Daily English News
November
November 1, Thursday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Raja Pradan and Ms. Hiroko Kitadai
1. Unemployment in the euro zone hit a record high in September.
2. Bulgaria is set to hold a referendum in January on whether to build a new nuclear power plant.
3. Syria’s opposition forces say the government has intensified air strikes since a U.N.-mediated cease-fire ended on Monday in failure.
November 2, Friday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Raja Pradan and Ms. Hiroko Kitadai
1. A man believed to be a U.S. serviceman has allegedly broken into a privae home after a drunken rage in Okinawa, southern Japan.
2. Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority is conducting a location survey at the country’s only operating nuclear power plant on Friday.
3. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has pledged support for people affected by Hurricane Sandy.
November 3, Saturday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. David Crystal and Ms. Fumiko Konoe
1. U.S. President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney have made late pitches in the key battleground state of Ohio with four days left until Tuesday’s election.
2. People in Okinawa have held a rally in front of a U.S. military base to protest an alleged case of trespassing and assault by a U.S. serviceman.
3. Expectations are running high in Iraq’s capital Baghdad as a 10-day trade show got underway showcasing Japanese industrial products and traditional culture.
November 4, Sunday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Hirokazu Sakamaki and Ms. Keiko Kitagawa
1. Anti-government forces in Syria have launched an attack on a key government military installation in the north.
2. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will leave for Laos on Sunday to a summit meeting of Asian and European leaders.
3. U.S. President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney have begun a final countdown of campaigning in key battleground states.
November 5, Monday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Raja Pradan and Ms. Yuka Matsumoto
1. The Japanese government has decided to host an international conference on Syria later this month in Tokyo.
2. The Communist Party of China has come up with a proposal to amend the party’s constitution.
3. Major Japanese auto maker Toyota is set to raise its group operating profit outlook by 625 million dollars, to just over 13 billion dollars.
November 6, Tuesday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Mick Corliss and Ms. Hiroko Kitadai
1. Financial leaders of the Group of 20 industrialized and emerging nations have ended their Mexico summit with a pledge to do “everything necessary” to achieve growth.
2. The latest U.S. poll shows President Barack Obama with a slight lead over Republican rival Mitt Romney in the race for the presidential election.
3. Tokyo Electric Power Company has over-reported the number of workers who are signed up to decommission the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
November 7, Wednesday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Michael Rhys and Ms. Keiko Kitagawa
1. U.S. President Barack Obama has secured a second term in office after defeating
Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
2. Japan and China have exchanged harsh words in their dispute over islands in the East China Sea.
3. A car bomb has exploded in an apparent suicide attack outside Baghdad, leaving at
least 26 dead and 30 injured.
November 8, Thursday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Patrick Devolpi and Ms. Helen Lewis
1. China’s ruling Communist Party has opened a key gathering that will see once in a decade the reshuffling of its top leadership.
2. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda hopes to hold talks with U.S. Barack Obama on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian summit in Cambodia later this month.
3. Hundreds of radiation monitors installed in Fukushima and surrounding prefectures have been found to show readings about 10 percent lower than the actual level.
November 9, Friday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Risa Shimizu and Mr. Maxwell Powers
1. Syrian opposition groups have reached an agreement to launch a government in exile in their bid to topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
2. Chinese President Hu Jintao has warned the country not to revert to the politics of the Mao Zedong era. He says the Communist Party should stick to its path of reforms and open-door policies.
3. The families of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea have urged the international community to press the North to resolve the issue.
November 10, Saturday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Mark Robinson and Ms. Fumiko Konoe
1. Senior officials of Japan and the United States have agreed to discuss revising the guidelines of bilateral defense cooperation. The move comes amid recent increases in China’s naval activity near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
2. The OECD* says China is likely to overtake the United States to become the world’s largest economy in four years.
*The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
3. The families of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea have called for cooperation in resolving the issue at a U.N. meeting in Geneva.
November 11, Sunday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Hirokazu Sakamaki and Ms. Keiko Kitagawa
1. Syria’s opposition forces are intensifying bomb attacks on government facilities across the country.
2. An Israeli retaliatory attack on the Gaza Strip has killed 4 Palestinians.
3. Thousands of people have rallied in a Tibetan-populated region in China’s inland province of Qinghai against Chinese rule.
November 12, Monday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Hiroko Kitadai and Mr. David Crystal
1. Syrian opposition groups have agreed to form a government in exile. They have chosen a moderate Islamic cleric to represent the new unified organization.
2. The Japanese economy shrank in the July-September quarter marking the first negative growth in three quarters.
3. The Indian and Japanese governments will exchange a memorandum to ensure stable export of Indian rare earth minerals to Japan.
November 13, Tuesday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Hiroko Kitadai and Mr. Mick Corliss
1. Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is considering calling a general election by the end of the year.
2. Six Gulf Arab states have endorsed a new Syrian opposition coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
3. Iran has begun the largest ever military drill to test its air defense system.
November 14, Wednesday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Hiroko Kitadai and Mr. Michael Rhys
1. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is facing fierce opposition within the governing Democratic Party of Japan over his plan to dissolve the Lower House dof the Diet by the end of this year.
2. A Japanese envoy is on his way to the Mongolian capital for a bilateral meeting with North Korea.
3. United Nations experts have expressed suspicions that North Korea may have exported missile components to Syria in violation of UNSC resolutions.
November 15, Thursday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Raja Pradan and Ms. Hiroko Kitadai
1. Japanese voters will go to the polls for a general election on December 16th.
2. The Japanese government is holding unofficial talks with North Korea about a possible visit to the country by the parents of a Japanese woman abducted by the North.
3. China’s Communist Party inaugurated a new top leadership led by Vice President Xi Jinping.
November 16, Friday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Raja Pradan and Ms. Hiroko Kitadai
1. Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will dissolve the Lower House of the Diet on Friday.
2. The Japanese government has downgraded its overall assessment of the country’s economy for a fourth straight month.
3. Fighting between Israel and militant group Hamas is escalating.
November 17, Saturday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Mark Robinson and Ms. Keiko Kitagawa
1. Fighting between Israeli troops and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has intensified. That is prompting Israel to prepare for a possible ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.
2. Campaigning for Japan’s general election has virtually begun following the dissolution of the Lower House on Friday.
3. Senior officials from Japan and North Korea have agreed to continue talks on pending issues between the two countries, including the abductions of Japanese nationals.
November 18, Sunday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Hirokazu Sakamaki and Ms. Keiko Kitagawa
1. A summit of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations has begun in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.
2. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is to call for the prompt creation of maritime rules at ASEAN and East Asian summit meetings, in order to resolve territorial disputes.
3. China’s new Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has said China needs to protect its sovereignty, security, and interests in development.
November 19, Monday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Raja Pradan and Ms. Yuka Matsumoto
1. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has said Japan will support the effort to achieve ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
2. U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand on Sunday. It is his first overseas trip since being reelected earlier this month.
3. Nearly 88,000 tons of sewage sludge in its incineration ash contaminated with radioactive substances has still not been removed to a permanent disposal site.
November 20, Tuesday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Helen Lewis and Mr. Mick Corliss
1. Leaders of ASEAN member countries and China have failed to agree to starting formal discussions on maritime rules to address territorial disputes in the South Korea China Sea.
2. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has said Japan will provide Myanmar with more than 600 million dollars in yen loans to assist the country’s economic development.
3. A ceasefire remains elusive between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
November 21, Wednesday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Michael Rhys and Ms. Keiko Kitagawa
1. Sixteen Asian countries have officially agreed to start negotiations early next year for the world’s largest free trade framework.
2. Japan’s trade balance for October sank into the red for a fourth straight month as exports plunged due to a slowing global economy and tensions over disputed islands with China.
3. Diplomats from the United Nations, the United States and Egypt are trying to arrange a ceasefire between Israeli forces and Hamas.
November 22, Thursday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Helen Lewis and Mr. Patrick Devolpi
1. Israel and the Muslim fundamentalist group Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire after a week of heavy fighting but it is not clear whether the ceasefire will last.
2. The U.N. Security Council has issued a press statement welcoming the Israeli-Hamas ceasefire.
3. A Japanese government official has briefed the families whose relatives were abducted by North Korea on the outcome of recent bilateral talks.
November 23, Friday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Maxwell Powers and Ms. Risa Shimizu
1. Palestinians in Gaza are celebrating 24 hours of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that ended eight days of fighting.
2. Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi has issued a declaration expanding his powers, including exemption from court review of his orders and laws.
3. The leaders of the European Union countries have failed to iron out their differences over a new 7-year budget framework on the first day of a two-day summit meeting.
November 24, Saturday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Mark Robinson and Ms. Fumiko Konoe
1. The Japanese government and the International Atomic Energy Agency will co-host a global conference on the Fukushima nuclear accident next month.
2. In the South Korean presidential race, the camp of the Democratic United Party has called on opposition forces to unite after an independent candidate announces his decision to withdraw.
3. Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian man near their country’s border with Gaza on Friday. It is the first reported death since the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel came into force on Wednesday.
November 25, Sunday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Hirokazu Sakamaki and Ms. Keiko Kitagawa
1. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and opposition leader Shinzo Abe have agreed to participate in a debate on Thursday over the Internet.
2. Egyptian judges say they are suspending all courts across the country in protest of Mohammad Morsi’s decision to expand his power by limiting judicial authority.
3. Candidate registration began on Sunday for South Korea’s Presidential election. The
Vote is scheduled for December 19th.
November 26, Monday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. David Crystal and Ms. Hiroko Kitadai
1. Japan’s political parties are expected to announce their campaign pledges for the upcoming Lower House election by the end of this week.
2. Delegations from about 190 countries and territories are gathering for the 18th U.N. Climate Change Conference, known as COP 18.
3. Syrian rebels say they have captured an airbase near the capital Damascus after a fierce battle.
November 27, Tuesday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Mick Corliss and Mrs. Hiroko Kitadai
1. Delegates from developed and emerging economies attending the first day of U.N. talks remain divided over a new climate framework.
2. Candidates in South Korea’s upcoming presidential election have kicked off their 3-week-long official campaigns, with 2 frontrunners competing neck and neck.
3. Senior officials of China and India have committed to building more economic cooperation between the two countries.
November 28, Friday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Hiroko Kitadai and Mr. David Crystal
1. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has downgraded the growth prospects for major economies next year.
2. France says it intends to vote in favor of granting the Palestinian Authority non-membership observer state status at the United Nations.
3. A United Nations panel has adopted a resolution on human rights violations in North Korea.
November 29, Saturday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Raja Pradan and Ms. Hiroko Kitadai
1. China is threatening to crack down on any foreign ships that enter disputed waters in the South China Sea without permission.
2. The World Meteorological Organization says the average temperature this year around the world marked the 9th highest on record.
3. The Japanese government has downgraded its economic assessment for all 11 regions across Japan.
November 30, Friday, 2012 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Raja Pradan and Ms. Hiroko Kitadai
1. The U.N. General Assembly has adopted a resolution raising Palestine’s status to that of a non-member state.
2. Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba has called on the international community to form a united front against Syria to end the bloodshed.
3. Japan’s defense minister says training flights for the U.S. Osprey transport aircraft are likely to start next month in various parts of Japan.