Nagoya Japan

Sixty-thousand dollars for a Japanese version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame was approved Wednesday by the Los Angeles Harbor Department's Board of Commissioners as a gift to Nagoya, Japan, the sister city of Los Angeles. The money will be used to buy 25 prefabricated stars to be placed in Los Angeles Square in Nagoya. The gift is intended to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Nagoya's sister-city relationship with Los Angeles and also to mark Nagoya's centennial.

Culver City artist Dora De Larios is one of 10 winners of the Los Angeles YWCA's Silver Achievement Awards. The prizes honor women for leadership and accomplishment in their field or work or social service. De Larios uses a variety of media in creating her works. Among the most notable are a ceramic dinnerware service for the White House and a 6-by-26-foot cement mural which was given by the city of Los Angeles to its sister city, Nagoya, Japan.

Mayor Tom Bradley and a number of other city officials Friday welcomed a delegation from Los Angeles' sister city Nagoya, Japan, and accepted a gift of an elaborate scale model festival float to commemorate their 30-year relationship. The 7-foot-tall lacquered-wood float, or "dashi-kurakuri," topped with moving kabuki dolls will be placed on display at City Hall, said Bradley, who put on a royal blue ceremonial robe for the occasion.

Taiwan's China Airlines dropped its claim of innocence and acknowledged that errors by its pilots contributed to a 1994 crash that killed 264 people near Nagoya, Japan. The airline stopped short of taking full responsibility, saying a final report issued by Japanese authorities also blamed design flaws in the aircraft. The statement contrasted with China Airlines' earlier assertion that reports linking human error to the crash were "unacceptable."