Kyodo News Digest: Feb. 13, 2025
Visitors brave the cold to enjoy a view of icicles at the annual icefall festival in Kamikawa, Hokkaido, on Jan. 25, 2025. (Kyodo)
The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Honda, Nissan to scrap merger plan as talks collapse
TOKYO – Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. are set Thursday to scrap their plan to merge into what would have become the world’s third-biggest auto group by volume as negotiations collapsed less than two months after its announcement.
Honda and Nissan, Japan’s second and third largest automakers, said in December that they hoped to conclude negotiations in June 2025 and establish a holding company in 2026 under which the two brands would operate.
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Trump says Putin agrees to begin talks on ending war in Ukraine
WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed during a phone call to begin negotiations “immediately” toward ending the war in Ukraine.
Trump said in a social media post that his conversation with Putin was “lengthy and highly productive,” and involved discussing the strengths of the United States and Russia as well as the great benefit to be gained through future collaboration.
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Japan, China, S. Korea eye top diplomat talks in Tokyo on March 22
TOKYO – Japan, China and South Korea are making final arrangements to hold foreign ministerial talks in Tokyo on March 22, around two months after Donald Trump took office as U.S. president, sources familiar with the matter said Thursday.
On the sidelines of the first such trilateral meeting in over a year, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya also plans to participate in a high-level bilateral economic dialogue with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi, the sources added.
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Japanese man acquitted of 1966 murders to sue state for defamation
SHIZUOKA, Japan – A Japanese man acquitted of a 1966 quadruple murder in a retrial is set to file a lawsuit against the state for defamation after the prosecutor general called the ruling that found him not guilty “unacceptable,” his lawyers said Thursday.
Iwao Hakamata, 88, was acquitted by the Shizuoka District Court last September after spending nearly half a century on death row before new evidence led to his release in 2014. He was recognized that year as the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner.
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Trump says he plans to sign reciprocal tariff order this week
WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he plans to sign an order this week to impose reciprocal tariffs on other countries.
“I may do it later on or I may do it tomorrow morning, but we’ll be signing reciprocal tariffs,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “The world has taken advantage of the United States for many years.”
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Over 260 foreigners freed from forced work for scammers in Myanmar
PHOP PHRA, Thailand – Over 260 foreign nationals have been freed from scam syndicates in Myanmar where they had been forced to work, the Thai army said Wednesday, with a Myanmar ethnic rebel group handing them over to authorities in northwestern Thailand.
The move came a week after Thailand cut power and fuel supplies to five locations in Myanmar towns near the border to crack down on phone scams and human trafficking based in the areas.
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Explosion occurs at Taiwan department store, at least 1 dead
TAIPEI – An explosion occurred Thursday morning at a department store in central Taiwan, leaving at least one person dead and many others injured, local authorities said.
Rescue operations have been ongoing with a gas leak suspected as the cause of the blast on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi outlet in Taichung.
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Baseball: Yamamoto, Sasaki likely to pitch in Tokyo opening series
GLENDALE, Arizona – Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts plans to start Japanese pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki in Games 1 and 2, respectively, when the team opens the season in Tokyo next month against the Chicago Cubs.
“I think it’s fair to say that Yamamoto’s going to pitch that first one,” Roberts said Wednesday, the first official workout day for pitchers and catchers. “And then with Roki…the plan is for him to pitch there.”
Video: Los Angeles Dodgers’ Japan trio prep for preseason
This article was originally published by a english.kyodonews.net . Read the Original article here. .