February 16, Wednesday, 2022 (1:30 p.m.) Newsline read by Ms. Yamamoto Miki

1.Western countries remain cautious about Russia’s announcement of a partial withdrawal of troops near Ukraine. Russia’s defense ministry said on Tuesday that some of the country’s forces are pulling back after competing exercises.
2.An apparent partial Russian pullback from the Ukrainian border area is being met with skepticism from US and European leaders. Ukrainians flew their national flag in response to a call for a show of unity on Wednesday from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
3.In Japan, more than 91, 000 new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Wednesday. But in the 7-day period through Tuesday, the number of weekly infections dropped for the first time in two and a half months. Data presented at a meeting of health ministry experts showed that new infections fell by about 10 percent from the previous week. That’s the first decline since December.