The World Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction in March must agree on an updated framework for action to mitigate human and material loss, says Margareta Wahlström

A weakened typhoon slammed into Japan, leaving one person dead, more than 30 injured and prompting evacuation alerts for some 1.1 million residents near swollen rivers.

Japanese industrial equipment maker Kubota said 79 employees, mostly plant workers, died over a decades-long period of a type of cancer likely caused by the company’s production of asbestos products.

At least 10 people were crushed to death tonight when thousands of revellers leaving a fireworks display surged onto a crowded footbridge in western Japan.