JAPAN: Two boats carrying 21 people capsized today off Henoko, a controversial relocation site for a US military base off Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, throwing all into the water and leaving two of them dead, officials said.
The Japan Coast Guard said that 18 of them were students from a Kyoto high school on two boats, 10 on Heiwa Maru and eight on the smaller Fukutsu.

MILITARY RULE: Myanmar opened its first parliamentary session in more than five years today following an election that did not include major opposition parties, ensuring that the ruling military is set to retain a firm grasp on power.
The military and its allies hold nearly 90 per cent of the seats in the two-chamber parliament.

FRANCE: Former president Nicolas Sarkozy returned to court today for an appeal hearing in Paris over his conviction linked to the alleged illegal campaign financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by Libya, a case that led him to spend 20 days in prison last year.
Mr Sarkozy was sentenced last September to five years in prison for his alleged part in a scheme to obtain funds from the government of late Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi in exchange for political and diplomatic favours.

GUNFIGHT: Afghanistan’s forces and Pakistan’s military exchanged fire at multiple locations along their shared border, killing at least two children and wounding 10 people in south-east Afghanistan, Afghan officials said today.
Ten people were also injured when mortar shells fired from Pakistan overnight struck villages in Afghanistan’s Khost province, said Mustaghfar Gurbaz, a spokesman for the provincial governor.