Holiday Train Travel in Tokyo and beyond is sidelined – India is shocked at the latest atrocity against a young woman – Toronto’s crack smoking mayor wants to hold on to his job, and he just might. 

A fire at a Pachinko Parlor just south of Tokyo station managed to screw up rail transportation in the Japanese capital and to stations in western Japan as well.  It happened right next to the tracks that carry several major Tokyo rail lines, not to mention the famed Shinkansen “bullet train” to all of the major cities to the west including Nagoya and Osaka.  This is happening as millions are beginning to return home from the New Year’s holiday.

Another horrific rape in India:  A pregnant 16 year old was gang-raped in two separate attacks and then died after being set on fire near the eastern city of Kolkata, formally known as Calcutta in the west.  The second attack happened as the girl walked home from the police station after reporting the first assault.  The victim gave a dying declaration to police, who arrested some suspects.  But the family and protesters accuse police of failing to act swiftly after the girl lodged her initial complaint.

An explosion tore through a crowded commercial street in a Hezbollah stronghold outside Beirut, Lebanon, killing at least five people and injuring several more.  A security official sys it appears to have been a car bomb.  If that’s true, it’s the latest episode of Sunni-versus-Shi’a violence that now stretches from the Mediterranean to the eastern part of Iraq, and for many has replaced any political goals of the Syrian Civil War.

A British man and a woman from New Zealand were found shot to death near an oil and gas complex in Libya.  Both were were teachers in Tripoli and their bodies were found next to their luggage outside the western city of Sabratha.  The beloingings appear not to have been touched, and the motive for their killing was unclear.

A former head of Rwanda’s spy agency was found strangled in the upscale Michelangelo Towers hotel in a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa.  Colonel Patrick Karegeya has lived there in exile for several years.  The Rwanda National Congress accuses President Paul Kagame of sending agents to carry out the assassination.

The American FBI says a fire at the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco was set deliberately, although it is not being investigated as an act of terrorism.  No one was hurt, but the fire charred a doorway, damaged the lobby and burned upward toward the roof.  Earlier in the day, San Francisco officials heard public comment on China's sometimes-abysmal human rights record.

Wal-Mart stores in China are offering refunds to people who bought “Five Spice Donkey” meat, because it might be contaminated with Fox.  Tests showed it contained the DNA of other animals, including Fox.  Said one bemused Chinese consumer on that country’s largest social media network, “Isn't fox meat more expensive than donkey meat anyway?”

Toronto’s crack smoking mayor Rob Ford was first in line to file papers to run in this year’s mayoral race.  And despite being the world’s biggest buffoon in politics, being shameless might be paying off.  One poll suggests the clown is actually more than 10 points ahead of his nearest competition.

But you don’t need a crack-smoking mayor to help your town.  Pope Francis drew more than 6.6 million people to his public events in Vatican City during his first year in the papacy.  That’s a 180 percent increase over his predecessor Benedict XIV.