Science, Crime & justice, Health
413 storiesOkinawa governor protests to US commander over Marine held in Naha killing
Okinawa Governor Koja Genta summoned the top US commander in Okinawa, Lt. Gen. Benjamin T. Watson, and other US and Japanese officials to the prefectural office on Oct. 5 and protested over the killing of a woman at a Naha hotel for which a…
Police: bar owner held over girlfriend’s body in Miyagi; staged messages suspected
Police in Tokyo have arrested a 36-year-old bar owner on suspicion of abandoning the body of his 25-year-old girlfriend in mountains in Kurihara, Miyagi Prefecture, on 28 September. Investigators believe he used her smartphone to send messa…
Japan defense minister to meet Okinawa governor over arrested U.S. Marine
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said on Oct. 6 that he will meet Okinawa Governor Genta Kojya on Oct. 7 to discuss measures to prevent a repeat of incidents involving U.S. military personnel, after a Marine based at Futenma was arrested o…
Okinawa police send US Marine to prosecutors over Naha hotel robbery-murder
Okinawa prefectural police arrested US Marine lance corporal Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, of Futenma base, on suspicion of robbing and killing a 39-year-old woman at a hotel in Naha, and sent him to the Naha district prosecutors’ office on Oct …
NASA delays Crew Dragon undocking from ISS to no earlier than 7 October
NASA and SpaceX have postponed the undocking of the Crew Dragon spacecraft of the Crew-12 mission from the International Space Station, TASS, iXBT and Interfax reported. The departure was originally expected on 5 October and is now set for …
Former Sochi mayor Kopaygorodsky sentenced to 15 years in strict-regime colony
A Moscow court sentenced former Sochi mayor Alexey Kopaygorodsky to 15 years in a strict-regime penal colony, fined him 500 million rubles and stripped him of a state award in a corruption case. His wife, Yanina Kopaygorodskaya, was also co…
Russian woman at plague research institute dies; cause disputed
A woman in her 20s who worked at a plague control research institute in Russia's Irkutsk region died on October 2. Russian health authorities said on October 4 the cause was “pneumonia of unknown origin,” while speculation of plague infecti…
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Awarded to Three Optogenetics Pioneers
Sweden's Karolinska Institutet said on Oct 5 local time that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University, Peter Hegemann of Humboldt University Berlin and Georg Nagel of the University of Wü…
US Marine arrested in Naha hotel killing; Japan protests, Okinawa governor speaks out
A 20-year-old US Marine was arrested on suspicion of robbery-murder after a 39-year-old woman was found dead at a hotel in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, and Japanese officials protested to the US side. Foreign Ministry Senior Deputy Minister Ta…
Nobel physics prize goes to IceCube neutrino researcher Francis Halzen
Sweden's Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on 6 October that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin-Madison for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery…
Nuri rocket erected on pad; Oct. 7 launch to carry 15 satellites, most yet
South Korea's Nuri rocket was moved to the launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung on Oct. 6 and erected upright, with the space agency and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute saying the work was completed at 10:35 a.m. The launch…
Russian anti-plague lab researcher dies; US and EU say they are monitoring
A 28-year-old female researcher at the Irkutsk anti-plague research institute in Shelekhov, Russia, died after being diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown cause, the state agency Rospotrebnadzor said. About 200 people who may have had contact…
Christa Pike conscious and speaking after failed Tennessee execution, lawyers say
Christa Pike, 50, is conscious and speaking and receiving critical medical care nearly a week after Tennessee's attempt to execute her with the drug pentobarbital failed, her attorneys said Tuesday. They said her prognosis remains unclear, …
Fukuoka police re-arrest mother, 29, over deaths of two newborn boys
Fukuoka prefectural police said they arrested Umezaki Miaki, 29, of Okawa City, in August over the death of a newborn boy, and that prosecutors indicted her on 16 September. On 5 October police said they had re-arrested her over the death o…
Russia quarantines hospital as lab worker’s death puts nearly 200 under observation
A female employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East died last week of pneumonia of unknown cause, Russian authorities said, and a hospital in the town of Shelekhov was placed under quarantine. Officia…
Okinawa US forces order 48-hour pause and overnight curfew after Marine arrest
The top US commander in Okinawa, Lt. Gen. Watson, issued an emergency statement ordering a 48-hour “training period” for US military-related personnel in the prefecture from noon on 7 October to noon on 9 October, with off-base outings and …
Two arrested, others sought after fight among about 10 foreigners in Pyeongtaek
Police in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, arrested two men in their 20s — a Russian national and a Kyrgyz national — after a fight involving about 10 foreigners late on Oct 3, and are tracing others who fled. Reports differ on whether the fi…
Serving Seoul police officer arrested over AI-generated sexual exploitation videos
A senior constable in the traffic division of Seoul’s Dongdaemun Police Station was arrested last month on charges of possessing, producing and distributing sexual exploitation material and false videos, including AI-generated images of acq…
Couple in their 60s found dead in Naju house; police seek suspect
A couple in their 60s were found dead at a house in Naju, in the Jeonnam-Gwangju region, according to police reports carried by several South Korean outlets on Oct 6. Local reports described the bodies as bound and said police believe the c…
US charges Washington state resident in Canada school shooting case
US authorities arrested and charged James Cody Bryant, 30, of Bellingham, Washington, with conspiring to murder people in a foreign country over the Feb. 10 school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia. Officials say Bryant communicat…