IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Japan

Writer files lawsuit over sex slavery

A former journalist who wrote stories about women forced into sex slavery by Japan during World War II filed a defamation suit on Friday against a publisher and a scholar who accused him of fabricating the issue. Takashi Uemura said their criticisms triggered threats against him. He wrote only a few sex slavery stories, including one for the Asahi newspaper in the early 1990s based on the account of a source identified as a South Korean victim.

Mexico

Vigilante charges may be dropped

The governor of the southern Mexico state of Guerrero has asked prosecutors to drop charges against a US citizen who returned to her hometown to lead a vigilante movement. The move by Governor Rogelio Ortega could eventually free Nestora Salgado, who was arrested in August 2013 on kidnapping charges. Salgado led a vigilante group in the town of Olinala targeting police corruption and drug cartel violence. Some people accused the group of kidnapping them.

Tanzania

Albino abduction is an 'outrage'

Tanzania must find an albino girl kidnapped last month, the country's top UN official said on Friday, expressing "outrage" at a series of attacks on albinos, whose body parts are sold for witchcraft. Kidnappers armed with machetes seized four-year-old Pendo Emmanuelle Nundi on Dec 27 from her home in the northern Mwanza region. Police have since arrested 15 people, including the girl's father and two uncles.

Myanmar

At least 4 people dead in landslide

Authorities in Myanmar said at least four people have been killed in a landslide at a jade mine in the country's north. Local government official Than Shwe said a rescue mission in the mining town of Phakant was called off late on Thursday after a search team recovered four bodies, including those of two women. He says heavy rains caused the landslide on Tuesday night.

AP - AFP - Reuters

(China Daily 01/10/2015 page12)