Tokyo - The Japanese government plans to file a protest with China if a report about police brutality against two Japanese journalists was confirmed, media reports said Tuesday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Japan would "protest strongly" if the attack against the journalists was verified.

A Japanese reporter from the Nippon Television Network Corp and a photographer from the Chunichi Shimbun newspaper were detained and beaten by paramilitary police late Monday as they were covering an attack on police by two Uighur men in Xinjiang in north-western China that left 16 officers dead, the two news organizations said.

Tokyo  - Tokyo stocks opened lower Monday on worries over Japanese corporate earnings outlooks and the course of the US economy, sending the key Nikkei
225 Stock Average to a two-week low below 13,000 level.

The Nikkei index fell 133.53 points, or 1.02 per cent, to 12,961.06.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also down 17.57 points, or 1.38 per cent, to 1,255.36.

On currency markets at 9 am (0000 GMT), the dollar was quoted at 107.53-58 yen, up from Friday's 5 pm quote of 107.43-44 yen.

Tokyo - Tokyo stocks opened lower Monday on worries over Japanese corporate earnings outlooks and the course of the US economy, sending the key Nikkei 225 Stock Average to a two-week low below 13,000 level.

The Nikkei index fell 133.53 points, or 1.02 per cent, to 12,961.06.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also down 17.57 points, or 1.38 per cent, to 1,255.36.

On currency markets at 9 am (0000 GMT), the dollar was quoted at 107.53-58 yen, up from Friday's 5 pm quote of 107.43-44 yen.

Tokyo - Nomura Holdings Inc has reached an a

Tokyo - Nissan Motor Co said Friday that its net profit fell 42.8 per cent to 52.8 billion yen (505 million dollars) in its first quarter from the same quarter a year before, mainly because of the rise in the yen.

Operating profit also plunged 46.1 per cent in the April-to-June quarter to 79.9 billion yen.

Japan's third-largest automaker saw its sales fall 4.1 per cent to 2.35 trillion yen.

Nissan's global sales were up 6.9 per cent for the quarter to 936,000 units.

Tokyo - Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda was expected to reshuffle his cabinet Friday in an effort to boost his government's support rate.

Fukuda apparently said that he would rename ministers with the future economy in mind amid surging oil and goods prices, as well as aging population, said Fukuda's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Secretary General Bunmei Ibuki.

The cabinet members would resign en masse in the afternoon before Fukuda summons new ministers.