News Headlines - 21 March 2020

▽Japan marks 25th anniv. of deadly sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway by AUM cult - The Mainichi

Japan marked the 25th anniversary Friday of a sarin nerve gas attack by the AUM Shinrikyo cult on the Tokyo subway system that left 14 people dead and more than 6,000 others injured... The cult has been disbanded and its founder Shoko Asahara and senior members were executed in 2018, but successor groups remain active.

▽Japan's 1st Ordinance to Tackle Gaming Addiction Approved - JIJI PRESS

The Kagawa prefectural assembly passed on Wednesday an ordinance aimed at preventing internet and gaming addiction among children by imposing usage restrictions, the first such ordinance in Japan.
The ordinance was enacted with a majority vote at a plenary assembly meeting of the western Japan prefecture. It is set to take effect on April 1.
As a rough guide, the ordinance stipulates that the daily video game time for people under 18 should be restricted to 60 minutes on weekdays and 90 minutes on holidays.

▽Coronavirus: Trump says Japan hasn't decided on Olympics - Los Angeles Times

Japanese leaders have yet to decide on holding the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to President Trump.
At a White House news conference on Thursday morning, Trump said he discussed the matter with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a conference call.
“That’s a big decision for him … it’s a tough situation,” Trump said to reporters. “He told us he has not made a decision as to what to do.”
The president’s comments came hours after a scaled-down ceremony at Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, where only a few people were permitted to watch Greek officials hand the Olympic flame to the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee in a traditional ceremony.

▽Playboy Magazine Is Closing Down, Probably for Good

Playboy has announced that it’s closing down its flagship magazine for the rest of 2020. It seems unlikely, given the wording of the announcement and the state of print magazine-making, that it will ever return. It’s not a surprise, exactly - its circulation and advertising drooped long ago, accelerating as the nudie pictures for which it was celebrated became available everywhere for free. Hugh Marston Hefner, its founder/editor/latter-day reality-show star/loungewear enthusiast, died in 2017, as his faded empire contracted around him, and one got the sense that the magazine was kept going partly because nobody wanted Hef to outlive it.

▽Coronavirus Spain: Former Real Madrid president Lorenzo Sanz dies | Daily Mail Online

Former Real Madrid president Lorenzo Sanz has died at the age of 76 after contracting coronavirus.
Sanz was a director at Real from 1985 to 1995 before taking over as President, a position which he held until 2000.
He masterminded their European Cup victory in 1998, where they beat Juventus in the final, ending a 32-year drought in the competition they had once dominated.