Taiwan dismisses China's spy allegations
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan on Tuesday dismissed new spying allegations by China as a further attempt to smear the government of the self-governing island democracy that Beijing claims as its own territory.
The remarks follow a report Monday night by Chinese broadcaster CCTV featuring a taped confession from a man identified as Cheng Yu-chin, the second such report in as many days.
On Sunday, CCTV broadcast a confession by a man identified as Li Mengju, whose name is also spelled Lee Meng-chu, who like Cheng said he had been working to destabilize China and harm the ruling Communist Party's reputation.
In the same report, CCTV said security personnel had solved more than 100 spying cases as part of an initiative dubbed Operation Thunder 2020.
Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang called the accusations an attempt by Beijing to "defame and create fear," while the foreign ministry's head of European affairs, Johnson Chiang, called the allegations "pure defamation and calumny."
CCTV's airing of videoed confessions have prompted lawsuits abroad amid accusations that the accounts were coerced and that the broadcaster is merely a propaganda arm of the Communist Party.
14 suspected gunmen killed in Mexico
MEXICO CITY -- At least 14 suspected gunmen were killed and three police officers were in stable condition after large shootout in the northern Mexico state of Zacatecas.
The state police said their officers were on patrol Monday when they came under fire by armed attackers.
One officer was shot and two suffered bullet fragment injuries. After the shooting near the town of Calera was over, police found 14 bodies and one wounded suspect.
Police also said they collected eight assault rifles at the scene, one of which was equipped with a grenade launcher, along with three vehicles.
The state is being fought over by several drug cartels, including those from Sinaloa, Jalisco and remnants of the old Zetas cartel.
Beirut judge gets FBI report on blast
BEIRUT -- The judge investigating a large blast in Beirut that killed and wounded many people two months ago has received a report from the FBI about the agency's own probe of the blast, state-run National News Agency reported Tuesday.
The news agency said Judge Fadi Sawwan received the FBI report on Monday, adding that he is still waiting for similar reports from French and British explosives experts. It gave no details about the content of the report.
The Aug. 4 blast at Beirut's port killed nearly 200 people, injured about 6,500 and caused damage worth billions of dollars. Nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in fertilizers, exploded at Beirut's port. The material had been stored at the facility for six years.
It is still not known what ignited the nitrate but more than two dozen people, many of them port and customs officials have been detained since. Sawwan, the judge in charge of the investigation, has questioned top security officials, former Cabinet ministers and port employees.
NNA said the reports by foreign investigation teams will specify the cause behind the explosion of the nitrates and the nature of the explosion and whether there was an intentional act of sabotage, or whether the blast was the result of a mistake or misestimation about the dangers of the material that exploded.
Japan protests Chinese ships' presence
TOKYO -- Tokyo has lodged protests to Beijing over the entry of Chinese coast guard ships into Japan's territorial waters off disputed East China Sea islands and their refusal to move out for a third day Tuesday, Japanese officials said.
The two Chinese ships entered the Japanese-claimed waters Sunday morning, appearing to approach a Japanese fishing boat carrying three crew members. They have remained there, ignoring repeated warnings and exit demands by the Japanese side, Japanese coast guard officials said.
Chinese coast guard vessels routinely violate territorial waters around the Japanese-controlled southern islands of Senkaku, which China calls Diaoyu and also claims.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said Tuesday that it was "extremely regrettable" that the two Chinese coast guard ships were still in Japanese waters. Japan "strictly protested" to the Chinese side and demanded that the Chinese ships immediately move out of Japanese waters, Kato said.
He said Japan would firmly defend its territorial waters, land and airspace "with a sense of urgency."
Japanese coast guard officials said the fishing boat with the three crew members was safely protected, but declined to give any other details.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports