Copyright fees to be levied

The Japanese government will propose this week a plan to charge copyright royalties on sales of iPods and other portable digital music players, as well as on digital hard disk recorders, a major daily newspaper reported yesterday.

The Agency of Cultural Affairs has not yet decided the amount of the fee, but it would likely be around 95 cents per device for an annual total about $9.5 million, according to the Asahi Shimbun. The proceeds would go to recording companies, songwriters and artists.

4 die in apparent suicide

Four people were found dead in a rented car in western Japan in an apparent "detergent suicide," a phenomenon that has gripped the nation battling to curb a high suicide rate, police said yesterday.

The bodies of three men and a woman - all in their 20s and 30s - were discovered by a patrolling police officer in Takashima, in western Japan, said a local police official.

The deaths were the latest in a series of similar cases in Japan, which has been long battling to curb one of the highest suicides rates in the world.

(China Daily 05/07/2008 page11)