-old girl was stabbed to death Saturday morning by a teacher at a cram school in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, police said.

Yu Hagino, 23, a Doshisha University senior and a part-time teacher at the Ujishinmei branch of the Kyoshin chain of cram schools, was arrested for allegedly killing Sayano Horimoto, a sixth-grader.

Hagino has admitted to stabbing the girl, police said. Investigators quoted him as saying, "I stabbed her with a kitchen knife in the course of a dispute." He was also quoted as saying Horimoto previously "poked fun at him."

It was the third slaying of a schoolgirl nationwide since Nov. 22.

Hagino was recruited by the cram school in November 2003 and taught Japanese and English.

The cram school was scheduled to hold an examination on Japanese for 13 students from 9 a.m. to noon, skipping regular classes.

But Hagino separated Horimoto from the other 12 students, telling them he would conduct a questionnaire over his Japanese class and ordered the others to go to another classroom, investigative sources said.

After they left, Hagino locked the classroom door and stabbed Horimoto in the face and neck with a 29-cm-long knife, the sources said.

The classroom is equipped with a security camera, but a monitor in another room was not on. Police suspect Hagino had turned it off.

After stabbing the girl, Hagino used his cell phone to make an emergency call to police shortly after 9 a.m., they said.

When another teacher finally persuaded Hagino to unlock the door and come out, he was still holding his cell phone and there was blood on his hands, they said.

Horimoto was rushed to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Police confiscated two kitchen knives and a hammer from Hagino.

Kyoshin said Hagino was not scheduled to work Saturday and that the questionnaire he said he would conduct also had not been scheduled.

Sadaaki Tachiki, the president of Kyoshin Co., which operates the Kyoshin chain of some 200 cram school branches in Kyoto and surrounding prefectures, said in a hastily arranged news conference that the girl had developed an aversion to Hagino.

At the beginning of December, Tachiki said, she began to refuse to take classes from Hagino, who had taught her Japanese.

The prestigious Doshisha University said Hagino enrolled there in April 2001. He is a law student majoring in criminology, it said.

But in June 2003, he was arrested on suspicion of stealing a purse from an unattended bag in the university library and injuring a security guard. The university suspended him for a year and a half.

Kyoshin officials said Saturday they were unaware of Hagino's criminal record when the cram school hired him on a part-time basis in November 2003 -- while he was suspended from Doshisha.

One official said it is Kyoshin's policy to ask applicants to submit their resume and closely check its content. But the official added that it is difficult to know whether applicants have a criminal record because universities often refuse to disclose such information, citing students' privacy.

One student at the cram school said after the slaying, "Mr. Hagino was a nice teacher who sometimes entertained us by telling jokes."

But the same student cited an incident two weeks ago in which Hagino scolded Horimoto in front of other students because she forgot to bring an exercise book to class.

According to people who know Hagino, he has no brothers or sisters and earned top grades at his junior high school. But they added he had been bullied and often quarreled with her mother in those days.

Kyoshin is a large cram school chain based in the city of Kyoto. It generally has a good reputation and is noted for closely following up on its students.

The Uji school is on the second floor of a three-story building, and many elementary school students stay in class until 11 p.m.

Kyoshin recruits young and enthusiastic teachers, many of them college students, to compete with other cram schools.

The Japan Times: Dec. 11, 2005

1. 2005/12/11(日) 02:52:12|
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TSE won't let Mizuho duck J-Com fiasco

27 billion yen loss looms for broker


The chaos created by Mizuho Securities Co.'s mistaken attempt to sell 610,000 shares of J-Com stock for 1 yen apiece deepened Friday as it was learned that the Tokyo Stock Exchange is trying to prevent the brokerage from reneging on the transaction, TSE officials said Friday.

One possible step is to set a certain price for a J-Com share that is higher than the investors' purchasing price and to forcibly settle the deal by paying investors in cash, according to bourse sources.

The exchange fears there are about 100,000 shares that Mizuho Securities will be unable to hand over to purchasers to settle the transaction, and is considering the forcible settlement measure -- the first such action in 55 years -- to preserve trust in the stock market.

Mizuho Securities President Makoto Fukuda announced earlier in the day that his company expects to incur a loss of at least 27 billion yen from Thursday's error trading J-Com Co. stock. But industry sources believe the loss could exceed 30 billion yen. That would wipe out its 28 billion yen first-quarter net profit.

Mizuho Securities would shoulder the full cost of the forcible settlement plan, in which case its losses could mount further, industry insiders said.

Due to a data entry mistake, Mizuho Securities placed an erroneous order Thursday morning to sell 610,000 shares of J-Com for 1 yen, instead of one share for 610,000 yen, during the human resource recruitment firm's(人材派遣会社の） debut on the TSE's Mothers startup market.

Since the size of the order is 42 times larger than J-Com's 14,500 outstanding shares, it was effectively a massive short-sell order and must be settled by delivery of the shares on the fourth market day from the order's placement. The order remained valid as of Friday.

Mizuho has been trying to buy back shares of J-Com shares to settle the order, but it is still far short of 610,000, TSE Managing Director Tomio Amano said at a news conference Friday.

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley Japan reported to the Finance Ministry the same day that it acquired a 31.19 percent stake in J-Com Co.

According to its report to the ministry's Kanto Local Finance Bureau, the U.S.-affiliated brokerage bought 4,522 J-Com shares Thursday when the recruitment agency went public on the Mothers market.

It is also believed that many individual investors, including day traders, jumped on the bandwagon and bought J-Com shares after the erroneous order was placed.

The forcible settlement would be handled by Japan Securities Clearing Corp., a public entity that guarantees settlements on stock transactions, sources said, adding that it would also set the purchasing price.

Market sources have estimated that Mizuho may come up 100,000 shares short.

Amano said the TSE suspended trading in J-Com shares Friday in view of （～を考慮して）the possibility of speculative trading breaking out over the share shortage. The bourse sources later said the suspension would remain in place until Monday, with the order being forcibly settled as early as Tuesday.

On Thursday, J-Com's stock price started gyrating wildly after the order hit shortly before 9:30 a.m. Although the mistake was discovered within minutes, attempts to cancel the order failed.

In addition, because it was such a large order, J-Com's share price fell by its daily permitted maximum to 572,000 yen, where enthusiastic buyers piled in and completed the transaction in less than 10 minutes.

The Japan Times: Dec. 10, 2005

[TSE won't let Mizuho duck J-Com fiasco]の続きを読む

1. 2005/12/10(土) 18:31:59|
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CHIBA (Kyodo) The body of a woman who had been dead at least a day was found inside her husband's car Sunday after it crashed on an expressway and the husband and their son were struck and killed by another vehicle, police officials said.
The crash took place in the Tokyo-bound lanes of the Higashi-Kanto Expressway in Sawara, Chiba Prefecture, at around 2 a.m. The car driven by Masayuki Ishikawa, 32, of Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, struck a roadside wall and then careened into the central divider.

A van hit and killed Ishikawa and his 3-year-old son, Masamune, while they were outside their vehicle, police said.

Police who examined the vehicle found Ishikawa's wife, Rie, 28, dead in the rear seat.

They initially thought she died from the impact of the crash. But a medical examination later showed she had been dead for one or two days before the accident.

Police plan to perform an autopsy to determine the cause of her death.

The Chiba Prefectural Police expressway unit said Ishikawa apparently failed to negotiate a gentle curve at the accident site.

According to police, Ishikawa's vehicle traveled for another 100 meters after hitting the central divider.

Investigators suspect the son was hit by the van after he was thrown out of the vehicle due to the impact of the crash. Ishikawa was apparently hit by the van after he got out to help his son, police said.

The Chiba police arrested the 66-year-old driver of the van, Seiji Abe, from Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death.

1. 2005/06/28(火) 00:48:35|
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Virus described as weak still prompts 5-km quarantine

MITO, Ibaraki Pref. (Kyodo) A weak H5N2-type strain of the avian influenza virus has been detected in chickens at a poultry farm in Mitsukaido, Ibaraki Prefecture, where about 800 of its 25,000 chickens died between March and May, it was reported Sunday.
The Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Ministry announced a ban on transporting chickens and eggs out of a 5-km radius around the Arebamento Kanto farm to prevent the virus from spreading.

Ibaraki Prefecture officials who checked the site and about a dozen nearby farms Saturday found no further abnormalities.

On Monday, the authorities will begin culling all of the chickens at the infected farm and disinfecting the site.

Eggs from the farm have been shipped to market through distributors in Saitama Prefecture and retailers in Tokyo.

But farm ministry officials said the virus cannot be transmitted to humans through consumption of eggs or meat from the infected chickens.

The H5N2-type is a weak strain of the bird flu virus, compared to the more deadly H5N1-type that hit Japan last year in Yamaguchi, Oita and Kyoto prefectures.

Those outbreaks were the first in Japan in decades, and they caused the death or extermination of more than 300,000 chickens.

The farm reported the case to the Ibaraki Prefectural Government on Friday after a simple test conducted by a private organization at the farm's request turned out positive for the virus. The infection was confirmed by the National Institution of Animal Health by Sunday.

The number of eggs laid by chickens at the farm has recovered to normal and there have been no more mass deaths of the birds.


'U.S. slighting consumers'
LOS ANGELES (Kyodo) The head of a Diet delegation probing U.S. countermeasures to mad cow disease criticized the U.S. Agriculture Department on Saturday for pressing Japan to resume beef imports without trying to understand consumer sentiment.
"They are telling Japan that U.S. beef is safe, so buy it, using only seller's logic, and they don't understand how Japanese, who are sensitive to food safety, feel about the issue," said Kenji Yamaoka, chairman of the House of Representatives Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Committee.

"And now they have a second case (of mad cow disease)," he said, suggesting that a resumption of imports won't come easily.

The weeklong visit to the U.S. by the committee members coincided with an announcement Friday by Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns of a second case of mad cow disease being confirmed in the country, and probably the first case involving an American-born cow.

"Japanese consumers cannot be reassured (of the safety of U.S. beef) by the way the United States explains it," Yamaoka said.

The Japan Times: June 27, 2005

1. 2005/06/27(月) 16:24:25|
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With one week to go before the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election, a new poll shows support for the opposition Democratic Party of Japan among voters in the capital is up 10 percentage points from four years ago.
Support for the Liberal Democratic Party meanwhile is down slightly, according to the Kyodo News survey released Sunday.

The poll also shows that support for Gov. Shintaro Ishihara remains strong at 75.7 percent but is down 5.6 percentage points from 2001, when the last metropolitan assembly election was held.

The Tokyo assembly election -- held every four years -- is watched closely because results often serve as indicators of nationwide voter sentiment. Kyodo News polled 1,472 randomly selected voters in Tokyo by telephone Saturday and Sunday and received valid responses from 1,047.

Respondents who said they will vote for DPJ candidates in the July 3 election accounted for 17.1 percent of the total, up by 10.4 points from a similar poll four years ago.

Those who said they will vote LDP accounted for 26.7 percent of the total -- 0.3 points lower than in the 2001 poll.

However, nearly 60 percent of the respondents said they had not yet decided which candidates they would vote for.

The ratio of supporters for New Komeito, the LDP's ruling coalition partner in national politics, was 8.3 percent, or 2.1 points higher than in 2001. Support for the Japanese Communist Party registered at 4.6 percent, or 0.7 points lower.

Asked to choose up to two issues that are of interest to them, 49.7 percent -- the largest group -- cited pension reform. Welfare was on the minds of 27 percent of the respondents, followed by economic policies, cited by 21.2 percent.

Campaigning for the assembly election officially got under way Friday, with 220 candidates vying for 127 seats.

Four years ago, LDP candidates were aided by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who had swept into office just a few months before the assembly election and claimed unprecedented popularity.

However, the Kyodo poll shows that support for the Koizumi Cabinet among Tokyo voters stands at 46.1 percent, down 38.1 percentage points from four years ago.

Meanwhile, Ishihara, who was first elected in 1999 and is now in the third year of his second term, remains popular with more than 75 percent of the pollees saying they support him. Roughly half of the respondents who support Ishihara said it is because he is a man of action and leadership.

The Japan Times: June 27, 2005

1. 2005/06/27(月) 15:36:14|
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Michael Jackson's fans have been celebrating the pop star's acquittal on child abuse charges after a four-month-long trial in California.
About 300 people cheered and sang the pop star's songs outside his Neverland ranch, but were ushered away by security guards after nightfall.

Hundreds of fans had rejoiced outside the court as the verdicts were read.

The singer, who left court without making a statement, had denied molesting teenager Gavin Arvizo.

We expected some better evidence, something more convincing - but it just wasn't there

Jury member


Hear the verdict

He was also cleared of giving alcohol to the boy, now 15, and conspiring to kidnap him and his family.

Speaking outside the courthouse, the star's lawyer, Thomas Mesereau, said: "Justice was served. Michael Jackson is innocent."

The star's father, Joe Jackson, told supporters gathered at the gates of the ranch that the singer was too exhausted to celebrate, but speaking on CNN, the star's brother said the verdict had been a huge relief for the Jackson family.

"As they kept reading the counts, the pressure was lifting off me and I was holding my mom tight and we all cried through every count," Tito Jackson said.

The verdicts on the 10 charges against the singer were reached after more than 30 hours of deliberations over the last week.

Family's relief

Mr Jackson's former wife Debbie Rowe, who defended the star in court, said she was "overjoyed that the justice system really works".


Michael Jackson waved to fans but did not speak as he left court

UK-based psychic Uri Geller, a friend for a number of years, said he was "so pleased" by the verdict.

"I'm trembling, this is so important. He did not let down his fans and all the people that love him. He went through hell and now the nightmare is over," he told the Associated Press news agency.

Fan Tara Bardella, 19, who came from Arizona two weeks ago to wait for the verdicts, said: "This proves that justice can prevail in America."

Raffles Vanexel, 29, from Amsterdam, said: "I cried as a little baby, it was the most beautiful day of my life."

Fans later gathered outside Mr Jackson's home, hoping to get a glimpse of the star, with cars backed up for at least 3km (2 miles) either side of the narrow lane leading to the Neverland ranch.


No special treatment

After telling the star he was free to go, Judge Rodney Melville read a statement from the jury saying: "We the jury feel the weight of the world's eyes upon us."


Michael Jackson fans react to the not-guilty verdicts


In pictures


The jurors had asked to be allowed to return to "our private lives as anonymously as we came", he added.

At a subsequent news conference, an unnamed male jury member said: "One of the first things we decided, [was] that we had to look at him as just like any other individual. Not just as a celebrity.

"And once we got that established, we were able to deal with it just as fairly as we could with anybody else."

Another juror said: "We expected some better evidence, something more convincing - but it just wasn't there."

Headed home

Hundreds of reporters and supporters gathered for the verdicts, with scores of fans bursting into tears as the decisions were relayed on loudspeakers.

Mr Jackson had been in court with family members including father Joe, mother Katherine and sisters LaToya and Janet.

The BBC's Peter Bowes, who was in court in Santa Maria, said Mr Jackson held a tissue up to his face and showed "muted emotion" as the verdicts were read.

The jury did their job - from what I heard I would have done the same

Jennifer B, Wisconsin, USA


Have your say on the verdicts

Afterwards, he walked straight to his car with little emotion and without the expected statement to the waiting fans and media, and headed home.

Santa Barbara district attorney Tom Sneddon, who led the case against Jackson, said he accepted the decision. "We did the right thing for the right reasons," he said.

He was "not going to look back and apologise for what we've done", he told reporters. "We've done a very conscientious and thorough job."

1. 2005/06/14(火) 20:25:21|
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