RYUKYU A powerful typhoon traveling northwest in the Pacific Ocean approached Okinawa’s main island early Saturday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. [KYODO]

RYUKYU An engine on a Japan Airlines aircraft emitted smoke as passengers disembarked at an airport in southern Japan on Monday, but none of the 55 people on board were hurt, an official said. [MSN MAINICHI]

RYUKYU The fire that gutted a China Airlines jetliner after it arrived Monday at Naha airport was probably caused by a loose slat bolt that pierced a fuel tank, not a breach in the fuel line in the engine pylon as earlier suspected, Japanese aviation inspectors said Thursday. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

RYUKYU A China Airlines spokesman revealed today the company would pay between 230 and 290 thousand yen to each passenger who was onboard the China Airlines plane that exploded after landing at Naha Airport, as compensation for destroyed luggage, etc.

RYUKYU The China Airlines aircraft that caught fire and exploded at Naha Airport on Monday may have been leaking fuel even while it was taxiing on the runway after it had landed, transport ministry investigators said. [ASAHI]

RYUKYU China Airlines has painted over its name and logo on the wreckage of a passenger jet that exploded in flames at Naha Airport in Okinawa moments after passengers slid down emergency chutes to escape. [MSN MAINICHI]

RYUKYU Okinawa Prefectural Police and the government’s Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission have launched an investigation into an accident at an airport here in which a China Airlines jet exploded in flames on Monday. [MSN MAINICHI]

RYUKYU Executives at China Airlines’ Tokyo office said the airline was still investigating the cause of the fire that broke out on an airplane at Naha Airport in Okinawa on Monday morning. [MSN MAINICHI]

RYUKYU All passengers and crew members aboard a China Airlines jet that caught fire after it arrived at an Okinawa airport Monday morning have been accounted for. [MSN MAINICHI]

RYUKYU A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 struck off the shore of Okinawa island on Tuesday, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said. [REUTERS]

RYUKYU Dugongs living in the waters around Okinawa Prefecture have been newly categorized as a critically endangered species on the Environment Ministry’s Red List, which was revised Friday. [YOMIURI]

RYUKYU Okinawa Prefectural Police on Wednesday filed documents to public prosecutors over an accident in the Okinawa Prefecture city of Ginowan in 2004 in which a helicopter carrying U.S. Marines crashed in the grounds of a university. [MSN MAINICHI]

RYUKYU The president of a bridal service company, who previously worked as an Alitalia stewardess and a member of the popular Takarazuke Revue will hold seminars in Okinawa Perfecture for applicants lacking self-confidence. [MSN MAINICHI]

RYUKYU Okinawa International University has decided to put on display at its campus the remains of a wall that was destroyed when a U.S. military helicopter crashed into a school structure in August 2004. [MSN MAINICHI]

RYUKYU The Tamiflu flu drug was not detected in the brain of a boy who fell from the ninth floor and died in last July in Okinawa Prefecture, researchers discovered. [YOMIURI]

RYUKYU Typhoon No. 4 (International name: Man-yi) hit Okinawa’s main island and part of the Amami islands chain on Friday morning, bringing heavy rain and cutting off power supplies over large areas. (1)

RYUKYU In an unprecedented move, the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly again unanimously adopted a resolution on Wednesday urging the national government to withdraw its orders to delete textbook descriptions that the Imperial Army forced civilians to commit suicide at the end of World War II. [MSN MAINICHI]

RYUKYU The U.S. Board of Veterans’ Appeals found in 1998 that the hazardous chemical defoliant Agent Orange was probably used in Okinawa during the Vietnam War era. [JAPAN TIMES]

RYUKYU Japan’s westernmost point, Yonaguni island, Okinawa Prefecture, opened a liaison office last week to revive the close ties with Taiwan that were severed when Okinawa reverted to Japanese control in 1972. [ASAHI]