April

 

April 1, Wednesday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Yuka Matsumoto and Ms. Fumiko Konoe

1. Multilateral talks to reach the framework agreement on Iran’s nuclear programs continued beyond Tuesday’s deadline and to the early hours of Wednesday.

2. Only 31 countries have submitted targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions to the United Nations by the March 31st deadline.

3. International communities have pledged 3.8 billion dollars to help Syrian refugees affected by the country’s civil war.

April 2, Thursday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Raja Pradan and Ms. Hiroko Kitadai

1. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary YoThe shihide Suga says he hopes to meet the governor of Okinawa to smooth out the row over the relocation of a U.S. base in the southern prefecture.

2. The Iraqi government wants to regain complete control of the key northern city of Tikrit by trying to drive out remaining members of the Islamic State militant group.

3. The Palestinians have officially joined the International Criminal Code on Wednesday.

April 3, Friday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Raja Pradan and Ms. Mariko Kojima

1. Officials of Iran and six world powers have agreed on a framework that will form a final, comprehensive deal on Tehran’s nuclear development.

2. Kenya’s government officials say the death toll in a university attack in the eastern city of Garissa has risen to at least 147.

3. Chinese authorities have indicted former politburo member Zhou Yongkang for corruption.

April 4, Saturday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Fumiko Konoe

1. Security officials in Kenya suspect the gunmen who stormed a university campus on Thursday had drawn up detailed plans for the attack.

2. Japan’s central bank is still faced with difficult policy maneuvering, two years after unleashing massive monetary easing measures.

April 5, Sunday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Hirokazu Sakamaki and Ms. Keiko Kitagawa

1. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has asked Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga for his understanding in the relocation of a U.S. military base in the prefecture.  Onaga ahs demanded the move be scrapped.

2. Islamic extremists who claimed responsibility for the shooting rampage at a university in Kenya have vowed to carry out more attacks in the East African country.

3.Municipal authorities in Hiroshima are studying ways to preserve the aging Atomic Bomb Dome, a surviving symbol of the world’s first nuclear bombing in 1945.

April 6, Monday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Emma Howard and Mr. Raja Pradan

1. Civilian casualties have been increasing in the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, as fighting intensifies among the government forces, the Islamic State extremist group and others.

2. The International Committee of the Red Cross is preparing to deliver humanitarian aid to Yemen.

3. About 90 members of the Diet and local assemblies in Okinawa Prefecture joined a protest on Monday morning against the relocation of a U.S. military base within the prefecture.

April 7, Tuesday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Mick Corliss and Ms. Risa Shimizu

1. Senior foreign and defense officials from Japan and South Korea plan to meet in Seoul next week to hold their first security dialogue in over 5 years.

2. A U.S. State Department official has reiterated tha work to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station should proceed as planned.

3. U.S. researchers say small and harmless amounts of radioactivity from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident have been detected on the west coast of Canada.

April 8, Wednesday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Fumiko Konoe and Ms. Yuka Matsumoto

1. Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko have left Tokyo for the western Pacific island of Palau.

2. Russia and China have agreed to cooperate over historical issues this year, which marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

3. The defense chiefs of Japan and the U.S. have agreed to speed up talks to complete a review of defense cooperation guidelines.

April 9, Thursday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Yuka Matsumoto and Ms. Hiroko Kitadai

1. Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko have offered prayers for those who died on the Pacific island of Peleliu during World War II.

2. The foreign ministers of Yemen and the United Arab Emirates have condemned Iran for supporting Yemen’s anti-government Shia Muslim militants.

3. Islamic State militants have released more than 200 people of the minority Yazidi sect in Iraq after holding them for 8 months.

April 10, Friday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Mariko Kojima and Mr. Maxwell Powers

1. Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei index topped the 20,000 mark on Friday morning for the first time in 15 years.

2. The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daichi nuclear power station will start looking inside one of the damaged reactors on Friday, with the help of a robot.

3. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the international community to work to resolve the armed conflict in Yemen.

April 11, Saturday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Fumiko Konoe and Mr. Jeff Adolf

1. U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro have shaken hands at the venue of the opening ceremony of the summit of the Americas in Panama.

2. A report by the U.S. military predicts that the number of China’s coast guard patrol ships will see an increase of 25 percent between 2012 and the end of this year.

3. Pakistani authorities have freed on bail the suspected mastermind of the deadly 2008 attacks in the Indian financial hub of Mumbai.

April 12, Sunday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Hirokazu Sakamaki and Ms. Keiko Kitagawa

1. U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro have agreed to speed up negotiations on normalizing diplomatic relations and reopening embassies on each other’s soil.

2. Voters in Japan are casting ballots to select prefectural governors, mayors and local assembly members.

3. A court in Egypt has sentenced the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and 13 other senior members of the group to death for inciting violence.

April 13, Monday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Emma Howard and Mr. Yoshi Ogasawara

1. Millions of Japanese voted Sunday in local elections across the country.

2. Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she is running for president.

3. Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of 20 major countries will hold a meeting in Washington from Thursday.

April 14, Tuesday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Risa Shimizu and Mr. Mick Corliss

1. Russian President Vladimir Putin has lifted a ban on delivering missiles to Iran.

2. Japan’s ruling coalition parties have resumed talks on security legislation that would enable the country to exercise its right to collective self-defense.

3. The South Korean government has lifted a travel ban on a Japanese3 journalist currently on trial over allegedly defaming President Park Geun-hye.

April 15, Wednesday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Yuka Matsumoto and Ms. Fumiko Konoe

1. A commercial jet skidded off the runway at Hiroshima Airport on Tuesday night.

2. China’s gross domestic product grew 7 percent in the first quarter of 2015 from the same time last year.

3. U.S. President Barack Obama has notified Congress that he will remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

April 16, Thursday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Raja Pradan and Ms. Hiroko kitadai

1. Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations say they are concerned about China’s increased maritime activities in the East and South China Seas.

2. Officials at the U.S. Treasury Department say they will seek cooperation with the China-proposed Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank in such forms as joint financing with the World Bank.

3. An international treaty on sharing the cost of compensation in a nuclear disaster has taken effect.

April 17, Friday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Mariko Kojima and Mr. Raja Pradan

1. Japan’s government has defined in security bills the types of attacks against which the country can exercise the right to collective self-defense.

2. Finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 emerging and industrialized economies have started their meeting in Washington.

3. Russian President Vladimir Putin says he is ready to resume talks with Japan over a bilateral territorial dispute.

April 18, Saturday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Jeff Adolf and Ms. Fumiko Konoe

1. Finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 major countries have confirmed the importance of infrastructure investment to support the global economy.

2. An international agency says more than 900 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean Sea this year while trying to reach Europe from the Middle East and Africa.

3. A group of Japanese university researchers says the administration of a certain type of protein may be effective in the treatment of muscular dystrophy.

April 19, Sunday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Hirokazu Sakamaki and Ms. Keiko Kitagawa

1. Japan and the United States will begin ministerial talks in Tokyo on Sunday on issues related to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement.

2. Mobs targeting immigrant workers in South Africa have looted and set fire to shops in the largest city, Johannesburg.

3. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has blamed Islamic State militants for a bomb attack that killed dozens of people in the eastern city of Jalalabad.

April 20, Monday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Raja Pradan and Ms. Risa Shimizu

1. Ministers from Asian and African countries are holding talks in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta to strengthen political and economic ties.

2. EU foreign ministers plan to discuss possible ways to deal with a growing humanitarian crisis involving migrants attempting to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea.

3. Japanese government officials say they are willing to contribute another 42 billion dollars to keep reconstruction work running in areas hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

April 21, Tuesday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Mick Corliss and Ms. Risa Shimizu

1. Trade negotiators from Japan and the United States have concluded two days of Trans-Pacific Partnership talks in Tokyo.

2. South Korean Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo has offered to resign over a bribery scandal.

3. Ministers of the European Union have agreed to step up measures to respond to an influx of migrants from Africa and the Middle East.

April 22, Wednesday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Fumiko Konoe and Ms. Yuka Matsumoto

1. A Japanese court has dismissed a request to block the restart of 2 nuclear reactors in southwestern Japan.

2. A coalition of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia has declared an end of its air strikes against Yemen’s Shia Muslim insurgents.

April 23, Thursday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Yuka Matsumoto and Ms. Hiroko Kitadai

1. Japanese officials say they hope the talks between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday will add to momentum for improving ties between the countries.

2. The Japanese prime minister has told his Iranian counterpart he hopes that Iran can reach a final agreement with 6 world powers on curbing its nuclear program.

3. A coalition of Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, has carried out airstrikes in Yemen despite earlier declaring an end to its campaign.

April 24, Friday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Mariko Kojima and Ms. Risa Shimizu

1. The Japanese government is making final arrangements to set the nation’s greenhouse gas emission reduction target by 2030 at around 25 percent.

2. Leaders from Asian and African countries have declared their intention to strengthen economic cooperation among developing nations to eliminate poverty and economic disparities.

3. Tokyo police say a drone found on the roof of the prime minister’s office on Wednesday may have been controlled by someone up to 1.2 kilometers away.

April 25, Saturday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Fumiko Konoe and Mr. Jeff Adolf

1. Japanese police have arrested a man suspected of landing a drone on the rooftop of Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo.

2. A U.S. report says main issues on the agenda for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s upcoming visit to the United States are expected to be the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks and expanding defense cooperation.

April 26, Sunday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Hirokazu Sakamaki and Ms. Keiko Kitagawa

1. Nepalese authorities say that more than 1,800 people have died in the earthquake which shook the country.

2. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will begin an official visit to the United States on Sunday.  He hopes to strengthen the alliance between the two countries.

3. Voters in Japan are casting ballots to select mayors and local assembly members in the second half of nation-wide elections.

April 27, Monday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Emma Howard and Mr. Yoshi Ogasawara

1. More than 3,300 people have been confirmed dead in a massive earthquake that struck Nepal and neighboring countries on Saturday.

2. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has started his visit to the United States.

3. Delegates from about 190 U.N. member countries will begin talks on Monday to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

April 28, Tuesday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Risa Shimizu and Mr. Mick Corliss

1. Foreign and defense chiefs from Japan and the United States have agreed on new defense cooperation guidelines.

2. The leaders of Japan and the United States are expected to pledge to cooperate in dealing with any actions backed by forced that undermine territorial integrity.

3. The death toll in a strong earthquake that hit Nepal now tops 4,400.  Rescuers are racing against time.

April 29, Wednesday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Yuka Matsumoto and Ms. Fumiko Konoe

1. The leaders of Japan and the United States have reaffirmed that the alliance between their two countries will play a crucial role in bringing peace to the world.

2. The death toll from the powerful earthquake that shook Nepal on Saturday now tops 4,800.

3. More than 150 countries and one territory have supported a joint statement calling for an end to the use of nuclear weapons in consideration of their inhumane consequences.

April 30, Thursday, 2015 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Raja Pradan and Ms. Hiroko Kitadai

1. Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has addressed the U.S. Congress and promises the country will do more for world peace and stability.

2. The number of deaths from the recent earthquake in Nepal has risen to above 5,500.

3. An Austrian official says about 80 countries have expressed support for the country’s pledge to prohibit nuclear weapons.