REFILING: Kyodo news summary -6-

TOKYO, May 22 Kyodo

---------- Japan unlikely to boycott Beijing Olympics over Darfur crisis

TOKYO - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indicated Tuesday that Japan is not considering boycotting the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games despite growing international criticism of China over its close ties with Sudan, saying, ''Sports and politics should be considered separately.''

Meanwhile, the premier also implicitly urged Beijing to carefully balance its assistance to African countries like Sudan by giving ample consideration to the human rights situation and other problems.

---------- Gov't aims to cut suicide rate by over 20% by 2016

TOKYO - The ruling Liberal Democratic Party approved on Tuesday the government's policy outline for suicide prevention, featuring a target to reduce the suicide rate by more than 20 percent by 2016, party officials said.

The government had set the target in its April draft at 20 percent by 2016 but modified the goal following criticism that the numerical target was too low.

---------- Abe has no plan for general election on same day as upper house poll

TOKYO - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday he has absolutely no intention of calling a general election for the House of Representatives this summer to coincide with the slated upper chamber election, dismissing remarks earlier the same day by the main opposition party about such a possibility.

''Analysis by the Democratic Party of Japan is the DPJ's own business. But I'm absolutely not considering'' doing so, Abe said in response to reporters' questions.

---------- Car bomb explosion at Baghdad market kills 25, injures 60

CAIRO - A car bomb exploded at an outdoor market in Baghdad on Tuesday morning, killing 25 people and injuring 60 others, the Associated Press reported from the Iraqi capital.

The blast occurred about 10 a.m. in the Shiite-dominated neighborhood of Amil, in southeastern Baghdad, the report said.

---------- Leading businessman, critic of political donations Hiraiwa dies at 92

TOKYO - Gaishi Hiraiwa, a former chief of the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations who helped sever the cozy ties between the nation's business and political circles in the 1990s, died of heart failure Tuesday at a Tokyo hospital, said Tokyo Electric Power Co. which he headed for many years. He was 92.

Hiraiwa served from 1990 to 1994 at the helm of the nation's largest big-business group, which later merged with another big-business group to form the Japan Business Federation, known as Nippon Keidanren.

---------- U.S. envoy urges Myanmar to release Aung San Suu Kyi

BANGKOK - U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill repeated a call Tuesday for the release of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other Myanmar political prisoners from detention.

Speaking to reporters after meeting with Thai Foreign Minister Nitya Phibulsonggram, Hill said the Myanmar junta should reconsider the detention of Suu Kyi, adding the action is one of several issues that pose a real blockage in terms of Myanmar being able to rejoin the international community.

---------- Largest weekly number of measles patients reported since 2002

TOKYO - The number of patients contracting measles in Japan in the period from May 7 to 13 totaled 53, the highest number for a weekly period since 2002, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases said Tuesday.

The figure covers patients aged 15 or older at about 450 medical institutions nationwide, it said.

---------- Aso, Beckett meet to discuss cooperation on climate change, N. Korea

TOKYO - Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and visiting British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett met in Tokyo on Tuesday to discuss climate change, the North Korean nuclear standoff, security and other global issues, Japanese officials said.

The Aso-Beckett meeting comes ahead of the Group of Eight summit in Germany next month, where fighting climate change after 2012 will be a major issue on the agenda.

---------- Abe unveils plan to visit Malaysia in August

TOKYO - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday he plans to visit Malaysia in August, telling visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi he hopes the trip will help to further enhance bilateral friendship.

''This year is the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Japan and Malaysia,'' Abe told reporters afterward. ''I hope to make it a visit where I can exchange views with the Malaysian people on further developing our relations and discuss the future of our two nations with Prime Minister Abdullah.''

---------- Japan rights groups urge Arroyo to halt extrajudicial killings

TOKYO - Japan-based human rights groups urged visiting Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Tuesday to take further steps to halt the hundreds of execution-style killings carried out in the Philippines and punish the perpetrators amid a spate of such killings.

The groups, including Amnesty International Japan and Human Rights Now, gathered in the evening for a candlelight vigil in front of the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo and handed over to the embassy a petition letter to Arroyo. The vigil was dedicated to activists, journalists and other victims of extrajudicial killings.