The Philippine navy is quietly reinforcing the hull and deck of a rusting ship it ran aground on a disputed South China Sea reef in 1999 to stop it breaking apart, determined to hold the shoal as Beijing creates a string of man-made islands nearby.
China will begin the trial on July 28 of a Korean-American missionary arrested last year over a non-profit school he ran near the sensitive border with North Korea, his lawyer said, in a case that sparked outcry from international Christian groups.
China's state media last month accused Wang Yu, the country's most prominent female human rights lawyer, of "blabbering about the rule of law and human rights".
A Tibetan monk who was one of China's most prominent political prisoners has died in jail, a relative and the Tibetan government-in-exile said on Monday, raising the prospect of an increase in resentment of the government in Tibetan regions.
