Tokyo - Japanese immigration authorities have denied entry to 19 members of an international farmers' group who flew in from South Korea, sources associated with an NGO said Friday.

The farmers' group members arrived in Japan on Thursday and had planned to attend a forum in Hokkaido ahead of the Group of Eight (G8) summit meeting, which is scheduled July 7-9 in Toyako, Japan.

An immigration official said the group members' purpose for coming was "not clear," after they were asked whether they had participated in demonstrations in the past.

The members were to attend a forum on climate change and its impact on food supplies.

Tokyo - The Japanese government plans to provide an additional 50 million dollars worth of food aid by October to help ease the food crisis in developing nations, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura

Tokyo - Anxiety over inflation and an economic slowdown in the United States dragged Tokyo stocks down Friday. 

Singapore - China and Japan share first place as Asia's best investment destinations for foreign firms, a published study said on Friday.

Tokyo - Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will try to resolve a key territorial dispute, the top government spokesman said Thursday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said he hoped the next week's meeting would serve as "an important catalyst" to resolving the longstanding dispute over four islands.

Although the Russian president recognizes the difficulty over resolving the dispute, Japan welcomes his intention to resolve the issue over the Kuril Islands, Machimura said.

"We hope to advance mutual efforts to find some common ground by using our wisdom while President Medvedev is in office, and the Fukuda Cabinet will also do its best to work on it," he said at a press conference.

Washington - A pair of climbers from Lafayette, California, in the United States and Hidaka in Japan have climbed the 3,000-foot vertical face of El Capitan peak in record time, beating a record s