■ Japan
Plane loses tires in landing
The two front tires came off a Japan Airlines (JAL) plane as it was landing Wednesday at Tokyo's Haneda airport, the company said, in the latest maintenance scare for the airline. Three of the 220 passengers complained of neck pain and one was treated at a nearby hospital, a transport ministry official said. The airline said none of its 10 crew members were injured in the flight from Shin-Chitose on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido to Haneda, which is Asia's busiest airport. Ministry officials said both fallen tyres were blown out and had come off after the plane had landed. "Because the plane was unable to move from the runway, we carried the passengers from the plane to the terminal using buses," JAL spokeswoman Chieko Matsumoto said.
■ Vietnam
Six bird flu cases reported
Vietnam has recorded six new cases of bird flu in the past week, state-controlled media and officials said yesterday. The six people, all from northern provinces, had been admitted to a hospital in Hanoi over the past week, the Pioneer newspaper said. Five of them were in stable condition, it added. Officials at the Ministry of Health declined to comment yesterday. Nguyen Tran Hien, director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology said those who had contracted bird flu since the last outbreak in December last year showed less severe symptoms of high fever, coughing and breathing difficulties.
■ Japan
Putin wants peace treaty
Russian President Vladimir Putin has told a top Japanese envoy that he wants to visit Tokyo in November to negotiate a peace treaty to formally end World War II hostilities between the two countries, Japan's government spokesman said yesterday. Putin told Yoshiro Mori, a former Japanese prime minister, that he wants to visit Japan around the time he attends the Nov. 18-19 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda. Putin hopes to use the visit to conclude a peace treaty with Japan to finally put an end to their World War II conflict, but an agreement has so far been held up by a 60-year-old territorial dispute over islands north of Japan.
■ Japan
Man brings knives to school
A man carrying two concealed knives was arrested after entering a Japanese junior high school but police said yesterday that nobody was injured in the incident, the latest to raise fears about school security here. On Friday, more than 50 students were injured when an 18-year-old Japanese high school student who said he had been bullied threw a bottle containing an explosive into a classroom at his school. Manabu Ichioka, 23, was arrested with two knives concealed in his trouser pockets on Monday afternoon after entering a school in Yokohama, just west of Tokyo, but no further details were immediately available, a police spokesman said. Kyodo news agency quoted the man, a graduate of the junior high school, as saying he had a grudge against the school because he had failed high school entrance exams, but police were unable to confirm this.
■ United Kingdom
Geldof, band in royalty spat
Irish rocker-turned-activist Bob Geldof has been threatened with legal action by ex-members of his old band, the Boomtown Rats, over alleged unpaid royalties, the BBC reported yesterday. The band members claim he owes them money from the 1970s and 1980s, when the band had hits including I Don't Like Mondays, it said on its Web site. Guitarist Gerry Cott, Simon Crowe, Garrick Roberts and John "Johnnie Fingers" Moylett have joined forces to try to get the money they claim they are owed, it said. Geldof was unavailable to comment on Tuesday, his spokesman said. The Boomtown Rats split in 1986, not long after they performed at Live Aid, which Geldof organized to raise money to fight famine in Ethiopia.
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