Kyodo news summary -3-

---------- Fukuchi becomes new NHK head, faces bumpy road amid scandals

TOKYO - Former Asahi Breweries Ltd. adviser Shigeo Fukuchi became president of public broadcaster NHK on Friday, embarking on work to restore viewers' trust after recent insider stock trading allegations and other scandals involving its staff.

''My utmost mission is to regain trust in NHK, and I will undertake the management task as my top and last duty of my life,'' Fukuchi said in addressing senior employees at the broadcast center in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward.

---------- Death sought for alleged Akita murderer of daughter, neighbor boy

AKITA, Japan - Prosecutors on Friday demanded the death penalty for a 34-year-old woman for murdering her 9-year-old daughter as well as a 7-year-old boy living in her neighborhood in a town in Akita Prefecture in 2006.

The focal point in the trial of Suzuka Hatakeyama at the Akita District Court has been whether she had the intention of killing her daughter Ayaka, since Hatakeyama has already admitted to the murder of the boy, Goken Yoneyama.

---------- Japan to give $7.06 mil. for human security in Liberia, others

TOKYO - Japan and the United Nations agreed Friday to allocate $7.06 million in total from the Trust Fund for Human Security to support three U.N.-related projects in Liberia, Belarus and El Salvador, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said.

The fresh aid for Liberia, at $3.42 million, is earmarked for improving mortality rates of expectant mothers and newborns by the U.N. Population Fund and the World Health Organization. Meanwhile, $1.51 million will go to areas in Belarus affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and $2.16 million to improve security conditions in El Salvador.

---------- Stormy weather with heavy snow continues in northern Japan

TOKYO - Stormy weather continued Friday mainly in northern Japan and the Hokuriku region in central Japan, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, warning of heavy snow and strong winds.

The agency said heavy snow is likely to fall in areas from northern Japan to the Sanin region in western Japan along the Sea of Japan coast due to a developing low-pressure system.

---------- Ex-World Bank chief Wolfowitz named to head U.S. security panel

WASHINGTON - Former World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz will head a U.S. government advisory panel on arms control and disarmament, the State Department said Thursday.

Wolfowitz, an architect of the Iraq war who took the helm of the bank only to quit amid a scandal over his girlfriend's promotion and pay hike, will become chairman of the International Security Advisory Board.

---------- Gov't to hold 1st panel meeting on social security reform Tuesday

TOKYO - The government will hold the first meeting Tuesday of a panel of experts representing business and other sectors to discuss pension and other social security reforms, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Friday.

Although opposition parties will not join the panel despite a call to do so from Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, Machimura stressed that the 15 panel members come from ''wide-ranging'' sectors. They include former Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa and Tsuyoshi Takagi, president of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, a major group supporting the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan.

---------- U.S. court orders Pentagon to consider Okinawa base's impact on dugong

LOS ANGELES - A U.S. federal court ordered the Defense Department on Thursday to consider the possible impact of a planned U.S. military base in Japan's Okinawa on the dugong, an endangered marine mammal, the Associated Press reported.

Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the U.S. federal court in San Francisco ruled the U.S. military violated federal law when it failed to evaluate the base's potential effects on the dugong, a protected species in Japan, the report said.

---------- Gov't to review increase of successful bar exam applicants to 3,000

TOKYO - The Japanese government plans to revise a 2002 Cabinet decision that calls for an increase in the number of successful applicants in the state-sponsored bar exam to about 3,000 by around 2010, Justice Ministry officials said Friday.

The decision, which may involve reducing the targeted figure, was made mainly in response to calls from bar associations that a sharp increase in the number of lawyers would deteriorate the quality of lawyers and decrease their work, the officials said.

---------- Gov't plans to scrap registration system on foreign nationals

TOKYO - The government plans to scrap the current registration system for foreign nationals living in Japan and introduce a new resident registry system similar to that for Japanese residents, Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama said Friday.

''We are moving in the direction of deciding to abolish it,'' Hatoyama told a press conference, indicating the Justice Ministry and the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry are working to craft a bill to that end to submit in next year's ordinary parliamentary session.

---------- Australian anti-whaling activists call for boycott of Japanese firms

SYDNEY - Australian conservation groups have joined a global grassroots campaign to boycott Japanese products Friday in the latest bid to pressure Japan to stop whaling.

Anti-whaling activists from Australia's east coast, the Bryon Whale Action Group and Surfers for Cetaceans, hand-delivered a letter to the Japanese consulate in the northeastern city of Brisbane, informing Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of the boycott and demanding an end to whaling in the name of research.

---------- High-speed train mows down 18 railway workers in China

BEIJING - A high-speed train ran into a group of railway workers in east China's Shandong Province, leaving 18 dead and nine others injured, state-run-media reported Friday.

The workers were adjusting railway tracks when the train plowed into them at 120 kilometers per hour in Anqiu City at 8:48 p.m. Wednesday, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing information from the Railway Ministry.

---------- Suharto's condition improves, can breathe on his own

JAKARTA - The health condition of Indonesia's ailing former President Suharto has improved and he is now able to breathe on his own, a doctor said Friday.

''This morning, Mr. Suharto could eat 15 teaspoons of porridge,'' anesthesiologist Christian Johannes, member of Suharto's medical team, told reporters. The 86-year-old former strongman is also able to fully breathe on his own, Johannes said.