TOKYO

A Japanese government watchdog has warned the owners of hot springs resorts nationwide to come clean on the benefits of their baths, claiming advertisements exaggerating quality and healthiness are rampant. Many of the inns mix spring water with outside water sources, it says.

The United States will suspend legal proceedings against Britons being held at its military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, pending discussions with Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s official spokesperson said on Friday.

Britain’s ministry of defence intends to hold an independent judicial inquiry if a body found west of London on Friday proves to be that of the missing Iraqi weapons expert David Kelly, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s official spokesperson said.

Though frustrated by strident opposition to its campaign to overturn a 17-year international ban on commercial whaling, Japan should remain a member of the global whaling commission, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday.

Japan is eyeing an oil deal with Iran that could strain ties with the United States, which is trying to isolate Tehran for allegedly sponsoring terrorism, officials said on Monday.

Oil prices above a barrel are in ”nobody’s interest” Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell Group chairperson Philip Watts said on Tuesday ahead of an Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) meeting next week.

Semiconductor giants Toshiba of Japan and Germany’s Infineon said on Wednesday they have invented a tiny chip with a vast memory capacity, marking the first fruit of a joint development plan launched in 2001.

A religious sect associated with the company claiming to have produced the first human clone caused a stir in Japan on Monday with an announcement that the next clone will be Japanese and is due to be born at any time.

Japanese electronics giant Hitachi said Monday it has launched a company combining its hard disk drive operations with those of US counterpart IBM to boost global competitiveness.

Fears of a power shortage are mounting in Japan as nuclear plants could remain closed next year after an atomic cover-up scandal triggered a rare campaign to save energy.

A beached whale buried along the coast of southern Japan five months ago has turned out to be the first adult find of an ultra rare species, researchers said on Thursday.

North Korea is awakening from an egalitarian communist dream with vast economic reforms, ranging from price and wage spirals to a phase-out of state rationing and a currency shake-up.

A Japanese H-2A rocket was launched successfully on Tuesday, releasing a satellite and test module into orbit.

Global gold mine production probably peaked last year and could start sliding by 2004 unless bullion prices rally, prompting miners to pump money into new projects, analysts said on Tuesday.

Japan plans to pledge about -million in emergency aid to countries in southern Africa in the wake of the region’s worsening food crisis,

Japan’s space agency was trying to steer a new satellite into its planned orbit on Saturday, after two previous attempts to do so failed when the main thrusters stalled, an agency official said.

The Okinawa government voted unanimously on Monday for a halt to all F-15 flights until an investigation determines why one of the US Air Force fighters crashed just off the southern Japanese island last month.

A top Japanese government official whose comments that the nation might one day possess nuclear weapons sought to climb down from his statement as lawmakers expressed disgust on Sunday.

The dollar failed to make gains against the euro and yen on Tuesday despite a rally on Wall Street as players remained sceptical of chances of a strong US economic recovery.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday asked the UN General Assembly to speed up reforming the Security Council by creating more seats — including one for Japan.

Japanese media on Wednesday questioned North Korea’s sincerity at an historic summit and said the revelation that eight kidnapped Japanese citizens had died there was a bitter pill to swallow at the start of renewed normalisation talks.