Snow falls on Tokyo for first time this season

January 20, 2006

Snow has been falling in Tokyo and extensive areas in eastern Japan on Saturday for the first time this season, disrupting air and train services and injuring at least four people. The weather forced the cancellations of flights and delays in Shinkansen trains, particularly with snow falling in the Kanto and Tokai regions along the Pacific, which do not usually get snow.

Snow falls on Tokyo for first time this season, 21 people injured

January 20, 2006

Snow has been falling in Tokyo and extensive areas across eastern Japan on Saturday for the first time this season, disrupting air and train services and injuring at least 21 people, authorities said. Downtown Tokyo had 6 centimeters of snow as of noon; Yokohama 9 cm; Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, 8 cm; and Chiba city 3 cm. The figures mark the heaviest snow fall in the Tokyo metropolitan area since 2001.

Thousands protest after entertainment businesses closed

January 20, 2006

Thousands of Chinese protesting a crackdown on entertainment venues in the southern city of Shenzhen engaged in a five-hour standoff with police outside a government office Thursday, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Friday. The estimated 5,000 demonstrators, including employees of nightclubs, bars, saunas and massage parlors, were protesting the Guangdong Province Public Security Bureau's closure of the venues Wednesday just ahead of the profitable Lunar New Year holiday that begins at the end of month, the Ming Pao Daily reported.