Foreign Desk

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ASIA

Russian Patrol Kills Japanese Fisherman

TOKYO — Japan reacted furiously yesterday after sailors on a Russian patrol boat shot dead a Japanese fisherman near the disputed southern Kurile Islands. Mitsuhiro Morita, 35, was killed, and three other Japanese crewmembers were arrested after they encroached on Russian territorial waters and ignored warnings to stop, Russian authorities said. However, Japan said the crab-fishing vessel was in Japanese waters and summoned the Russian ambassador to demand an explanation and condemn the attack.

— The Daily Telegraph

Japan’s Princess Kiko Prepares To Give Birth

TOKYO — Princess Kiko entered a hospital yesterday to prepare to give birth to the first new addition to Japan’s royal family in more than four years, and possibly a badly needed heir to the ancient Chrysanthemum Throne. The gender of the baby, whose due date is still weeks away, has not been announced. But Japan’s conservative leaders are hoping for a boy and have shelved a plan that would allow the daughter of Emperor Akihito’s eldest son to succeed him and become the first female to reign since the 18th century.The 39-year-old wife of Prince Akishino, Emperor Akihito’s younger son, is pregnant with her third child and is expected to give birth early next month by Caesarean section. Doctors have said she has symptoms of a condition in which part of the placenta drops too low in the uterus. Officials said Kiko was in good health and that the early hospitalization was not cause for concern. “She has entered her ninth month of pregnancy and is due to enter hospital to ward against the possibility of premature bleeding and to prepare for delivery,” a senior palace official said.

— Associated Press

Opium Farming Hits Record in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — Opium cultivation in Afghanistan has hit record levels, up by more than 40% from 2005, despite hundreds of millions in counternarcotics money, Western officials told the Associated Press.

The increase could have serious repercussions for an already grave security situation, with drug lords joining the Taliban-led fight against Afghan and international forces. A Western anti-narcotics official in Kabul said about 370,650 acres of opium poppy was cultivated this season, up from 257,000 acres in 2005, citing their preliminary crop projections. The previous record was 323,700 acres in 2004, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. The United Nations reported last year that Afghanistan produced an estimated 4,500 tons of opium, enough to make 450 tons of heroin and nearly 90% of world supply.

— Associated Press

North Korea Flood Kills 55,000, Aid Agency Says

SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean aid group claimed yesterday that massive floods in North Korea last month left about 54,700 people dead or missing and some 2.5 million homeless. The figure is by far the highest toll reported from floods that hit the impoverished communist country in mid-July. The Seoul-based private aid agency Good Friends claimed it has “many sources” inside North Korea but did not say where it obtained the information, which could not be independently confirmed because the North tightly controls press outlets and information. Good Friends’ previous reports of activities inside the isolated country have been confirmed by South Korean government sources, although some of the aid group’s figures have been disputed. North Korea’s official press outlets have reported that “hundreds” were killed in the floods, without giving specific numbers.

A newspaper published by a pro-North Korean association linked to the North, Choson Sinbo, said this month that the floods killed at least 549 people and left 295 others missing. Officials with South Korea’s Red Cross and Unification Ministry, North Korea’s economic cooperation office in Beijing and other agencies could not immediately be reached for comment yesterday. Representatives of Good Friends refused to elaborate on their report, saying they feared their sources would face government reprisal.

— Associated Press


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