NATIONAL A total of 963 people applied to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to become astronauts, after the agency began accepting applications for the first time in 10 years, officials said. (1) [MAINICHI]

NATIONAL Over a dozen threats of murder and other crimes were posted on the Internet following the random street killings in Tokyo’s Akihabara earlier this month, police said. [MAINICHI]

CHUGOKU The Hiroshima Municipal Government will launch an ordinance on July 1 requiring retailers in the city to introduce filtering for cell phones to prevent people under the age of 18 from viewing harmful information on the Internet, it has been learned. (1) [MAINICHI]

INTERNATIONAL China prepared Tuesday to welcome the first Japanese war ship to visit since World War II in a dramatic sign of improving relations between East Asia’s two major powers. [AFP]

KANSAI A Kobe woman who randomly attacked three other women at JR Osaka Railway Station has been arrested, police said. (1) [MAINICHI]

KANTO The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly’s environment and construction committee on Monday passed a bill that will revise a city ordinance to require major companies in Tokyo to cut carbon dioxide emissions, clearing the first hurdle in introducing the first such ordinance in the country. [YOMIURI]

NATIONAL Many people request ambulances for nonemergency purposes, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey of fire departments in 51 major cities. [YOMIURI]

RYUKYU Moritoshi Oshiro still bears the scars from the 1945 Battle of Okinawa. He walks with a limp and cannot see out of one eye, the result of beatings he endured despite his father’s now-famous efforts to protect the then 12-year-old boy. [ASAHI]

KANTO A Japanese fishing boat capsized after being hit by a wave in the Pacific Ocean east of Chiba Prefecture on Monday, leaving four crew members dead and 13 missing, Japan Coast Guard officials said. [MAINICHI]

KANSAI A man who suggested assassinating Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto in a message on an Internet bulletin board has been arrested, law enforcers in Osaka said. [MAINICHI]

KANSAI Police are poised to begin an investigation into former Nova Corp. President Nozomu Sahashi upon suspicion of embezzlement, sources said. [MAINICHI]

RYUKYU More than 5,000 people attended a ceremony in Itoman on Okinawa to mark the 63rd anniversary of the end of fighting on Okinawa during World War II, which left tens of thousands of civilians dead. [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU A 57-year-old man died after being bitten on the throat by a Tosa dog he had kept at his home in Mizumaki, Fukuoka Prefecture, police said. [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU The Nagasaki District Court on Monday ordered the government to scrap its decision not to recognize 20 people as sufferers of atomic bomb-related diseases, accepting their claims in a lawsuit against the government. [MAINICHI]

NATIONAL As controversy grows over Japan’s whaling, the small coastal towns with a history of the hunt are sticking to their guns, fearing that their way of life is under threat. [AFP]

NATIONAL Heavy rain and thunderstorms are expected in wide areas from southwestern to eastern Japan on the Pacific side until late Sunday as a seasonal rain front hangs over areas from mainland China and Kyushu to the Kanto region, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. [KYODO]

KANSAI Two women sustained minor injuries when they were cut on the arm in separate incidents on a platform of JR Osaka Station on Sunday afternoon.

KANTO Former House of Councillors President Yutaka Inoue died of lung fibrosis on Sunday at a hospital in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, his family said. He was 80. [KYODO]

KANTO Artist Taro Okamoto’s massive “Asu no Shinwa”, a mural depicting a nuclear explosion, will be displayed for free at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo on Sunday. [MAINICHI]

KANSAI Police and other authorities tightened security throughout the city on Friday, both on the ground and across waterways, as the Group of Eight finance ministers meeting got under way here. [YOMIURI]