Thursday, March 4, 2010
JAPAN: Princess Aiko unable to go to school after boys treated her harshly
Mar 5 06:00 AM US/Eastern
(AP) - TOKYO, March 5 (Kyodo)
Princess Aiko, the only child of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, has been reluctant to attend school since Monday after being "treated harshly" by boys in her grade, an official of the Imperial Household Agency said Friday.
The 8-year-old princess has been complaining of strong anxiety and stomachache, said Issei Nomura, the top aide to the crown prince and princess.
Princess Aiko, a granddaughter of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, is a second grader at Gakushuin Primary School in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward.
Nomura, grand master of the crown prince's household, told a regular news conference that the princess attended school Tuesday but left school early. She has since been absent from school.
The school has found that a group of boys had dealt rowdily with several of their school mates, including Princess Aiko, Nomura said, adding that the palace has asked the school to address the matter.
He also said the palace has obtained consent from the school to publicize the princess's situation.
At a separate press conference, Motomasa Higashisono, a senior director of the Gakushuin School Corporation that runs a range of schools from kindergarten to university, said the princess "got scared Tuesday when she went by a boy who dashed out of a classroom."
"It must have reminded her of the rowdy behavior of several boys in the past, who may have thrown things, and made her uneasy," Higashisono said.
The princess entered Gakushuin Primary School in April 2008 after finishing Gakushuin Kindergarten in March that year.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said, "As an individual citizen, I hope she recovers and gets well as quickly as possible."
View AP Article on BreitbartJAPAN: Recent Cases of Child Abuse
Friday, March 5, 2010
Woman starved son, 5, to death
because he looked like husband?
NARA (Kyodo) A 26-year-old Nara Prefecture woman who was arrested together with her husband Wednesday for allegedly starving their 5-year-old son to death has told investigators she could not feel any affection for him because of his resemblance to his father, police sources said Thursday.
Mami Yoshida, a part-time worker, also told investigators her relationship with her husband, Hiroshi, 35, a corporate employee, had soured. The investigators reckon the couple's worsening relations led to the abuse of their son, Tomoki.
Yoshida said she felt affection for the couple's other child, a daughter, 3, who shows no signs of having been abused.
Her husband was quoted as saying he was aware their son had been getting weak, but did nothing to protect him.
They are suspected of having failed to give sufficient food or provide necessary medical care for their son since early January.
On Wednesday, the boy was found unconscious by a municipal official who visited the family home after Yoshida called a child counseling center. The boy was lying on a futon wearing a diaper and looking emaciated, the city said.
The official called an ambulance to take the boy to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Although the average height of a 5-year-old is 110 cm, their son was only 85 cm tall and weighed just 6.2 kg, a third of the average weight.
On Thursday, the police conducted an autopsy and also raided the couple's home in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, in search of evidence.
According to the police, while the couple took their daughter to a day care center while they worked, they left their son alone at home and did not take him to a kindergarten or a day care center.
The Sakurai Municipal Government said the boy underwent a regular health check for 10-month-old babies in 2005. But the parents failed to ensure their son had regular checkups in 2006, when he became 18 months old, and in 2008, when he turned 3 1/2 years old.
In response to the municipal inquiries on those occasions, Mami told officials she needed rest as she was pregnant and could not take her son to the health checkups because she was busy caring for a relative.
Fatal abuse arrest
SAITAMA (Kyodo) Police arrested a couple Thursday in Warabi, Saitama Prefecture, on suspicion of failing to provide sufficient food for their son, who became weak and died in February 2008.
The 4-year-old son of Masami Shindo, 47, and his wife, Sanae, 37, weighed only 10 kg and was 94 cm tall at the time of his death, the police said.
The couple are suspected of failing to bathe and feed the boy, making it difficult for him to walk. They did not take him to see a doctor despite his poor health, the investigation found.
An autopsy showed that the boy, who was hospitalized on Feb. 11, 2008, following an emergency call, suffered from malnutrition and died of acute encephalopathy.
The boy and his brother, 10, lived with their parents at the time. The older son now lives in a child nursing facility.
RUSSIA: On this day: 5 March
9 Aug, 1942 in the Grand Hall of Leningrad Philharmonic, the first performance of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony
On 5 March 1942, Dmitry Shostakovich’s world-renowned Seventh Symphony premiered in Kuibyshev (present day Samara, Russia) during the 900-day siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). Performed by the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra and conducted by Samuil Samosud, it was broadcast on the radio across the Soviet Union.
Shostakovich began composing the Seventh Symphony in 1941 when Leningrad was besieged by the Germans, but the work was premiered in Kuybyshev, a remote city to which a lot of musicians had been evacuated. Shostakovich dedicated the symphony to the city of Leningrad and the fight against fascism, although he later admitted that he thought of the symphony even prior to the beginning of the war.
“I thought of other enemies of mankind while composing this theme,” he wrote. “I deplore fascism, and not only German fascism, but all kinds. I feel immeasurable grief for all who were killed by Hitler. But I also feel grief for those who died by the order of Stalin…”
Performances followed throughout the year in Moscow, London and New York, and a premier in Leningrad itself, conducted by Karl Eliasberg, took place on 9 August 1942. The performance was heard through loudspeakers throughout the city and beyond, reaching the German forces stationed outside the city. The siege was to last another eighteen months but the performance was a psychological boost and a massive show of defiance.
DALIAN, CHINA: 203-Meter Mountain (Erlingsan Gaodi)
FROMMER’S:
The 203-Meter Mountain (Erlingsan Gaodi) was Russia's rear defense base during the Russo-Japanese War and the site of one of the war's most pivotal battles. Between 10,000 and 17,000 Japanese soldiers, including the Japanese commander's son, died taking the mountain. A few of the trenches where they fought have been preserved, served by trails near the summit. An exhibition room halfway up the hill contains several Qing-era photos of the port and a few rusted swords and bullets used in the battle. Most striking is a large, bullet-shaped monument on the summit, erected by the Japanese and defaced by Russian tourists. You can look down into the port itself from here. The site is open 24 hours; admission is ¥30 ($3.90/£1.95); for information, call tel. 0411/8639-8277.
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