6 mins read

Yayoi Kusama, who splashed polka dots across the art world, dies at 97 in Tokyo

TOKYO | Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who splashed her signature polka dots on paintings, sculptures and museum installations around the world, has died, her studio said Thursday. She was 97. Kusama died Aug. 14 at a hospital in Tokyo, Yayoi Kusama Studio said, without specifying the cause of death. “She continued to paint until her […]

5 mins read

Japan’s horror master Kurosawa’s first samurai film arrives at US theaters

TOKYO | Kiyoshi Kurosawa, the Japanese director known as “the master of horror,” was a bit nervous about how viewers might react to his first samurai film. He needn’t have worried. “The Samurai and the Prisoner,” opening in New York and Los Angeles on July 31, followed by a rollout in major U.S. cities through […]

2 mins read

7.1 magnitude quake shakes Japan’s Kyushu and people are missing after a shopping center collapses

TOKYO | An earthquake registering a magnitude of 7.1 shook Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu and caused part of a shopping center to collapse on Tuesday, leaving dozens of people missing or injured, officials and reports said. A tsunami advisory was issued but quickly lifted. The second floor of the Aeon Mall shopping center […]

3 mins read

Grateful dog owner describes mountain rescue after canine apparently ingests cannabis

LONDON | Christina Bluhme was high on the flanks of Britain’s tallest mountain with her dogs and one of the hounds was a lot higher — and not in a good way. Tokyo, a 5-year-old black Labrador retriever, had apparently ingested cannabis along the trail and had to be rescued after she began to sway […]