Sat, 12/11/2010 - 06:11 by Prince damin
Tokyo -- A pole dancer from Utah and an Australian fireman were dubbed the world champions at the 2010 International Pole Championship in Tokyo.
Zoraya Judd was named Pole Athlete of the Year by a panel of judges Thursday from the American Pole Fitness Association, The Sun reported Friday.
Meanwhile, the men's competition was topped by Duncan West of Sydney. West said he previously trained as an acrobat and only began with the pole about 11 months ago, Australia's National Nine News reported.
"It's a really good feeling, because I don't think of myself as a natural performer. To change styles and to be able to look out at the audience is a fairly huge step," he said.
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Thu, 10/07/2010 - 07:22 by Prince damin
New York -- U.S. markets closed mixed Wednesday with Tuesday's rally jolted back to earth by a private industry report that said the economy lost jobs in September.
Payroll firm Automatic Data Processing Inc., said the economy lost 39,000 private sector jobs in August to September. Goods producing jobs dropped by 45,000 in the month while service-providing jobs rose by 6,000, the report said.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed higher, adding 22.93 points, 0.21 percent to 10,967.65. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 0.78 points, 0.07 percent, to 1,159.97. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 0.8 percent, 19.17 points, to 2,380.66.
On the New York Stock Exchange, 1,399 stocks advanced and 1,574 declined on a volume of 3.9 billion shares traded.
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Tue, 09/07/2010 - 22:32 by Prince damin
Tokyo -- The Bank of Japan said Tuesday it would keep its overnight bank-to-bank lending rate near zero, at 0.1 percent, during a mixed economic recovery.
"Japan's economy shows further signs of a moderate recovery," the bank said in a statement.
The bank said production and exports had both increased, "albeit at a slower pace." Fixed investment has accelerated among businesses, the statement said.
However, the bank said, "The employment and income situation has remained severe, but the degree of severity has eased somewhat."
In addition, although price inflation remains "a possibility" due the rising price of commodities, "Japan's economy faces the critical challenge of overcoming deflation," the bank said.
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Wed, 09/01/2010 - 02:58 by Prince damin
Tokyo -- A restructuring plan for Japan Airlines Corp. would erase 16,000 jobs and jettison 49 of the carriers routes, court papers said.
"Submitting this plan is the start of JAL's reconstruction. We will surely do our bet to proceed with this," The Japan Times quoted JAL Chairman Kazuo Inamori as telling a news conference.
The plan also includes a request for the court to waive $6.2 billion of the airline's debt.
Inamori also said he would likely resign by February 2012.
"I would like to be relieved in two years," he said.
Among the changes ahead, the plan, which requires court approval, calls for retiring a number of Boeing 747-400 and Airbus 300-600 planes and purchasing more fuel efficient models.
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Tue, 08/24/2010 - 22:06 by Prince damin
Tokyo -- Millions of dollars of public funds in Japan are being used to prop up money-losing hotels run by mutual aid associations, the Finance Ministry reported.
From 2000 to 2009, the Federation of National Public Service Personal Mutual Aid Associations used up to $24.9 million per year in taxpayer funds to maintain its KKR Hotels, The Yomiuri Shimbun reported Tuesday.
The KKR Hotel chain includes 43 hotels that have received $210 million in taxpayer support in the past decade.
Hotels that run deficits for two consecutive years and are projected to continue losing money are expected to close. Since 1960, about 40 of the KKR Hotels have been closed, the newspaper said.
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Tue, 08/24/2010 - 11:26 by Prince damin
Tokyo -- Amateur astronomers in Japan have observed a fireball on Jupiter in an apparent impact event, the third in 13 months, experts said.
The Web site Spaceweather.com, which monitors cosmic events, said amateur astronomer Masayuki Tachikawa of Kumamoto City, Japan, caught the fireball on video Friday, SPACE.com reported.
Another skywatcher, Aoki Kazuo of Tokyo, recorded a flash on the gas giant at the same time.
The 490-mile separation between the two observers excluded the possibility of the flash being caused by an event near Earth, Spaceweather.com said.
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Mon, 08/23/2010 - 22:54 by Prince damin
Tokyo -- A Tokyo man became eighth person to swim the 15-mile Fehmarn Belt Strait between Germany and Denmark and said he was glad to "come home alive."
Yasutaka Kurokawa, 40, swam Aug. 15 from Germany's Fehmarn Island to Denmark's Lolland Island with three judges and a friend following in a boat, The Yomiuri Shimbun reported Monday.
He was the first person from Japan to swim the strait.
"It was really cold. I'm glad I've come home alive. I felt several times that it was beyond the limits of my ability. I'd like to thank the people who supported me," Kurokawa said.
Kurokawa said the stim took a total 6 hours and 24 minutes.
Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).
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Mon, 08/23/2010 - 22:50 by Prince damin
Tokyo -- World No. 1 women's tennis player Serena Williams said she will return to competitive tennis in late September at a tournament in Tokyo.
Williams last week withdrew from the U.S. Open, which begins Aug. 30, because of a cut on her right foot that required surgery. She hasn't played in a WTA event since winning at Wimbledon.
She suffered the injury shortly after winning the July 3 Wimbledon final but was able to play in a July 8 exhibition against Kim Clijsters. A week later Williams had surgery for the injury and was advised to skip the U.S. Open.
Williams is 25-4 this year and won the Australian Open in addition to Wimbledon.
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Mon, 08/16/2010 - 17:10 by Jamie Anderson
With a $1.34 trillion gross domestic product (GDP) for the three months ending June, China is on course to topple Japan as the world's second-largest economy.
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Thu, 08/05/2010 - 23:02 by Prince damin
Tokyo -- A pair of Japanese and American computer experts say they've calculated the value of Pi to 5 trillion decimal places, double the previous record.
Engineer Shigeru Kondo teamed up with U.S. computer science student Alexander Yee to push the calculation of the mathematical constant, PhysOrg.com reported Thursday.
Pi, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, starts with 3.14159 and continues with a string of digits believed to never repeat or end.
The previous record calculation of the figure to 2.7 trillion places was made by a Fabrice Bellard, a French software engineer.
Kondo and Yee worked together while communicating by e-mail.
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Thu, 08/05/2010 - 22:40 by Prince damin
Tokyo -- A man thought to be Tokyo's oldest resident at 111 years old actually died more than 30 years ago and was left to mummify in the family home, a report said.
Officials discovered the body of Sogen Kato in a room in an apartment in the city's Adachi Ward and believe his family may have kept his death quiet so it could continue receiving his pension benefits, Tokyo's Manichi Daily News reported Thursday.
Family members told officials the man shut himself in the room in 1978 after telling them he wanted to become a "living Buddha," the report said. Instead of being more than a century old, Kato was probably 79 years old when he died.
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Sun, 08/01/2010 - 13:03 by Sophie Anderson
What is mentioned in Twitter's 20 billionth tweet appears inconsequential but it brought glory for a user.
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