KANTO The Justice Ministry has decided to grant special residence permission to a Kurdish man, his Filipino wife and their 7-year-old daughter, overturning its earlier decision to deport the couple for overstaying their visas. [MAINICHI]

KANTO A credit card in the name of a U.S. sailor is the only material link to his possible involvement in the slaying of a taxi driver here last week, police said. [MAINICHI]

KANTO A U.S. sailor sought in connection with the slaying of a taxi driver in Yokosuka was taken into U.S. Navy custody early Saturday. The serviceman, who had gone on unauthorized leave before the crime, denied involvement in the crime last Wednesday night, sources said. [ASAHI]

KANTO A man wanted by police for murder went on a stabbing spree outside a shopping mall in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Sunday, killing one man and injuring seven other people, police said. (1) [THE JAPAN TIMES]

KANTO Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda urged this year’s crop of graduating cadets from the National Defense Academy on Sunday to work hard to restore public confidence in the Self-Defense Forces, which have recently been tainted by accidents and scandals. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

KANTO The U.S. Navy said Saturday a male sailor has been taken into custody as a deserter, adding that he may be privy to circumstances relating to the death of a taxi driver.

KANTO Several members of the medical staff at Yokohama City University were apparently put under pressure to offer large cash gifts to the dean of the university’s School of Medicine when they obtained doctorates, it has emerged. [MAINICHI]

KANTO U.S. and Japanese authorities searched for a U.S. sailor for questioning Friday in the killing of a Japanese taxi driver near Yokosuka’s American naval base, a U.S. military official said. [AP]

KANTO The Defense Ministry on Friday admitted the Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer Atago was at fault for its collision with a fishing boat on Feb. 19 off the Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture. [ASAHI]

KANTO An elderly taxi driver has been brutally murdered in his vehicle in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, police said. The vehicle was found in an area near many hotels and the massive U.S. Navy base in the city. [MAINICHI]

KANTO A man currently being held in a detention center has confessed to investigators that he shot Japan’s top policeman in March 1995 when Tokyo police staged a massive crackdown on the Aum Shinrikyo cult, a Japanese daily reported Thursday. [KYODO]

KANTO Senior citizens who surrender their driver’s licenses will be eligible for discounts at 37 businesses in Tokyo, an incentive police hope will reduce fatal traffic accidents involving elderly motorists. [ASAHI]

KANTO As thanks for preserving hundreds of rare images used in early Disney films, Walt Disney Co. of the United States has donated $1 million to Chiba University, the school said in a statement Tuesday. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

KANTO The Third Regional Coast Guard Headquarters plans to send papers to prosecutors on a lieutenant commander who was serving as duty officer when the destroyer Atago collided with a fishing boat in February, on suspicion of professional negligence that endangered ocean traffic. [YOMIURI]

KANTO The Tokyo District Court on Monday sentenced a woman to two years in prison for inflicting injuries on her friend’s 3-year-old daughter, who later died, in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, in 2004. [YOMIURI]

KANTO Ministers of the world’s 20 major greenhouse gas–emitting nations ended their meeting in Chiba Sunday by agreeing to hold an environmental workshop here in May. [ASAHI]

KANTO A Chiba Prefectural Police detective is being questioned over allegations that he ordered an underling to copy pornography seized as evidence so he could take it home and watch it, the Mainichi has learned. [MAINICHI]

KANTO A Yokohama man ordered to spend nine years behind bars for killing a woman, who asked him through a mobile phone bulletin board to help her commit suicide in return for money, has appealed the ruling. [MAINICHI]

KANTO Disgraced former architect Hidetsugu Aneha has been detained at the Tokyo Detention House because of his involvement in a highly publicized earthquake-resistance data fabrication scandal, prosecution authorities said Thursday.

KANTO Prince Tomohito of Mikasa, a cousin of Emperor Akihito, will undergo surgery to remove early-stage cancer of the throat Friday morning at a Tokyo hospital, the Imperial Household Agency said. [KYODO]