No appeal in SK case

The Supreme Court of South Korea Thursday overruled an appeal from the Higher Procuratorate of South Korea to raise the punishment imposed on the Chinese fisherman who stabbed a South Korean coast guard to death last year.

The Supreme Court ruled that the verdict for Cheng Dawei, the 43-year-old skipper of a Chinese fishing boat, will remain at the level fixed in the original trial.

Cheng was sentenced to 23 years in jail, and a fine of 112,000 yuan ($17,897) in his second trial on September 13 this year for killing a South Korean coast guard, and injuring another during a raid on December 12 last year.

Yasukuni protested

Two activists from the Hong Kong-based Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands were taken away by local police when they staged a protest at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Thursday morning.

The two protestors were released after police investigation, a Chinese embassy spokesperson in Japan said.

The two activists chanted "Down with Japanese imperialism!" and attempted to enter the shrine, where 14 Class A war criminals are enshrined among the war dead, according to the China News Service.

They were intercepted by local police and have been detained. Thursday was the 75th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre.

Hundreds of mourners lit candles at a vigil held in Nanjing in Jiangsu Province on Wednesday night, remembering the people killed during the month-long atrocity.

Global Times