JAPAN APPOINTS NEW AMBASSADOR TO CHINA
TOKYO: Japan on Thursday appointed a new ambassador to China, months after the last nominee died before he could take up his post and as tensions simmer between Tokyo and Beijing over disputed territory.

Career diplomat Masato Kitera’s appointment will be effective on Monday, the foreign ministry said, while local media reported that the 60-year-old will be dispatched to Beijing next month to formally succeed Uichiro Niwa. Japan initially picked Shinichi Nishimiya, another career diplomat, for the post but before he could take up the role he fell ill in a Tokyo street in September and was taken to hospital, dying a few days later. Kitera is set to become Tokyo’s point man in the ongoing dispute over an island chain in the East China Sea, which Tokyo controls under the name the Senkaku Islands but Beijing claims as the Diaoyu Islands. Their nationalization in September provoked sometimes violent anti-Japanese demonstrations across China that targeted Japanese businesses.

CHINA ARRESTS 90 OVER CHILD ABDUCTION
BEIJING: Police have arrested 90 gang suspects across China and freed 28 children who were allegedly kidnapped from the far west and taken to various cities to steal, the China Daily said on Thursday. “Suspected gang members ‘beat, abused or threatened’ these young children to force them to steal and rob in public places,” it quoted the Ministry of Public Security spokesman Huang Shihai as saying. Authorities carried out the operation last month in Beijing and various provinces around the country as part of a campaign launched in April last year that has netted 2,700 suspects and rescued 2,300 children.

CHINA TO STOP RELYING ON PRISONER ORGANS
BEIJING: China will no longer rely on executed prisoners as a source of transplant organs within two years, a health minister said according to state media on Thursday. High demand for organs in China and a chronic shortage of donations mean that death row inmates have been a key source for years, generating heated controversy. International human rights groups have long accused Chinese authorities of harvesting organs from executed prisoners without their consent or that of their families — allegations the government has denied.

40 HURT IN SUBWAY ACCIDENT IN SOUTH KOREA
SEOUL: More than 40 people were injured, some of them seriously, when a subway train rammed into the back of another Thursday in South Korea’s southern port city of Busan, TV reports said. The first train, packed with morning commuters, had come to a halt in a tunnel after developing engine trouble. A second following train had discharged its passengers at a station and was then sent to help shunt the stranded train to safety, but instead slammed into its back at speed as it rounded a corner. The force of the impact derailed the stalled train whose passengers were violently pitched forward, resulting in numerous injuries, including bone fractures, the report said.

S. KOREA ROCKET LAUNCH SET FOR NOV 29
SEOUL: South Korea plans to go ahead with a delayed rocket launch on Thursday next week in its third bid in four years to put a satellite into orbit, officials said. If all goes as scheduled, the 140-tonne rocket will lift off between 4:00-6:55pm (local time) from the Naro Space Center on the south coast, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said. The Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) will deploy a small satellite that will mainly collect data on space radiation. The project has been plagued with problems, with failed attempts in 2009 and 2010. A successful launch this time is considered crucial to South Koreas commercial space ambitions. The latest launch had been scheduled for October 26, but was cancelled at the last minute after engineers detected a broken rubber seal in a connector between the launch pad and the first stage of the carrier rocket. AFP