Top Stories 2006

Top 10 stories of 2006 as selected by the readers of Yomiuri Shinbun:

1.The birth of Prince Hisahito, son of Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko.

2.Skater Shizuka Arakawa's gold medal performance at the Turin Winter Olympic Games.

3.Team Japan led by Sadaharu Oh, won the first World Baseball Classic.

4.The launch of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The first prime minister born in the postwar period emphasized the need to "build a beautiful country."

5.The victory of Waseda Jitsugyo High School in the first replayed final in 37 years of the the National High School Baseball Championship.

6.The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office searched the head office of Livedoor Co. in the Roppongi Hills complex in Minato Ward, Tokyo. A week later, prosecutors arrested then Livedoor President Takafumi Horie and other executives.

7.The emergence of reports about suicides by children who were bullied at school, known as ijime.

8.Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters' first victory in 44 years in baseball's Japan Series.

9. Succession of cases in which children were victimized by adults who lacked basic human qualities.

10. Because of drunk driving by a Fukuoka municipal government employee in August, three infants aged 1 to 4 were killed in a heart-wrenching incident.