IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Japan

Mobsters split, form new group

Thousands of Japanese yakuza mobsters have officially formed a new group after splitting off from Japan's largest organized crime syndicate, raising concerns for possible gang conflicts, media reports said on Sunday. Leaders of 13 factions ousted from the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate - Japan's largest mobster or yakuza group, which has 23,000 members and associates - held the first meeting on Saturday in the western city of Kobe, the media reported.

Russia

US charges on Syria denied

Russia's Foreign Ministry rejected US concerns over an alleged Russian military buildup in Syria, which US Secretary of State John Kerry said could lead to an escalation of the conflict in the war-torn country. Kerry expressed his views to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov by telephone on Saturday, one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin denied Russia's involvement in military operations against the Islamic State group in Syria.

Syria

Antiquities in safe keeping

Authorities have secured 300,000 artifacts from archaeological sites across Syria, the country's antiquities chief said. Cited by the pro-government al-Watan newspaper on Sunday, Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of the antiquities and museums department in Damascus, said the secured artifacts include 400 statues from the ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria.

South Korea

Ten killed as boat capsizes

A fishing boat capsized near the island of Chuja, killing at least 10 people, the coast guard said on Sunday. The 9.77-ton Dolphine went missing on Saturday night and its wreckage was found on a nearby southwest island on Sunday morning, the coast guard said.

United States

Clintons paid for server upkeep

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Saturday that her family paid a State Department employee to maintain the private e-mail server she used when she served as secretary of state.

AFP - Xinhua - AP

(China Daily 09/07/2015 page12)