August 13, Friday, 2021 (1:30 p.m.) Newsline

1. Japan’s Meteorological Agency has issued its strongest emergency warning for heavy rain in the western city of Hiroshima. Agency officials say lingering rainclouds have triggered torrential downpours in Hiroshima Prefecture.
2. Japan’s central government plans to work more closely with local governments to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The panel calls for intensifying anti-infection measures over the two weeks through August 26, which includes the annual summer holiday period. 3. People in Japan have been remembering the victims of the country’s worst air disaster. An airline crash 36 years ago claimed 520 lives. Bereaved relatives headed to the site to honor the memory of their loved ones. On August 12, 1985, a Japan Airlines jumbo jet crashed into a mountain in Gunma Prefecture, north of Tokyo. The plane was nearly full because people were traveling during a holiday season. Only four people on board survived.