HOKKAIDO The Hokkaido government will let members of nongovernmental organizations, including outspoken protesters, to set up base at public camping grounds near the venue of the Group of Eight Toyako Summit. [ASAHI]

HOKKAIDO Prosecutors on Monday arrested a senior land ministry official and two construction company executives on suspicion of rigging the bidding process for a public river works project in 2005. [ASAHI]

HOKKAIDO A traditional ceremony in which Japan’s indigenous Ainu people expressed their happiness to gods and ancestors was held here, following a Diet resolution for Japan to formally recognize Ainu as being indigenous. [MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO The Sapporo District Court handed Wednesday a four-year prison term to the president of Meat Hope Co. for defrauding clients and consumers by mislabelling its products. [ASAHI]

HOKKAIDO Japan’s immigration authorities have denied a German anti- globalization activist entry to Japan at a port in Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, where security checks have been tightened ahead of July’s Group of Eight summit, his supporters said Friday. [KYODO]

HOKKAIDO The cash-strapped city of Yubari took another financial hit over the weekend, after the roof of the municipal swimming pool collapsed under the weight of snow on top of it, city official said. [MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO Asahikawa Medical College Hospital said Thursday it had leaked to four companies about 2,220 samples taken from people who took tests for syphilis and HIV as well as about 350 coliform and staphylococcal strains over about 2-1/2 years beginning in August 2004. [YOMIURI]

HOKKAIDO A male student committed suicide inside a bathroom at a private high school in Memuro, Hokkaido, it was announced on Friday. [MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO A 24-year-old female janitor was found stabbed to death Thursday morning in the boiler room of an elementary school in Setana, Hokkaido. [ASAHI]

HOKKAIDO Monkeys are delighting visitors to a park in icy Hokkaido by climbing into a hot-spring pool and soaking in the steaming water with blissful looks on their faces. [MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO The operating company of the Consadole Sapporo soccer team has deferred principal repayments on 1 billion yen in loans received without collateral and at preferential interests rates from the Hokkaido and Sapporo governments over the past 10 years, it has been learned. [YOMIURI]

HOKKAIDO A tour bus burst into flames and was completely destroyed after one of its tires caught fire on a national road in Hokkaido. [MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO The amount of power used in Hokkaido reached a record high on Thursday, Hokkaido Electric Power Co. has announced. [MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO Five host clubs in Sapporo’s Susukino red-light district have been raided and cited with breaking the law governing adult entertainment, police said. [MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO Public broadcaster NHK accidentally set out an audio earthquake warning on four television channels when a worker pushed the wrong button. [MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO Schoolteachers and education officials across scandal-ridden Hokkaido have all been given a morality manual to prevent further outbreaks of shameful incidents. [MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO Four Japanese fishing boats were seized by Russian border security authorities early Thursday in waters off the disputed Kunashiri Island in the northern Pacific, government officials said. [KYODO]

HOKKAIDO Rescue workers found four veteran climbers Saturday on a Hokkaido mountain hit by an avalanche the previous day, but all of them were confirmed dead, police said. [KYODO]

HOKKAIDO A team of about 100 police officers and other rescuers is set to resume operations Saturday morning to search a man who went missing Friday after an avalanche on Mt. Kamihorokamettoku in Hokkaido and rescue three other climbers who were unconscious out of the mountain. [KYODO]

HOKKAIDO Hokkaido’s best-known cookies “Shiroi Koibito” returned to shop shelves Thursday to mixed reviews, three months after sales of the products were suspended because of a scandal over falsified eat-by dates. [ASAHI]