Tokyo - Exhibitor numbers for this year's Tokyo Motor Show are down as carmakers are hit by the global downturn, organizers said Tuesday.

The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) said only 122 companies were to take part in the show held every two years, down from 241 exhibitors in 2007.

Carmakers including Germany's Volkswagen AG, Bayerische Motorenwerke AG and Mercedes-Benz have not registered their participation, neither did their ailing US rivals General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC.

Tokyo - Sanyo

Tokyo, March 24: A team of researchers has claimed to have found evidence of what may be an early third-century palace that could have been part of the Yamatai kingdom ruled by Himiko, the legendary Japanese queen.

According to a report in The Asahi Shimbun, excavations at the Makimuku ruins in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, show there were as many as three buildings facing the same direction in a line, dating back to the late second century to early fourth century.

Researchers also uncovered evidence of fortified barriers stretching 40 meters.

Tokyo - Tokyo stocks on Tuesday continued their upwards trend from the beginning of the week, pushed up by plans of the US Treasury to remove toxic assets from banks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed by 2.07 per cent, or 170.35 points to 8,385.88 by mid-trading.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues added 14.74 points, or 1.86 per cent, to 806.3.

On currency markets at midday (0000 GMT), the dollar was stronger at 97.10-15 yen, after trading at 95.97-96.00 yen late Monday in New York.

Washington  - Two Discovery space shuttle astronauts began their third spacewalk Monday to complete maintenance work on the International Space Station.

During the planned six-and-a-half hour spacewalk, astronauts Joseph Acaba and Richard Arnold were to reposition an equipment cart, complete the deployment of an external cargo mounting mechanism, lubricate the space station's robotic arm and reconfigure some cables that power the station's gyroscopes.

This is the second spacewalk for both Acaba and Arnold and the final one of the current mission.

Tokyo, Mar. 23: A cargo plane has crashed at Japan''s Narita international airport, killing both crew members on board.

The Federal Express plane, which was coming from Guangzhou in China, crash-landed in high winds of Japan’s largest airport near Tokyo at 0650 local time on Monday.

Footage of the crash shows the plane landing hard, tipping on to its left wing and bursting into flame as it then rolled over, BBC reports.