Japanese textbooks stir violent protests in China

Anti-Japan protests over a new Japanese textbook erupted in southern China yesterday, a day after a violent rally in Beijing. Tokyo demanded an apology and better protection for its citizens as a simmering diplomatic row threatened ties between the Asian heavyweights.

Demonstrations against Japan have spread since Tokyo approved new textbooks last week that critics say fail to address the Japanese military's brutal wartime invasion and occupation of Asian nations in the first half of the 20th century, including forcing Asian women into sexual slavery for troops.

On Saturday, about 1,000 demonstrators threw rocks and broke windows at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing after a noisy rally by more than 6,000 people in the university district in the capital's northwest, where some burned a Japanese flag.

Moscow

Intelligence official under Yeltsin slain

Assailants wielding automatic weapons from a passing car gunned down a former top Russian intelligence official while he drove on a Moscow street yesterday, Russian news agencies reported.

Col. Gen. Anatoly Trofimov, former deputy chief of the Federal Security Service under President Boris Yeltsin, was shot in his sport-utility vehicle around 7:30 p.m. on a northern street, the Interfax news agency reported. He died on the scene.

A woman in the car, believed to be Trofimov's wife, was seriously wounded, news agencies said. Ekho Moskvyi radio said the attack may have been a contract killing related to unidentified business deals.

Trofimov, who also served as head of the Moscow branch of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, was fired by Yeltsin in 1997 following an examination by federal accountants for "gross violations and flaws in his work."

The Federal Security Service is the main successor agency to the KGB.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Pirates tie up crew, take cash, cellphones

Pirates boarded a Singapore-registered tanker in the Malacca Strait and robbed the crew of their cash and mobile phones before escaping, according to police and news reports.

Ten pirates wearing ski masks and armed with long knives chased the Kyoseimaru tanker in a speedboat before boarding it near the southern tip of Malaysia on Friday, the Berita Minggu newspaper reported yesterday.

The pirates tied up the 10 crew members and fled with about $5,000 and several cellphones. No one was injured in the raid, the report said.

The crew managed to free themselves and contact police, said an officer from southern Johor Baru city, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Tokyo

Quakes rattle parts of Japan, Indonesia

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 rocked the Tokyo area early today; yesterday, a 6.8-magnitude temblor struck Indonesia. There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damage in either quake.

Today's quake was centered northeast of Tokyo and was focused about 36 miles underground, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. There was no fear of the quake generating tsunami, officials said.

The strong undersea earthquake that rocked the Indonesian island of Sumatra yesterday sent thousands of people fleeing in panic, but no tsunami was triggered, seismologists said.

The 6.8-magnitude temblor smashed windows in the west Sumatran city of Padang, state news agency Antara reported.

Also

A Frenchman wounded in last week's market bombing in Cairo, Egypt, died just after being flown back to France for treatment, bringing the death toll to four.