Kyodo News (Society)

A cow has been found showing symptoms of salivation and fever on Ishigaki Island, Okinawa Prefecture, in a possible case of infection with foot-and-mouth disease, prefectural government officials said Tuesday. Although the cow has no blisters which are characteristic of the disease, the prefectural government sent a sample from the cow to the National Institute of Animal Health in Tokyo for a gene test.

The operators of Narita airport and a nearby Hilton hotel started accepting applications Tuesday for a new celebratory package which enables couples to have weddings in the airport's lobby. A couple can have a wedding in the departure lobby in the South Wing of Terminal 1 of the airport, east of Tokyo, in the ''Airport Wedding'' package worth some 400,000 yen, Narita International Airport Corp. and Hilton said, adding they only take one booking a week on weekends and holidays.

Actor Eita and singer Kaela Kimura plan to marry as Kimura is pregnant and the baby is due in November, her office said Tuesday. Eita, 27, and Kimura, 25, have been dating since last summer after appearing in ''Kiraware Matsuko no Issho,'' a movie released in 2006, according to the office. ==Kyodo

Japanese Emperor Akihito and visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao discussed the history of bilateral exchanges during their meeting Tuesday at the Imperial Palace, Imperial Household Agency officials said. Wen was quoted as saying at the meeting, ''It is very important to learn the history of people's exchanges, but many youngsters in China are not aware of such history. I think it is necessary to educate them appropriately.'' The emperor responded, ''I think it is important to know about historical facts.''

The distribution of child-rearing allowances, one of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's key campaign promises for last year's general election, started Tuesday in seven small municipalities in three prefectures. According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the town of Asahi in Toyama Prefecture, the village of Awashimaura in Niigata Prefecture and five towns in Hokkaido became the first Japanese municipalities to make the monthly 13,000 yen payment per child aged 15 and younger, as the payment day varies among local governments. In June, the municipalities will pay for the April and May benefits.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told Miyazaki Gov. Hideo Higashikokubaru on Tuesday that the central government will work with the southwestern prefecture to help contain the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease among livestock. Hatoyama, visiting Miyazaki for the first time since the first suspected case of infection was confirmed six weeks ago, said in talks with Higashikokubaru at the prefectural government office, ''We will work together to eradicate foot-and-mouth disease. The government will do everything it can.''

A 22-year-old male care worker was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of killing a 3-month old baby boy at his apartment in Okinawa, police said. According to the Okinawa prefectural police, Shinichi Gaja head-butted the head of the infant son of his domestic partner several times and threw him on a mattress by his legs in their apartment Saturday while the baby's mother was at work.

The distribution of child-rearing allowances, one of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's key campaign promises for last year's general election, started Tuesday in seven small municipalities in three prefectures. According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the town of Asahi in Toyama Prefecture, the village of Awashimaura in Niigata Prefecture and five towns in Hokkaido became the first Japanese municipalities to make the monthly 13,000 yen payment per child aged 15 and younger, as the payment day varies among local governments. In June, the municipalities will pay for the April and May benefits.

Japanese Emperor Akihito met with visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Tuesday ahead of Wen's departure from Japan the same day. The emperor met Wen for the first time since the premier's last visit to Japan in April 2007. ==Kyodo

The village of Overloon in the southern Netherlands will host the annual Hiroshima Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Exhibition slated for June 1 through Sept. 30. The exhibition at the village's Liberty Park museum will feature as its main guest Ayako Okumura, 73, who as an eight-year-old survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki by the United States in 1945 but lost her family.

Japan and China agreed Monday to aim for the launch of a hot line between their leaders to discuss important issues in bilateral ties and avert emergencies in the wake of China's recent activities around Japanese waters, a Japanese official said. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama conveyed his concern to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao over incidents such as Chinese navy choppers flying in close proximity to Japanese destroyers in waters off Japan, and urged Beijing not to let similar incidents occur again.

The village of Overloon in the southern Netherlands will host the annual Hiroshima Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Exhibition slated for June 1 through Sept. 30. The exhibition at the village's Liberty Park will feature as its main guest Ayako Okumura, 73, who as an eight-year-old survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 but lost her family. She will be speaking about her experiences.

The Miyazaki prefectural government completed culling most stud bulls Monday to help prevent further spread of foot-and-mouth disease that has hit local livestock farming, leaving the southwestern Japanese prefecture with only five stud bulls, which had been isolated after the disease's outbreak. The central government said, meanwhile, that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will visit the prefecture Tuesday to discuss with local officials measures to fight the damaging epidemic.

The proportion of wives who favor a traditional domestic role is increasing, mainly among people in their 20s, a government survey showed Monday. The survey, conducted by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research in July 2008, covered 13,000 households and analyzed responses from 6,069 married women aged up to 69.

Nongovernmental group members helping immigrants in Japan called on the Japanese government Monday to drastically improve the way it treats illegal immigrants, saying a number of incidents over the past few months indicate how little it pays attention to protecting their human rights. Hiroka Shoji of Amnesty International Japan referred to mass hunger strikes at two immigration centers in Ibaraki and Osaka prefectures, the death of a Ghanaian man while being deported from Japan, two suicides at the Ibaraki immigration center and outbreaks of tuberculosis at the Ibaraki center and a detention facility in Tokyo, which took place between February and May.

Sharp Corp. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. on Monday took the wraps off their 3-D liquid crystal display televisions that will hit the Japanese market in summer, as the two Japanese electronics makers join rivals to meet strong expected demand for 3-D TVs. Sharp said it will be selling its 3-D TVs using a four-color LCD panel technology it had developed from July 30, while Mitsubishi Electric said its laser TV equipped with 3-D viewing technology will be sold sometime in the summer.

A Hiroshima-based civic group on Sunday presented Ukraine with a stone hit by the 1945 atomic bombing, engraved with an image of a Buddhist goddess of mercy, some 24 years after the Chernobyl nuclear plant meltdown in the former Soviet republic. A ceremony marking the donation of the ''Stone for Peace,'' one of the paving stones for Hiroshima streetcar tracks that were just 200 meters away from ground zero, was held at the Memorial Complex housing a national museum of history in Kiev.

Japanese medical officers arrived in the Vietnamese port city Qui Nhon aboard a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force transport ship Monday to take part in a U.S. Navy-led medical aid program in the Asia-Pacific region. About 40 medical officers from the Self-Defense Forces are joining 22 members of Japanese nongovernmental groups and take part in medical aid activities for about two weeks under Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's ''Fraternity Boat'' initiative.

Sharp Corp. on Monday took the wraps off its 3-D liquid crystal display televisions that will hit the Japanese market on July 30, as the Japanese electronics maker joins rivals to meet strong expected demand for 3-D TVs. Competition in the sector is likely to be intense this year with Panasonic Corp. and South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. having already rolled out their 3-D TVs and electronics giant Sony Corp. set to enter the market in June, as the companies try to capitalize on the interest triggered by blockbuster 3-D movies such as ''Avatar.''

The Miyazaki prefectural government began culling stud bulls Monday to help prevent a further spread of foot-and-mouth disease that has hit livestock farming in southwestern Japan. The culling involves 49 bulls placed under supervision of the prefectural government at a livestock center in Takanabe town. They will be buried nearby later Monday, leaving Miyazaki with only five stud bulls which had been isolated after the outbreak of the disease.