For more than 100 years, Japan has claimed the edge over other national cuisines due to a rather unfair advantage. While the rest of the world’s meals rely on the four taste variations of sweet, salty, sour and bitter, Japan claims a unique fifth element which it calls umami.

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The US President Barack Obama says it is going to take years for the Gulf Coast to recover from the worst oil spill in the nation’s history.

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The chiefs of Afghanistan’s interior ministry and intelligence have abruptly resigned following a series of failed attacks at the opening of last week’s peace jirga.

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Japan’s finance minister, Naoto Kan, has been formally elected as his country’s next prime minister.

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Members of Japan’s ruling Democratic Party seem set to elevate the deputy prime minister, Naoto Kan, to the top job following the resignation of Yukio Hatoyama.

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The man who brought more than fifty years of conservative rule in Japan to an end has resigned, less than a year after becoming prime minister.

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Sharia police have begun enforcing a new law on the wearing of inappropriate clothing in Indonesia’s devoutly religious province of Aceh.

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Japan’s prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has urged the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, to support international efforts to take action against North Korea over the Cheonan affair.

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At least 65 people have been killed after an express train was derailed in eastern India, crossing into the path of another train.

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The American boy who has just become the youngest person ever to conquer Everest has arrived back at base camp in the Himalayas.

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