RYUKYU The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly unanimously adopted resolutions on Thursday condemning the alleged rape of a junior high school girl by a U.S. Marine and calling for measures to prevent a recurrence. (3) [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU A Fukuoka-bound All Nippon Airways (ANA) jetliner was diverted to Osaka Airport on Monday evening after its main landing gear developed trouble, airline officials said. [MAINICHI]

RYUKYU Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima expressed anger at the alleged rape of a junior high school girl by a U.S. marine on Monday. [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU The Kumamoto District Court has rejected a lawsuit by a farmer who claimed the prefectural government acted illegally by abandoning an application for his late mother to be recognized as a Minamata disease patient, and then dismissing the application 21 years later. [MAINICHI]

RYUKYU Residents of an Okinawa island who committed mass suicide during World War II were ordered to do so by the Japanese military, claims a historian who has quoted a new witness in her book to be published later this month. [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU A Fukuoka District Court ruling handed down Tuesday to a former Fukuoka city employee for drunk driving that resulted in an accident killing three children in 2006 reveals the difficulty in securing conviction with the more serious charge of dangerous driving resulting in injury or death. [YOMIURI]

KYUSHU A driver who caused the death of three young children in a car accident on a bridge here in August 2006 was handed a 7 1/2 year prison sentence on Tuesday after a court threw out a charge bearing a heavier penalty. [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU The man held responsible for a deadly shooting rampage at a gym here on Dec. 14 told a 26-year-old swimming instructor murdered in the attack that he liked her, investigators have learned. [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU The suspect in a shooting rampage that left two people dead at a sports club here had repeatedly visited murder-related Web sites, police have revealed. [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU The boyfriend of Mai Kuramoto, who was killed by a gunman in a shooting rampage last Friday in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, was persistently questioned by the man three days before the incident, police said Tuesday. [KYODO]

KYUSHU Masayoshi Magome, the gunman whose rampage in a Sasebo gym killed two and sent shockwaves through Japan, had long stalked one of his victims and had planned to kill more, police said. [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU A 61-year-old gang member has admitted murdering a male patient at a hospital in Takeo, Saga Prefecture, in a case of apparent mistaken identity, according to police. [YOMIURI]

KYUSHU Police officers at a local police substation reported that possession of guns by the suspect in a deadly shooting rampage Friday in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, posed no problem seven times over a period of about five years. [KYODO]

RYUKYU The central government has shown signs of a compromise with the Okinawa prefectural government over the contentious plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Futemma Air Station to Nago by proposing to move the relocation site 50 meters offshore compared with the current plan. (1) [KYODO]

KYUSHU Police have confiscated a total of about 2,700 shotgun shells from the minivan, vest pockets and house of a man who allegedly shot dead two people and wounded six others at a sports club in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, on Friday, before himself being found dead the next day, sources said. [YOMIURI]

KYUSHU Senior officers at the National Police Agency have been puzzling over how a man who randomly shot two people dead at a sports gym in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, on Friday evening, was able to obtain a permit to own a hunting gun. [YOMIURI]

KYUSHU A man suspected of killing two and injuring several at a sports club in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture on Friday was found dead Saturday in the neighboring town of Funakoshi. Police believes the man committed suicide.

KYUSHU Two people were killed and five were injured Friday at around 7:10 p.m. when an unidentified gunman started shooting randomly a sports club in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture.

KYUSHU The governor of Miyazaki Prefecture apologized on Tuesday for his earlier remarks calling for the reintroduction of a military draft system in Japan. [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU Two young children who were apparently left alone in an apartment in Otsu, Nagasaki Prefecture died after a fire raged through their home on Saturday, police said. [MAINICHI]