Jack O’Connell is full of praise for his director on the World War II drama, writes Jeananne Craig

Pope Francis has arrived in South Korea on the first papal visit to the Asian nation in 25 years, stepping off a plane on to a red carpet and greeting the president, Catholics and grieving relatives of the ferry disaster.

Brave

The family of murdered British teacher Lindsay Hawker have spoken of their relief after a Japanese court rejected an appeal by her killer.

A JAPANESE-owned English language school has been ordered to pay one of its managers compensation of €30,000 and to increase her salary in line with that of a male counterpart.

Japan will go ahead with its whaling programme in the Antarctic later this year under heightened security to fend off activists who have vowed to disrupt the annual hunt, the country’s fisheries minister said.

JAPANESE officials said they were committed to nuclear power despite calls from the prime minister for a plant to close.

JAPANESE authorities are trying to identify a body found inside one of the landing gear compartments on a Delta Airlines plane flight that arrived in Tokyo from New York.

A JAPANESE robotics company has unveiled a suit designed to help people with mobility problems.

China has asked Japanese soldiers to deliver earthquake aid in what would be the first significant military contact between them since the Second World War.

A Japanese official responded to a US demand for a formal apology over wartime sex slavery practices by saying that Japan had already made amends.

Japan tried to calm an international furore today over forcing Asian women to work in military brothels during the Second World War, saying the government stood by an earlier landmark apology.

Japan’s prime minister caused outrage in the Far East today after suggesting women who worked in brothels for the Japanese military during World War II had not been forced to do so.

The US and North Korea are focusing on ways to resume international nuclear disarmament talks in their discussions in Germany, not on US financial restrictions levelled at Pyongyang, the state department said today.

US officials have found traces of radioactive air which may confirm that North Korea did carry out a nuclear test as it claimed on Monday.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki presented his 28-point national reconciliation plan to parliament today, a document that calls for setting a timeline for Iraqi troops to take control of security throughout the country.

Four US Marines died in Iraq when their tank rolled off a bridge into a canal and they drowned, the military said today.

The Japanese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was evacuated today and police rushed to the Thai Embassy after both buildings received suspicious packages.

The apparent kidnapping of a Japanese man by a militant group in Iraq will not affect Tokyo’s troop deployment there, Japan’s defence chief said today as officials vowed to make every effort to win his release.

Japan’s Parliament has approved a bill that authorises Japanese forces to help with reconstruction in Iraq, despite delaying tactics by the opposition that at one point deteriorated into a wild shoving match during a committee meeting.

THE Japanese parliament voted down a no-confidence motion against the cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi yesterday, clearing the way for final-stage debate on a bill allowing troops to be sent to Iraq.

The European Commission says Japan's decision to ban imports of cloven-hoofed animals and meat from all European Union countries appears to be excessive.