The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.

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Japan accepts Ukrainian evacuees using commercial flight for 1st time

TOKYO - Japan on Saturday accepted Ukrainian evacuees using seats secured by the government on a direct commercial flight from Poland for the first time.

The six aged between 6 and 55, of which five are female, arrived at Narita airport near Tokyo from Warsaw, according to the Immigration Services Agency of Japan.

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Hong Kong's former No. 2 officially announces leadership election bid

HONG KONG - The Hong Kong government's former No. 2, John Lee, on Saturday officially announced his bid for the city's leadership election slated for May 8.

Lee, a security hard-liner widely seen as the only candidate favored by the mainland government, had tendered his resignation as chief secretary for administration Wednesday and it was approved by Beijing on Friday.

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UDPATE1: Boxing: Golovkin stops London Olympic champion Murata

SAITAMA, Japan - Japan's Ryota Murata, fighting for the first time in over two years, lost his WBA super world middleweight championship to IBF champ Gennadiy Golovkin of Kazakhstan by technical knockout in Saturday's title unification bout.

Fighting for the first time since December 2019, Japan's 36-year-old London Olympic gold medalist, Murata's record fell to 16-3. Golovkin, fighting a day after his 40th birthday, improved to 42-1 with one draw and 37 wins by knockout.

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G-7 finance chiefs to meet in Washington on April 20: sources

WASHINGTON/TOKYO - Finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of Seven major developed countries are due to meet in Washington on April 20 to discuss ways of stepping up pressure on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, sources familiar with the plan said Saturday.

The finance chiefs from the seven countries -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United State -- will gather to show their group's unity in its response to the invasion on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting.

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German Chancellor Scholz eyeing Japan visit in late April: source

TOKYO - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is planning to visit Japan in late April to hold talks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine and how to manage China's rise likely to top the agenda, a government source said Saturday.

Scholz will meet with Kishida possibly on April 28, the Japanese source said. It will be his first visit since taking office in December last year.

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Japan, Philippines to aim for new defense cooperation pact

TOKYO - Japan and the Philippines on Saturday agreed to work toward signing a treaty designed to facilitate joint exercises and reciprocal visits of their forces as China's increasingly assertive pursuit of sovereignty claims in regional waters has upset its neighbors.

The deal was struck during a meeting in Tokyo of their foreign and defense ministers, in which they expressed "serious concern" about the situation in the East and South China Seas and "strongly opposed" any action that may inflame tensions, according to their joint statement.

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China warns U.N of adding "fuel to fire" in responding to N. Korea

WASHINGTON - China's envoy on North Korean issues Liu Xiaoming said Friday the U.N. Security Council should not add "fuel to the fire," indicating his reluctance to back U.S. efforts to pursue a new U.N. sanctions resolution on Pyongyang following a series of recent ballistic missile tests.

Noting that he has met White House Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell, Liu, who has been visiting the United States, said on Twitter the council should play a "constructive role for the political settlement" of issues related to the Korean Peninsula.

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Japan, Russia eye starting talks on salmon, trout quota

TOKYO - The Japanese and Russian governments are arranging to start negotiations over the fishing quota of salmon and trout spawned in Russian rivers, several Japanese government sources said Friday.

Although the two nations hope to start the talks next week, the attempt by Japan to decide on the quota for its exclusive economic zone could face difficulties as Russia opposes the economic sanctions imposed by Japan along with other countries in the face of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

==Kyodo

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