[kitski]

Actor and comedian Kanichi Tani dies at 74
Kanichi Tani, a longtime actor and comedian who was once the sidekick of Kiyoshi Atsumi of "Tora-san" fame, died of a stroke at a Tokyo hospital Monday afternoon, his family said. He was 74. Tani met Kiyoshi Atsumi and Keiroko Seki in Tokyo's Asakusa theater district before appearing in the popular TV series "Gekko Kamen" (Moonlight Mask) as an assistant detective. The three men later formed the Three Pockets before breaking up to pursue independent careers.

Atsumi subsequently starred in the series "Otoko wa Tsurai yo" (It's Tough Being a Man) as the itinerant peddler Torajiro Kuruma or "Tora-san."

Nurse suspected of removing nails of elderly people with dementia
A 40-year-old female nurse at a hospital in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, abused four elderly patients suffering from dementia by removing their nails, the operator of the hospital announced Monday. The nurse has denied the allegations, saying they "fell off on their own" and that she was "giving them treatment," according to the Kitakyushu Hospital Group.

The operator is planning to file a criminal complaint with police on Tuesday against the nurse, who is in charge of a ward at Kitakyushu Yahata Higashi Hospital. The institution has about 500 beds for long-term nursing and medical care, according to its website. Other staff noticed the incidents and have received complaints from the patients' families, the hospital operator said, adding that in-house investigations showed these were acts of abuse by the nurse.