日: 2022年1月29日

1.Police have arrested a man who was holed up in his house with a gun for eleven hours in Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo. The individual had taken a doctor hostage the day before. The 44-year-old doctor was the man’s family physician. He was taken to a hospital and confirmed dead there.
2.The Japanese government is thinking about shortening the self-quarantine period for people who have been in close contact with those infected with the Omicron variant from the current 10 days to around one week. Prime Minister Kishida Fumio said in a TV program on Thursday night “the government is trying to cut the self-quarantine period as much as possible, while taking the characteristics of Omicron into account.”
3.Japanese police sources say a 19-year-old college student has admitted to using a smartphone to cheat on a recent standardized university entrance exam. The student, who lives in Osaka Prefecture, turned herself in at a police station in Kagawa Prefecture, western Japan, on Thursday. She said she saw news about the case and, after consulting her mother, decided to contact the police.

1.More than 180 people have reportedly been killed since the Islamic State group mounted an attack on a jail in Syria that houses the group’s members. Islamic State militants raided the prison in the northeastern region of Hasaka on Thursday last week to free its members there. Fighting is continuing between the militants and security troops.
2.Germany and France are working together to ease tensions over Ukraine. Senior diplomats from the two countries met with delegates representing Russia and Ukraine in Paris on Wednesday. After the talks, chief Russian negotiator Dmitry Kozak said the four parties agreed to continue with talks aimed at easing tensions.
3.The South Korean military says North Korea has fired two projectiles believed to be short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea off its east coast. Officials say the projectiles were launched from the eastern city of Hambung toward the Sea of Japan, traveling about 190 kilometers and reaching an altitude of about 20 kilometers.