Tokyo - Seven of the world's leading industrialized countries expressed concern Monday over the yen's strength against other major currencies and pledged to cooperate in stabilizing the global financial system.

"We are concerned about the recent excessive volatility in the exchange rate of the yen and its possible adverse implications for economic and financial stability," said an emergency statement released by the Group of Seven (G7), which consists of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

The statement was released on Japan's request, Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said after the yen soared to a 13-year high against the dollar.

Tokyo - Tokyo's stock market opened Monday morning with light trading amidst a nervous mood among investors.

The Nikkei Index dropped 19.27 points in the first 18 minutes, or 0.25 per cent, to 7,629.81 points.

That was up from the opening figure, which had sunk beneath 7,500 - the lowest point since Japan's own speculation bubble burst in the early 1990s.

Investors were bracing for the release of new projections this week from Sony and other companies that will reduce expectations.

Tokyo/Obama, Japan - Welcome to Obama. Elderly residents in the small port town on Japan's west coast are getting ready for the US presidential elections, playing hula music to support their hero - Barack Obama.

The vast majority of them knows the Hawaii-born senator only from the television screen. And, like most of their countrymen, they did not give a toss about politics at the other side of the Pacific Ocean until recently.

But now, the residents of Obama, Japan, are cheering for the Democratic candidate because he puts their town, 400 kilometres west of Tokyo, on the map.

Tokyo - Ivan Basso returned from a doping ban by coming third in the Japan Cup race which saw an Italian podium sweep led by Damiano Cunego.

Tokyo - A Japanese woman was arrested for cold-blooded murder of her husband - in cyberspace.

According to a report by the Yomiuri Shinbum newspaper on Saturday, the 43-year-old from Miyazaki prefecture in southern Japan, was outraged that her virtual husband divorced her character in the online game Maple Story.

Gamers in the virtual role-play enter social relationships with other characters and fight against virtual enemies. The woman married her game partner, but the man, a company employee from Sapparo in northern Japan divorced her again subsequently.

Police said the woman, identified as Mayumi Tomari, illicitly obtained the man's password and ID and terminated his online existence.

Tokyo - Operating profits of Japan's second-largest carmaker Honda Motor Co are likely to drop sharply owing to the yen's strengthening against the dollar, a newspaper report said Saturday.

The Nikkei business newspaper reported that Honda's operating profits are expected to drop by about 40 per cent to between 550 and 580 billion yen (5.8 to 6.15 billion dollars).

At the beginning of the business year, which runs until March 31, 2009, Honda had projected operative profits of 650 billion yen, but revised it downwards in April to 630 billion yen.