N. Korea launches 2 missiles near China border: sources
March 8, 2006North Korea launched two surface-to-air missiles near the country's border with China on Wednesday, sources knowledgeable about the matter said, but views were divided over whether it was a case of test-firing or launches by mistake. A Western military source said the short-range missiles were test-fired in an eastern direction, toward the Sea of Japan, from the North's eastern coast.
Japanese rock music festival set for April 1 in Beijing
March 8, 2006A first-time all Japanese rock music festival has been scheduled for April 1 in Beijing, an organizer said Wednesday. The Japanese Music Festival will feature underground musician Tatsuya Yoshida and psychedelic rockers Atsushi Tsuyama and Makoto Kawabata, both members of the group Acid Mothers Temple, according to an organizer at the Factory 798 art district in northeastern Beijing.
Former U.S. official Armitage visits Taiwan, plans to meet Chen
March 8, 2006Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage arrived in Taipei on Wednesday, a week after independence-leaning President Chen Shui-bian's controversial decision to effectively terminate a symbolic council set up to promote unification with the mainland despite opposition from China and the United States. Armitage, who wrapped a trip in Tokyo earlier in the day, told reporters at Taipei's airport he is visiting here as a private citizen and denied he is serving as a U.S. envoy as speculated by mass media.
China changing policy to stop rural land seizures
March 8, 2006The Chinese Communist Party is working on new rules to stop local governments from seizing farmland for development, leaving farmers with no livelihood, a Chinese official said Wednesday. Since the land seizure issue was mentioned at the third session of the party's 16th congress last October, party leaders have been formulating a system that would require more government compensation for land taken for public use and a market mechanism to pay for land taken for industry, said Du Ying, vice director of the National Development and Reform Commission.