An appeal by four elderly Chinese women forced to become sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War Two was rejected today by a court in Japan that said the current government wasn’t responsible for the atrocities committed by wartime rulers.

A former doomsday cult member has been sentenced to death by the Tokyo High Court today for a 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo’s subways, overturning a lower court ruling condemning him to life in prison.

A disgraced former member of the Japanese parliament has committed suicide at his home in Tokyo.