Odd News-Girl Makes Japanese professional baseball

TOKYO (AFP) – A 16-year-old schoolgirl with a mean knuckleball has been selected as the first woman ever to play alongside the men in Japanese professional baseball.

Eri Yoshida was drafted for a new independent league that will launch in April, drawing attention for a side-armed knuckler that her future manager Yoshihiro Nakata said was a marvel.

"I never dreamed of getting drafted," Yoshida told reporters Monday, a day after she was selected to play for the Kobe 9 Cruise.

"I have only just been picked by the team and have not achieved anything," she said. "I want to play as a pro eventually in a higher league."

Yoshida, 155 centimetres (five feet) tall and weighing 52 kilograms (114 pounds), says she wants to follow in the footsteps of the great Boston Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

A female professional baseball federation existed for a few years in the 1950s, but Yoshida will become Japan's first-ever woman to play alongside professional male players.


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North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il Died in 2003 - His role is played by a double

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il Died in 2003 - His role is played by a double

North Korea - Is Kim Jong Il for real? The question has baffled foreign intelligence agencies for years, but a veteran Japanese expert on North Korea says the “dear leader” is actually dead — and his role is played by a double. The expert says Kim died of diabetes in 2003 and world leaders, including Vladimir Putin of Russia and Hu Jintao of China, have been negotiating with an imposter. He believes that Kim, fearing assassination, had groomed up to four look-alikes to act as substitutes at public events.



Japanese Expert: North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il Died in 2003
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Odd News-Mamba bite exposes illicit Tokyo snake collection

Odd News-Mamba bite exposes illicit Tokyo snake collection

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese man living with 51 venomous snakes, including cobras and huge mambas, in his apartment in central Tokyo was caught when he called an ambulance after one of them bit him.

The 41-year-old Tokyo manual labourer was arrested on Wednesday on his release from hospital because keeping dangerous snakes without a local government licence is illegal in Japan, broadcaster NHK said.

He was rushed to hospital last month after being bitten by a deadly 1.85-metre green mamba as he was trying to feed it, and at one point lost consciousness as a result of the bite.

"Of course I'm shocked. It's revolting," one elderly neighbour told NHK.

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; editing by Sophie Hardach)

Odd News-Monkey eludes dragnet at Tokyo train station

Odd News-Monkey eludes dragnet at Tokyo train station

TOKYO - Morning train commuters in Tokyo were joined on their way to work by an unusual companion Wednesday: a wild monkey.

A security guard spotted the monkey near ticket gates in Shibuya Station, said Norihiru Masui, a spokesman for train operator Tokyu Corp.

The monkey climbed to a perch high atop a departure board, and around 30 policemen surrounded the area and attempted to snare it with a variety of nets, as commuters crowded around and snapped pictures with their cell phones.

The standoff ended when the monkey climbed down and dashed out of the station, with several policeman and local TV crews in tow. News reports said the monkey was last seen heading in the direction of nearby Yoyogi Park.

The animal appeared to be a Japanese monkey, which are native to the country, and was about 27 inches (70 centimeters) long from head to the tip of the tail. No one was injured and no trains were delayed in the incident.

Japanese media have reported several monkey sightings in Tokyo recently, but it was unclear if they involved the same animal.

Monkeys have long made appearances in rural parts of Japan, where they have been known to damage crops, swipe food from grocery stalls and even bite humans. In recent years, growth in the monkey population has meant more frequent forays out of the forests and into farms and towns.

Odd News - Japan's females have topped the world's longevity ranks

Odd News - Japan's females have topped the world's longevity ranks


TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Japanese girls born last year can expect to live until they are 86 years old, which would make them the longest survivors in the world, a report from the country's health ministry showed.
Boys born in 2007 can expect to live to the age of 79.2, ranking third after Iceland and Hong Kong, the report said.

Japan's females have topped the world's longevity ranks for 23 years, something researchers have attributed to their healthy diet and tight social ties, among other reasons.

The report is the latest sign that Japan is ageing quicker than any other country, with government data showing a tenth of the population aged 75 years or older.

The proportion of those 65 years or older is also seen doubling to 40 percent by mid-century.

"People are in different social environments and are influenced by various factors and eating habits, so it's hard to answer the question of why people live long," a ministry spokesman said.

"But we can say that the improvement of medical technologies helps," the spokesman added. Japan has improved treatments for the ageing population's three biggest killers -- cancer, heart disease and stroke.

Japan also has one of the world's lowest birth-rates, leaving the government with the challenge of how to fund its pension requirements, take care of its elderly and maintain productivity.

(Reporting by Yoko Kubota, editing by Miral Fahmy)

Stupid News - Japanese patient's 'tumour' turns out to be 25-year-old towel

Stupid News - Japanese patient's 'tumour' turns out to be 25-year-old towel
TOKYO (AFP) - Doctors who carried out surgery on a Japanese man to remove a "tumour" had good news and bad news for him. He did not have cancer -- but the "growth" that had been causing him pain was in fact a 25-year-old surgical towel.

The patient had been carrying the cloth since 1983, when surgeons at the Asahi General Hospital in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo left it in him after an operation to treat an ulcer, a spokesman for the hospital said.

The man, now 49, went in to another hospital in late May after suffering abdominal pain.

When examinations found what was believed to be an eight-centimetre (3.2-inch) tumour, he underwent the operation to remove it. It was only then that surgeons realised it was a towel.

"The towel was greenish blue although we are not sure about its original colour," the Asahi General Hospital spokesman said, adding it had been crumpled to the size of a softball.

Asahi hospital officials visited the man and apologised, he said.

The former patient has no plans to sue the hospital, which is in talks with him over compensation or other measures, the official said.

Japanese media reports said the man, who was not identified, still had his spleen removed.