News Headlines - 15 December 2016

▽Abe-Putin talks on territorial dispute kick off in Yamaguchi | The Japan Times

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday became the first Group of Seven leader to meet President Vladimir Putin, hoping to make a breakthrough in a postwar territorial row that has left the countries without a peace treaty... Yet the prime minister’s omotenashi (hospitality), offering Putin a hot spring experience in Abe’s ancestral town of Nagato, Yamaguchi Prefecture, was somewhat marred from the start when the Russian leader arrived almost two hours late.

▽Japan parliament legalises casinos - BBC News

Japan's parliament has passed a long-awaited law to legalise casinos.
The move paves the way for casino resort developments that also include hotels and shopping centres.

▽South China Sea: Satellite photos 'show weapons' built on islands - BBC News

In a report on Wednesday, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) said it had been tracking construction of hexagon-shaped buildings on four of the Spratly islands for several months.

▽A 20-year toll: 368 gymnasts allege sexual exploitation

No one knows exactly how many children have been sexually exploited in America’s gyms over the past 20 years. But an IndyStar-USA TODAY Network review of hundreds of police files and court cases across the country provides for the first time a measure of just how pervasive the problem is.
At least 368 gymnasts have alleged some form of sexual abuse at the hands of their coaches, gym owners and other adults working in gymnastics. That’s a rate of one every 20 days. And it's likely an undercount.

▽Girl gang stripped football star naked before subjecting him to sex ordeal  | Daily Mail Online

The women from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, targeted the amateur footballer and took him back to their home where they assaulted him using vegetables and scissors.