Kyodo news summary -3-

---------- Okinawa marks 35th anniversary of reversion from U.S. control

NAHA, Japan - Okinawa Prefecture on Tuesday marked the 35th anniversary of reversion to Japan from postwar U.S. control, with tourism booming but still faced with woes related to U.S. military bases and economic problems.

Since the return to Japanese rule, the Okinawa economy has been boosted chiefly by tourism. In 2005, the nation's southernmost prefecture, received around 5.5 million tourists, sharply up from around 440,000 just after the 1972 reversion. A 100 millionth tourist visited Okinawa in January 2007.

---------- Teen holding severed head reports to police, says he killed mother

FUKUSHIMA, Japan - A 17-year-old boy holding a severed head in a bag appeared Tuesday morning at a police station in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, telling police he killed his mother, the police said.

A headless body, believed to be that of his mother, has been found on a futon at the apartment where the teen, a high school student from the city, lives, and a knife believed used to behead the victim was found near the body, the police said.

---------- Kumamoto hospital's 'baby hatch' gets boy on 1st day of operation

KUMAMOTO, Japan - Japan's first announced ''baby hatch,'' by means of which parents can anonymously leave newborns they cannot raise, at a Kumamoto Prefecture hospital unexpectedly got a young boy aged 3 or 4 on its first day in use Thursday, informed sources said Tuesday.

According to the sources, the boy appears to be in good shape and says his father brought him to Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto City from outside the prefecture.

---------- Permit requested for return of Red Army Faction-linked Japanese man

BEIJING - A supporter of a man living in North Korea and linked to the Red Army Faction radical group hijackers on Tuesday applied for a travel permit that would enable him to return to Japan.

The supporter, who declined to be named, requested the permit for 52-year-old Kuniya Akagi, also known by pseudonym Jun Ogawa, at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing.