The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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TEPCO halts attempt to extract melted fuel at Fukushima nuclear plant
TOKYO - The operator of the disaster-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex was set to attempt to remove a small amount of melted fuel from one of its crippled reactors on Thursday but put the trial extraction on hold due to issues discovered during preparations.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. has not said when it will try again after setup errors in the retrieval device forced it in the morning to suspend the first attempt to remove debris since the plant was devastated in the wake of a massive earthquake and tsunami over a decade ago.
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Japan's "Barefoot Gen" A-bomb manga author joins U.S. awards' Hall of Fame
TOKYO - Keiji Nakazawa, author of "Hadashi no Gen" (Barefoot Gen), an iconic Japanese comic about the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, has been chosen as one of the newest members to join the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame, the U.S. awards body's website showed Thursday.
The Eisner awards are considered the Academy Awards of the comic book industry.
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Iran to boost ties with Japan to address regional crisis: Araghchi
TEHRAN - Iran's new foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, said Wednesday that his ministry will boost ties between Tehran and Tokyo in all aspects, based on a comprehensive roadmap built on his deep knowledge of Japan, and will cooperate with Tokyo to address the regional crisis jointly.
"I know the capacity and capabilities of Japan. Japan can be more important in Iran's energy, oil, and economy section," the former ambassador to Japan told Kyodo News, giving his first exclusive interview after being approved by the Iranian parliament on Wednesday to serve as foreign minister for the next four years.
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Harris' running mate Walz says freedom at stake in White House race
CHICAGO - Kamala Harris' running mate for the presidential election, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said Wednesday that the American people's freedom is at stake in November and urged voters to understand that Republican nominee Donald Trump's agenda is not only "weird" but also "wrong" and "dangerous."
On the penultimate night of the Democratic Party's four-day convention in Chicago, Walz, who was relatively unknown outside his home state until recently, formally accepted its nomination for vice president and introduced himself to the largest audience of his professional career.
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Japan steelmakers to invest in Australian mine for stable coal supply
TOKYO - Japan's major steelmakers, Nippon Steel Corp. and JFE Steel Corp., said Thursday that they will invest a combined 160 billion yen ($1.1 billion) in a coal mine owned by an Australian mining firm to secure a stable supply of high-quality coal.
In a bid to achieve eco-friendly steelmaking, Nippon Steel will pay about 108 billion yen to acquire a 20 percent interest in the Blackwater coal mine in the state of Queensland, while JFE Steel will obtain another 10 percent, valued at around 54 billion yen.
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Paralympics: First group of Japan delegation enters athletes' village
PARIS - The first group of Japanese athletes competing at the Paris Paralympics entered their village in Saint-Denis, just outside of Paris, on Wednesday.
About 40 athletes and staff of sports such as blind football, goalball, rowing and swimming arrived a week before the start of the games, with some of them taking commemorative photos with their smartphones.
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Baseball: Japan to host Australia, Korea, Czech Rep. in 2026 WBC 1R
NEW YORK - Defending champion Japan will host the 2026 World Baseball Classic's first-round Pool C which includes Australia, South Korea, the Czech Republic and a qualifier to be decided, organizers said Wednesday.
The 20-team tournament begins March 5 at Tokyo Dome. The top two teams in each of the four round-robin groups will advance to the quarterfinals in Houston and Miami on March 13 and 14.
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Baseball: Ohtani now 1 steal, 1 homer shy of MLB's "40-40" club
LOS ANGELES - Shohei Ohtani stole his 39th base while scoring twice for the Los Angeles Dodgers in Wednesday's 8-4 win over the Seattle Mariners as he inched toward becoming the sixth Major League Baseball player with 40 steals and 40 home runs in a season.
Ohtani went 1-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout at Dodger Stadium, failing to add to his National League-leading 39 home runs, although he increased his league-leading runs total to 96.
Video: Super bantamweight world champion Naoya Inoue of Japan holds an open training session at Ohashi Boxing Gym in Yokohama near Tokyo
