International Briefs

TOKYO: Japan is planning to launch satellites to monitor the world’s oceans, a report said Sunday, as Chinese government ships plied waters around islands controlled by Tokyo and claimed by Beijing. The Cabinet office plans to launch nine satellites in the next five years to counter piracy and monitor the movements of foreign ships intruding into Japanese territorial waters, the business daily Nikkei reported.  They will also collect data for forecasting natural disasters such as tsunamis, it said. The report, which cabinet ministry officials could not immediately confirm, came as Japan’s coastguard said three Chinese government ships entered waters around the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea. 

KABUL: A roadside bomb seriously wounded a prominent member of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council on Sunday, an official said, while the government announced that recent fighting in the country has killed 14 Afghan soldiers and 64 Taliban militants.Fazil Ahmad, the High Peace Council’s chief in Ghazni province, was in critical condition in a hospital with three others who had been traveling with him when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb, said deputy provincial police chief Asadullah Ensafi. The car’s driver was killed. The High Peace Council numbers about 80 members and has been tasked by President Hamid Karzai with finding a negotiated settlement with insurgents. In Kabul, the Defense Ministry said 14 soldiers and 27 Taliban militants had been killed in fighting and in roadside bomb attacks over the last 24 hours. 

LAHORE: Police said a bomb has exploded at a busy market street in eastern Pakistan, killing at least four people and wounding 40.  Police officer Maroof Wahla says on Saturday’s attack took place near the popular Anarkali bazar in Lahore. There were hundreds of people in the street at time of the attack.