TOKYO - The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Over 2,000 remain in shelters 1 month after Kumamoto quake
KUMAMOTO, Japan - More than 2,000 people remained in evacuation centers Friday, a month after a powerful earthquake struck Kumamoto Prefecture in southwestern Japan, with extreme heat raising concern about disaster-related deaths and authorities rushing to help survivors rebuild their lives.
Some 2,460 people continued to take refuge at 61 evacuation centers as of Thursday, down from more than 10,000 at one point, while many others are still living in damaged homes, according to officials.
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Japan to expand defense equipment aid to 12 nations amid China concerns
TOKYO - Japan plans to provide defense equipment and other supplies to the armed forces of at least 12 like-minded countries under its Official Security Assistance program in fiscal 2026, up from eight countries the previous year, people familiar with the matter said Thursday.
The military of Kenya, which sits on the western Indian Ocean, is expected to be a first-time recipient under the program, with the Japanese government seeking to strengthen maritime security cooperation, particularly in surveillance and monitoring, amid China's growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.
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Over 1,400 missing, hundreds dead after flash floods hit Nepal-China border
KATHMANDU - More than 1,400 people went missing and hundreds died after a catastrophic flash flood and mudslide hit areas along the border between Nepal and China's Tibet Autonomous Region, local authorities said Thursday.
Search and rescue efforts continued a day after the disaster, which reports said may have been caused by a glacier collapse, as the combined death toll from both sides of the border surpassed 390.
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Japan's July jobless rate falls to 2.4% in July
TOKYO - Japan's unemployment rate in July fell to 2.4 percent from the previous month, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Friday.
The job availability ratio was unchanged from June at 1.18, meaning there were 118 jobs available for every 100 job seekers, according to separate data from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
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2 Chilean men arrested over theft of watches worth 200 mil. yen in Tokyo
TOKYO - Two Chilean men were arrested Thursday for allegedly stealing luxury watches from a shop in Tokyo, an investigative source said.
The men, in their 20s and 30s, were arrested after four watches worth around 200 million yen ($1.3 million) were snatched in a matter of seconds from a shop in a shopping complex popular among manga and anime fans in Tokyo's Nakano Ward.
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Japan PM sends condolence message to China's Xi over flash flood
TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Thursday sent a message of condolences to Chinese President Xi Jinping after a deadly flash flood along the China-Nepal border.
The message was also addressed to Chinese Premier Li Qiang, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
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Philippines' Muslim autonomous region chief calls for peaceful election
PARANG, Philippines - The leader of the Philippines' Muslim-led Bangsamoro autonomous region on Mindanao Island said he wants its first parliamentary election slated for next month to be a "fair, clean and peaceful" poll.
Abdulraof Macacua, chief minister of the region's interim government, told reporters in Parang that the success of the election on Sept. 14 would indicate that the 2014 peace accord between the central government and a former rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, is moving forward.
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Japan to launch travel subsidy program for Kyushu to aid quake recovery
TOKYO - The Japanese government on Thursday decided on support measures for areas hit by the earthquake in Kumamoto Prefecture last month, including a travel subsidy across the country's southwestern main island of Kyushu.
The plan, decided at an emergency disaster response headquarters meeting, will subsidize accommodation and tour costs across all seven prefectures of Kyushu, with the Japan Tourism Agency set to flesh out the details.
