A 16-year-old high school girl suffered cuts to her shoulder after a man suddenly attacked her late Wednesday night, police said Thursday.

The girl told investigators that she was not acquainted with the man who she said appeared to be about 30 years old, was about 170 centimeters tall and had a beard.

At around 10:45 p.m., the girl, a first-year student at a Tokyo metropolitan high school, was walking on a street in the Kugayama district of Suginami-ku when a man suddenly slashed her shoulder as he passed her, investigators said. She suffered slight slash wounds.

The man ran away from the scene immediately after the attack. The girl was on her way to a park when she was attacked, police said. (July 1, 2004)

A 16-year-old high school girl suffered cuts to her shoulder after a man suddenly attacked her late Wednesday night, police said Thursday.

The girl told investigators that she was not acquainted with the man who she said appeared to be about 30 years old, was about 170 centimeters tall and had a beard.

At around 10:45 p.m., the girl, a first-year student at a Tokyo metropolitan high school, was walking on a street in the Kugayama district of Suginami-ku when a man suddenly slashed her shoulder as he passed her, investigators said. She suffered slight slash wounds.

The man ran away from the scene immediately after the attack. The girl was on her way to a park when she was attacked, police said. (July 1, 2004)

UTSUNOMIYA -- A couple who let their 4-month-old daughter starve to death despite having been instructed how to feed her were arrested Thursday, police said.

The parents, Tatsuya Asakawa, 26, and his wife Mika, of Utsunomiya, were arrested on charges of neglecting their responsibility as caregivers, resulting in the death of their daughter on Nov. 27 last year.

Investigators said the couple's daughter was born in July that year. At the beginning of October she was hospitalized after suffering weight loss due to malnutrition.

The following month, a doctor gave the pair instructions on how to feed their daughter, and the hospital allowed the infant to be discharged on condition that she undergo a second examination, but the couple never took her back to be re-examined. (July 1, 2004)

A police superintendent who sexually harassed a female colleague numerous times after drinking sessions was Thursday handed a one-month suspension, police said.

The 52-year-old superintendent, head of the Metropolitan Police Department's No. 3 Mobile Investigation Unit, said that alcohol had sparked his amorous behavior.

"There were no feelings of love, but when I drank I felt a strong affinity for the female worker. I deeply regret what I did," the officer, whose name has not been released, said. He has already submitted his resignation.

Investigators said the unit head used a police vehicle to travel to an area near the female worker's apartment between the beginning of March and the end of May and invited her to karaoke.

When the woman refused his advances, he reportedly started sending her telephone e-mail messages saying, "I want to see you." He also reportedly tried to hug the worker at their workplace and went in and out of her room during a trip to a hot-spring district.

In the past, the superintendent was in charge of investigations into the brutal killing of a family of four in Tokyo's Setagaya-ku at the end of December 2000. He had been appointed to his current position in February this year after serving as a deputy police station head and communications officer in his police station's community affairs department.

Police said they would work to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. They added Thursday that they had issued a three-month suspension to another officer arrested on suspicion of indecent assault after hugging a woman in a parking lot in Tokyo's Roppongi district in June. (July 1, 2004)

YOKOHAMA -- A mother and two of her children were found dead in her home here after she e-mailed her eldest son and told him she had killed his brother, police said.

Police said the 41-year-old woman sent an e-mail message to her 20-year-old son living in Tochigi Prefecture, saying, "I've killed (your) brother."

The 20-year-old alerted police, who raced to the mother's home in Yokohama's Midori-ku and found four people collapsed inside. The four were identified as the 41-year-old woman, her 13-year-old second son, her 10-year-old daughter, and her 1-year-old third son.

The two boys had already died by the time police arrived. The mother and her daughter were taken to hospital unconscious, but they were expected to live, police said.

Police said it was likely the mother had attempted to kill the three children then commit suicide. Inside the home they found a suicide note saying, "I want all of us to go to heaven."

The second son was bleeding from the stomach and a knife was lying next to his body, police said.

Investigators said the woman had lived with her three children. She had reportedly been attending hospital to receive treatment for depression. Her second son and daughter had often skipped school to take care of their younger brother, police said. (June 30, 2004)