TOKYO: Japan has protested to South Korea against a shooting drill its neighbour plans in disputed waters, Japan’s top government spokesman said yesterday, underscoring tense relations between the two countries.
The target practice is scheduled to take place today, when Japan plans to unveil the closely-watched results of a review of a landmark 1993 apology to women, many of them Korean, who were forced to work in Japan’s military brothels. Japan was told part of the area designated for South Korea’s drill would overlap what it considers to be its territorial waters off a group of contested islets, the Japan Coast Guard said.
The islands, called the Takeshima in Japanese and Dokdo in Korean, are controlled by South Korea, but claimed by Japan as well.
China anti-graft trio jailed
BEIJING: Three Chinese anti-corruption activists were sentenced to up to six-and-a- half years in prison yesterday, a lawyer said, the latest in their grass-roots movement to be jailed despite an official drive against graft.
A court in the central province of Jiangxi sentenced Liu Ping and Wei Zhongping to six-and-a-half years and Li Sihua to three years, Li’s lawyer Zhou Ze said. The three had taken photos of themselves last year holding banners urging government officials to disclose their assets as a curb against corruption. Liu and Wei were found guilty of disrupting public order, “using evil religion to sabotage law enforcement” and “picking fights and provoking trouble,” while Li was convicted only of the final charge. Zhou said it was up to the three to choose whether to appeal but added: “The ruling in an appeal is already decided.”
17 die as army, rebels clash
ZAMBOANGA: Ten Muslim extremists and seven soldiers were killed yesterday in one of the bloodiest clashes in the south in recent months, the military said.
Soldiers were approaching a hotbed of the Abu Sayyaf group on the strife-torn island of Jolo when the fighting broke out. The group initially fired on the soldiers, killing an officer. Ten minutes later, six more soldiers were killed and 25 wounded when the rebels fired mortar shells at them. The fighting left 10 militants although only one body was recovered.
Agencies
