News Headlines - 27 November 2020

▽Japan's Diet debates proposed law on referendums to change Constitution | The Japan Times

A commission under the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, began substantive deliberations Thursday on a bill to amend the law governing national referendums on revising the Constitution.
A question-and-answer session at the Lower House’s Commission on the Constitution was held on the bill for the first time since it was submitted to the Diet over two years ago. The bill includes measures to make it easier for voters to cast ballots in referendums on constitutional amendments.

▽Japan cancels emperor's New Year event due to virus spike

Japan's Imperial Household Agency said Friday it has decided to cancel Emperor Naruhito's annual New Year event at the Imperial Palace due to a recent spike in the number of new cases of the novel coronavirus.
It is the first time the event has been called off since 1990, when the country was mourning the death the previous year of Emperor Hirohito, the grandfather of the current emperor.

▽Keio University and Tokyo Dental College in merger talks | The Japan Times

Keio University and Tokyo Dental College said Thursday they have been in talks to merge their operations in April 2023.
The merger will make Keio the first university in Japan to have four medical faculties - medicine, nursing, pharmacy and dentistry... The talks started after Tokyo Dental offered the merger to Keio on Nov. 6.

▽North Korea Executed Coronavirus Rule-Breaker, Says South Korean Intelligence : NPR

North Korea is taking increasingly harsh measures to stop the coronavirus from entering the country, including executing an official in August who violated anti-virus rules, South Korean intelligence officials told lawmakers on Friday.
In a closed-door briefing to a parliamentary intelligence committee on Friday, the officials told lawmakers that the executed North Korean had brought goods through customs in the city of Sinuiju on North Korea's border with China, in violation of coronavirus-related quarantine measures.
North Korea also has locked down the capital, Pyongyang, and prohibited fishing and salt production in the ocean as part of its restrictions to block COVID-19, lawmakers cited the intelligence officials as saying.

▽PETER SHILTON: Diego Maradona had greatness, but no sportsmanship | Daily Mail Online

He challenged me for a high, looping ball, but knew he wouldn't get it with his head, so he punched it into the net. A clear offence. Cheating... For the first time in the game, we let him get a run on us and he scored. It was a great goal but we were in no doubt - without the first goal he would not have scored the second.