2003.11.14

Yakuza-LV Money Laundering (Gaming Wire/Las Vegas Review Journal) UPDATING MGM Grand was one among several Las Vegas casinos used by Japanese loan shark czar to allegedly launder money from ill-gotten gains. 2003.11.14

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Japan-US Iraq (Kyodo) UPDATING Nothing of substance reported from today's meeting between Koizumi and Rumsfeld.   2003.11.14

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Public Safety Commissioner-Uyoku Money (Kyodo) National Public Safety Commissioner says she was "unaware" money given to her was from an extreme right-winger activist (uyoku). 2003.11.14

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Takefuji Raid (Mainichi) Police raid the Takefuji consumer finance firm, listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange,  and arrest five people in connection with an illegal wiretapping probe.     2003.11.14

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Yakuza-LV Money Laundering The MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas was used by Japan's loan-sharking czar to launder money, according to law enforcement sources in the United States and Japan.  The suspect ran a shady firm, Goryokai, affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest yakuza group.   Story developing...     2003.11.14

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Exports underpin growth in Japan. [BBC News ] Japan's economy grows 0.6% in the third quarter, making 21 straight months of expansion and lifting hopes of recovery.   2003.11.14

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N. Korea's Ace in the Hole. N. Korea's Ace in the Hole [The Agonist] "This is how we hide from our enemies. Everything in North Korea is underground," said K., who described the cave on condition that he be quoted using only his first initial and that certain identifying details be kept vague. North Korea is riddled with caves like the one in which K. worked. Under its paranoid regime, virtually everything of military significance is manufactured underground, whether it's buttons for soldiers' uniforms or enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. A South Korean intelligence source estimates North Korea has several hundred large underground factories and more than 10,000 smaller facilities. Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., the author of three books on the North Korean military, puts the total number between 11,000 and 14,000. 2003.11.14

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Japan to Send Fact-Finding Mission to Iraq (Reuters). Japan says it remains committed to sending troops for the reconstruction of Iraq but would send a fact-finding mission first to ascertain security conditions following a deadly attack on Italian forces.   2003.11.14

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Japan-US Iraq (Kyodo) Koizumi has been meeting with freshly arrived U.S. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld to talk about various issues, including Japan's foot-dragging on dispatching troops to Iraq.     2003.11.14

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Japan-Headlines (Kyodo) Here are the Friday morning headlines in leading Japanese dailies.     2003.11.14

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ROK-Iraq Troops (VOA) South Korea to send far less than the 10,000 troops to Iraq desired by the Pentagon.     2003.11.14

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Rumsfeld to Discuss Troop Changes in Asia [AP World News] Secretary of Defense's trip comes at a time when Asian allies are delaying or reducing their committments to send troops to Iraq. His first stop was Guam, then Japan and South Korea.     2003.11.14

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Japan's war past sparks Chinese rage. [Christian Science Monitor ] Animosity simmering since World War II is seen as the fuel that sparked a Chinese riot after Japanese slight.   2003.11.14

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Six-Way North Korea Talks May Resume in December (Reuters). A new round of six-way talks on ending North Korea's suspected nuclear arms program appears likely in December, but Pyongyang has not yet committed to any dates, a U.S. official said on Thursday.   2003.11.14

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