KYUSHU A group of former defendants who were arrested and held on suspicion of violating election laws but were later found not guilty filed a lawsuit in the Kagoshima District Court on Friday, demanding 286 million yen in damages for the treatment they suffered. [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU A 4-year-old girl has died after being infected with the O-157 strain of the E.coli bacteria, city authorities in Fukuoka said. [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU A P.E. teacher resigned in disgrace after he was found to have written sexually harassing questions on golf balls he threw in a pool and made junior high school girls collect and answer, Shingu Board of Education officials said Tuesday. [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU Nine Minamata disease victims filed a ¥228 million suit for damages Thursday against Kumamoto Prefecture and chemical maker Chisso Corp., claiming they were affected by mercury-poisoning as preborn babies or infants. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

KYUSHU A ferry boat hit a lighthouse Sunday as it sailed out of Beppu port in Oita Prefecture, but all 62 passengers and crew members were safe, the local coast guard said. [KYODO]

KYUSHU A China Airlines jet taking off from Saga Airport went 60 meters beyond its runway before it finally became airborne. The airplane was 30 minutes later forced to return to the same airport after the pilots experienced trouble with its speedometers.

KYUSHU A police officer is in a serious condition after being shot in the buttocks with his own pistol while scuffling with porno vending machine thieves in Tagawa, Fukuoka Prefecture Friday, police said. [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU A boy suffered a severely damaged toe after his foot got caught in a gap at the side of the escalator at Fukuoka’s Yahoo! Dome earlier this year, it has emerged. [MSN MAINICHI]

KYUSHU A soccer club leader at a Kagoshima school resigned after violently kicking the captain of a first-year team, threatening to injure the teen so badly he wouldn’t be able to play, officials said. [MSN MAINICHI]

KYUSHU The farm ministry and four prefectural governments in the Kyushu region have launched a major investigation into importers and food processing plants that are suspected of falsely labeling eels imported from Taiwan as Japanese, sources familiar with the matter said Friday. [KYODO]

KYUSHU A former male employee of the Fukuoka municipal government misappropriated about 30 million yen in welfare benefits, according to an internal investigation by the city government. [YOMIURI]

KYUSHU A high school boy has hanged himself in his bicycle racing club’s room on the premises of a school in Beppu, Oita Prefecture, police said. [MSN MAINICHI]

KYUSHU About 584 million yen of the subsidies allocated and paid to a social welfare corporation in Osaka Prefecture since fiscal 2002 were made during the term of the scandal-hit former director of a Kyushu regional welfare bureau during his term as chief of a welfare division. [YOMIURI]

KYUSHU Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto, which has been making headlines for the baby hatch it set up in May, also has been flooded with phone calls from people seeking help with unwanted pregnancies. [YOMIURI]

KYUSHU The father of three children who drowned in a car accident last year called Tuesday for a tough sentence for a former public servant who was allegedly drunk when his car hit the victims’ vehicle from behind on a bridge, causing it to plunge into the sea. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

KYUSHU Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University is to sign a memorandum of understanding on mutual cooperation in tourism education with the U.N. World Tourism Organization next Wednesday, a first among educational institutions in the nation. [YOMIURI]

KYUSHU Masaru Matsushima, a former director of the Kyushu Regional Health and Welfare Bureau who left his post last Friday, told reporters Thursday that he had received 20 million yen to 30 million yen from a former head of an Osaka Prefecture-based social welfare corporation. [YOMIURI]

KYUSHU The head of a Kyushu regional welfare bureau who left his post just last week received a used luxury car worth 5 million yen in 2005 from a former head of an Osaka Prefecture-based social welfare corporation. [YOMIURI]

KYUSHU A mandarin farmer in Karatsu, Saga Prefecture admitted Tuesday to having accidentally leaked a large amount of pesticide into a ditch. When the prefecture inspected the nearby Tamashima river, they found some 3,000 sweetfish and brook trout had died because of the leakage.

KYUSHU Two baby boys were left at the baby hatch at Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto in early and mid-August, it has been learned. [YOMIURI]