Eager to reinforce public support for territorial claims disputed with Taiwan, Japan and others, China has offered politically correct maps to be downloaded free online, state media said yesterday. An investigation by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping found that Chinese Web sites were carrying different kinds of maps, but most of them were "problematic," the Beijing News said. Xinhua news agency said some of the maps omitted or mistook the Diaoyutais, rocky islets in the East China Sea claimed by both China and Japan.
The same thing happened to hundreds of islets on the South China Sea whose ownership China disputes with Vietnam and the Philippines, it said. The government has released an independent filmmaker and blogger nearly five months after detaining him, apparently for making a documentary about an underground church, a rights group said yesterday. If there is any new information it will be posted on this blog," she wrote. Authorities were examining reports of a plot to "harm" the prime minister, the intelligence chief said yesterday, as security around Thaksin Shinawatra was significantly increased.
He did not provide other details. Thaksin, who normally has 12 bodyguards, was recently provided an additional 30 security agents from the National Security Center, an army general who works closely with the center said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
A rescue team armed with heavy machinery was working to save a year-old elephant that slipped into a muddy ditch in a jungle and couldn't get up, an official said yesterday. The 5 tonne elephant has been lying on its side since the fall last week inside the massive Khao Ang Rue-Ni wildlife sanctuary.
Its left hind leg was stuck in deep mud, caused by weeks of heavy rains, and the elephant was unable to lift itself because of a previous injury to its right rear leg, said Boonlue Poonnil, head of the wildlife sanctuary.
