KANSAI A university student who wrote a virus that was distributed through the file-sharing software program Winny and two people who spread the virus, which contained images from a popular anime, have been arrested in Kyoto. (1) [MAINICHI]

KANSAI Four workers at a Sakai hospital face charges for abandoning a blind patient with diabetes at a park in September last year after his former wife refused to take him under her care, law enforcers said Wednesday. [MAINICHI]

KANSAI A 22-year-old woman died in an apparent suicide in Osaka early Wednesday, just one week after the mysterious death of her infant son. [ASAHI]

KANSAI Japanese restaurant chain Senba Kitcho reopened its main restaurant in Chuo Ward, Osaka, for the first time since the firm suspended operations in November due to a product-mislabeling scandal. [YOMIURI]

KANSAI An infant girl had one of her ovaries accidentally removed during an inguinal hernia operation at National Mie Hospital in Tsu in February 2005, it has surfaced. [YOMIURI]

KANSAI In at least 734 cases in Osaka in 2007 a minimum of 10 inquiries were required to locate hospitals to accept emergency patients, fire departments said in a Kyodo News survey conducted earlier this month. [KYODO]

KANSAI A chronically anorexic girl was refused admission by seven Osaka hospitals the night before her death last year, it has emerged. [MAINICHI]

KANSAI A 37-year-old lieutenant of the Osaka prefectural police allegedly kicked a steel desk into a male suspect during questioning, cracking the man’s ribs, it has been learned. [YOMIURI]

KANSAI The Otsu District Court on Thursday sentenced a 36-year-old man to 18 years in prison for raping two women on trains and one inside a station restroom in 2006. [KYODO]

KANSAI An Osaka public junior high school’s controversial soccer coach who was punished last year for making some of his team strip off and run laps in the nude for missing practice penalties committed suicide on Thursday. (3) [MAINICHI]

KANSAI A two-week-old baby boy was found slain with his lips sealed with adhesive tape and his 22-year-old mother found collapsed in a private residence in Moriguchi, Osaka Prefecture, on Wednesday. [KYODO]

KANSAI Four fish cakes containing fishing lines and hooks were placed in a park in Kuwana, Mie Prefecture on Monday, and a dog that ate one of them had to undergo surgery to remove a hook it swallowed. (1) [MAINICHI]

KANSAI Approximately 8 million yen in cash has been found in a storage bin brought into a recycle shop in Habikino, Osaka Prefecture. [MAINICHI]

KANSAI The three main candidates in the race for the Jan. 27 Osaka gubernatorial election, which officially kicked off Thursday, have different positions on various policy issues, particularly on education, financial reform and the future of Kansai airport. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

KANSAI In a race with national implications, campaigning for the Jan. 27 Osaka gubernatorial election will kick off Thursday with three candidates. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

KANSAI Kansai University, Osaka Medical College and Osaka University of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Osaka Prefecture will jointly establish a life science faculty to offer interdisciplinary courses in medical science, engineering and pharmacy in April 2010, it was announced Wednesday. [YOMIURI]

KANSAI A former bar operator in Osaka indicted on charges of murdering a 69-year-old man was rearrested Wednesday on suspicion of killing her husband, who has been missing since 2001. [YOMIURI]

KANSAI A 44-year-old doctor operating the Tokyo-based Medical Salon chain and an executive of the business were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of violating the Medical Practitioners Law by illegally dispensing the appetite suppressant mazindol. [YOMIURI]

KANSAI Thick fog blanketed a wide area of western Japan on Tuesday morning, disrupting transportation services. [YOMIURI]

KANSAI Prosecutors on Monday arrested the mayor of Takatoricho, Nara Prefecture, on suspicion of embezzling 9.35 million yen from a local public land development corporation of which he is a director. [YOMIURI]