The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.

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Extensive power outage hits JR trains in Tokyo area

TOKYO - East Japan Railway Co. said it experienced extensive service disruption in the Tokyo area on Sunday afternoon due to a power outage.

While the cause of the outage is not yet known, a fire was reported at the railway company's substation facility in Warabi, Saitama Prefecture neighboring the capital, local firefighter authorities said.

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Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan dies at 85

ISLAMABAD - Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, known for transferring nuclear weapons technology to North Korea, Iran and Libya through a black market he built, died Sunday of complications of the lungs, government officials said. He was 85.

Dubbed the "father of Pakistan's nuclear program," Khan, who had a destabilizing influence on the global nuclear nonproliferation regime, also played an instrumental role in the South Asian country's nuclear weapons development.

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Taiwan leader pledges defense of island in face of Chinese pressure

TAIPEI - President Tsai Ing-wen pledged Sunday to defend Taiwan, one day after Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed Beijing's confidence in reunifying the self-ruled island with the mainland.

But amid increasing military pressure on the island Beijing considers part of China, Tsai, in a National Day speech, also called for the two sides to engage in "dialogue on the basis of parity" in order to resolve "cross-strait differences."

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National treasure rakugo storyteller Yanagiya Kosanji dies at 81

TOKYO - Japanese rakugo classic comic storyteller and living national treasure Yanagiya Kosanji died of heart failure at his home in Tokyo on Thursday, the rakugo association said Sunday. He was 81.

After graduating from high school, Kosanji, whose real name was Takezo Koriyama, started learning rakugo under Yanagiya Kosan in 1959. He received the stage name of Yanagiya Kosanji in 1969 as he was promoted to shinuchi, considered a master of rakugo storytelling.

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U.S., China hold trade talks, with tariff removal among the agendas

WASHINGTON - U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai held talks with her Chinese counterpart Liu He on Friday over a bilateral trade deal signed last year, with Beijing saying that the removal of punitive tariffs imposed by the United States was among the topics discussed.

The virtual meeting, the first such engagement between the two in months, took place as the U.S. administration of President Joe Biden seeks to realign its trade policy with Beijing after four years under his predecessor Donald Trump that saw the two countries enter into a tit-for-tat tariff war and the "phase one" trade deal that failed to fully tackle U.S. concerns over China's unfair trade practices and policies.

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Japan PM Kishida vows to strengthen medical system for COVID patients

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Saturday he will work toward strengthening the country's medical system amid the coronavirus pandemic by designating more public hospitals for COVID-19 patients.

Speaking to reporters after his first visit to a hospital that treats COVID-19 patients after taking office Monday, Kishida said the government must prepare for the "worst-case scenario" when it comes to ramping up the medical system.

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Japan may exempt Australian troops in joint drills from death penalty

TOKYO - Japan is considering exempting Australian soldiers from the death penalty for crimes committed during joint drills on its soil after the issue of capital punishment stalled negotiations for a defense cooperation pact between the two countries, government sources said Saturday.

Australia, which abolished the death penalty in 1985, has been concerned that its defense personnel could be sentenced to death over crimes committed in Japan, according to the sources.

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U.S., Taliban delegations hold talks with counterterrorism on agenda

WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD - Senior Taliban figures met with a U.S. government delegation in Doha, the capital of Qatar, on Saturday, an official of the interim administration in Kabul said on Twitter.

Taliban acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was quoted as telling the U.S. side at the meeting that "weakening Afghanistan is not in the interests of the world."

China's Xi confident of completely reunifying Taiwan with mainland

==Kyodo

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