AP - A man angered by a western Japanese city's welfare policy rammed a car loaded with gas canisters and kerosene into city hall Monday, injuring two workers, police said.

AFP - Leaders from the Group of Eight industrial powers will agree to establish a task force at their summit next month to tackle the world food crisis, a report said on Monday.

AP - Protesters clashed with police in Tokyo Sunday during demonstrations against an upcoming summit of leaders from the Group of Eight industrialized nations.

AP - Foreign ministers from wealthy nations welcomed North Korea's long-awaited declaration of its nuclear capabilities but warned Friday there remains a long way to go before the isolated Stalinist state can rejoin the international community.

AP - Group of Eight foreign ministers are condemning Zimbabwe's one-candidate presidential runoff, saying authorities there have made a free and fair election impossible.

AP - The world already knows that global warming is a serious problem and the time has come for politicians and experts to come together to map out a practical solution, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday.

AP - Master Japanese drummer Daihachi Oguchi, who led the spread of the art of "taiko" drumming to the U.S. and throughout Japan, has died after being hit by a car, an official at his ensemble said. He was 84.

Reuters - A Japanese mobile phone firm has halted an advertisement depicting a monkey as a political candidate after bloggers said the commercial was a racial slur against U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

AP - Police arrested a man for allegedly slashing a policeman with a knife Thursday in the same Tokyo neighborhood where a stabbing spree left seven people dead and 10 wounded earlier this month, a police spokesman said.

Reuters - Japanese athletes have begun a spartan, chopstick-free Chinese food training program to help them acclimatize for this year's Beijing Olympics.

AFP - A Japanese court on Thursday ordered the government to compensate local residents for noise pollution from a US air base on the southern island of Okinawa.

AFP - A moderate 5.3-magnitude earthquake shook northern Japan on Thursday, the Meteorological Agency said, nearly two weeks after a powerful tremor killed 12 people in the country.

Reuters - A Japanese warship steamed into a Chinese port on Tuesday, the first such visit since World War Two, in a military exchange aimed at putting relations between the former bitter enemies on a firmer footing.

AFP - Japan's Toyota Motor, in a close race with General Motors for the title of the world's top automaker, may suffer a decline in US sales for a second straight year, a top executive warned on Tuesday.

AP - Any U.S. decision to take North Korea off a list of terrorist nations should be linked to progress in solving the communist country's abductions of Japanese citizens, Japan's foreign minister said Tuesday.