Japan News Online

Ise Mayor Kato goes missing, fall into flooded river suspected

Mitsunori Kato, mayor of Ise, Mie Prefecture, has been missing since late Sunday afternoon, Ise city government officials said Monday. The city in the western Japanese prefecture fears Kato, 57, may have been swept away by a river that has risen due to heavy rain, the officials said. ==Kyodo

Survivor benefits awarded to families of 4 U.S. H-bomb test victims

The government has paid survivorship benefits under the state-run insurance scheme for seamen to the bereaved families of four former ship crew members who died following irradiation from a 1954 U.S. hydrogen bomb test in the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, a local insurance office said Sunday. All of the four died of liver diseases, among them cancer, in their 50s to 70s, after they were infected with hepatitis C from blood transfusion to treat their radiation-linked diseases, the Social Insurance Agency's Shizuoka branch said.

At least 4 wounded in riot at Afghan prison

At least four people were wounded in a riot by prisoners at a high-security prison in Kabul, officials and reports said Sunday. The riot started on Saturday night after scores of inmates seized control of a cell block of Pule Charkhi Prison, said Abdul Salam Bakhshi, general director of prisons in Afghanistan.