Suicide bid at Koizumi rally

Police in Japan say a middle-aged man slashed his throat with a knife at a rally where Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was launching his party's campaign for the 29 July parliamentary election .

Mr Koizumi was about 30 metres away and had just started speaking at a meeting in central Tokyo when the man, 48-year-old Naotake Sugimoto, slashed his neck with a kitchen knife.

He was taken to hospital but his condition was said not to be life-threatening.

No-one else was injured.

The motive of the attacker is not known.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service