Details on this year's MangaNEXT convention, which takes place from October 5th to 7th at the Crowne Plaza Meadowlands in Secaucus, NJ, is available on Active Anime's forum:

We are currently accepting submissions for Panels, Workshops and discussion groups. If you are interested in running one please fill out the form on our webpage, http://www.manganext.org/2007/panels . The deadline is August 15th and there are discounts in running a panel or workshop.

Daily Yomiuri Online has published an article looking at Japan Football Museum's Captain Tsubasa Exhibition that began on July 21st:

The exhibition, subtitled Everyone was once a Captain Tsubasa, displays enlarged copies of key scenes from the 26-year-long series, comments from professional players who were influenced by Captain Tsubasa and copies of the comic books translated into various languages including Italian, German and Chinese.

The winner of this year's World Cosplay Summit has been announced. According to Anime! Anime! (via Giapet), the winner of this year's event, held in Nagoya, Japan, is the French team, represented by Isabelle Jeudy and Damian Ratte cosplaying as Tsugiri and Myoubi from the manga Alichino.

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The 2007 Hong Kong Comics Festival took place in Hong Kong last month. Although the organizers initially expected an attendance of around 550,000, over 560,000 fans showed up for the 5-day convention. Due to an unexpected rise in attendance, sometimes the convention stayed open until 11:30pm to accommodate special special events. According to the report, sales of tripled compared to last year.

Source: ZhongMan

According to the Yaoi Press Blog, after meeting with NETCOMICS' Heewoon Chung at this year's Comic-Con, Yaoi Press and NETCOMICS have made various agreements, one of which is that Yaoi Press will be handling NETCOMICS' U.S. convention exhibits:

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ANN reports that Sony Music Entertainment will be holding auditions for the two main female leads in the movie based on the manga Pride by Yukari Ichijo:

The manga characters Shio and Moe are aspiring opera singers and competing music college students, so the producers are looking for females between 16 and 25 years old with the desire to become singers (familiarity with the manga is recommended). The deadline for applications and demo samples is August 31.

Otaku Champloo reports that today is Yaoi day:

Today we are celebrating Yaoi no Hi, an otaku holiday derived from the 801 combi that represents 'ya-o-i' in Japanese culture.

Via: MangaBlog

According to Sho-Comi's Editorial blog, the total sales of Kotomi Aoki's manga have reached 10 million units. To celebrate, an Kotomi Aoki autograph session is being held starting July 28th at the KaBoS Okuwa store in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa.

Kotomi Aoki is a popular shoujo mangaka whose manga regularly appear in Shogakukan's Sho-Comi. Boku wa Imouto ni Koi o Suru, Aoki's signature series, have sold over 6 million copies, and was adapted into a live-action movie in January 2007. Other series by Aoki include Boku no Hatsukoi wo Kimi ni Sasagu, Ijiwaru Shinaide!, Ashita, Anata ga Mezame tara, Taiyou ga Ippai and Asa mo, Hiru mo, Yoru mo.

NYAF Announces Evangelion Co-Director Shizuno And American Animation Dynamo Steinberger As Guests of Honor

Norwalk, CT, July 31, 2007: The New York Anime Festival (NYAF) today announced that Kobun Shizuno and Aimee Major Steinberger will appear as Guests of Honor at its inaugural event December 7-9 in New York City.

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Yomiuri Online has published an article looking at the 10th Anniversary of One Piece, according to this translation:

The One Piece manga has reached sales of 140 million copies sold spanning across 46 published volumes, and also boasts the fastest manga to reach 100 million volumes sold. Also, Volume 27 selling a record 2.63 million copies in its first printing.

Some sample scans from the ONE PIECE 10th Treasures can be found here.