The Japanese government released a statement on Friday saying that it has no objection to the international tribunal's verdict in 1948 which found the Japanese military responsible for forcing Chinese women to provide sex to Japanese servicemen during World War II.

The statement was issued in response to the inquiry raised by an opposition lawmaker who asked the government to expound its position on the tribunal's findings related with the "comfort women" issue.

The Japanese government "has accepted the verdict made by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and is not opposed to them," the statement read.

In response to another inquiry for the government's position on the tribunal's verdict on Japanese war criminals' crimes against peace and humanity, the statement said that although there has been much arguments over legal affairs, the government is in a position to accept decisions made by the tribunal.

The Japanese government said in a statement released on March 16 that direct record about the Japanese military or government's involvement in forced recruiting of Asian women to be sex slaves of Japanese soldiers could not be found.

Cuban anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles posted bond and was released from a New Mexico jail on Thursday after ongoing debate about his release. Carriles, 79, a former CIA operative trained by the US for the failed anti-Castro Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, was arrested in 2005 for illegally entering the United States and had been under the custody of immigration officials. Earlier this month, US District Judge Kathleen Cardone ruled that Carriles should be released, and set bail at $250,000. Federal prosecutors filed an emergency motion appealing the ruling, to keep him in jail pending his immigration trial. On Tuesday, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that Carriles could post bond and be released, after ordering a temporary injunction Friday blocking his release until a final ruling this week. Carriles will remain under house arrest and electronic surveillance, as required by the court order.

Carriles is due to be deported for entering the US illegally. A US immigration judge delayed his deportation in 2005, after having determined that Carriles cannot be sent to Venezuela, where he is a naturalized citizen, or to Cuba, the country of his birth, for fears that he would be tortured. Carriles is accused of orchestrating the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner, as well as numerous assassination attempts on Cuban President Fidel Castro, and has previously sought asylum in the US. Earlier this week, a lawyer representing the government of Venezuela accused the US of preventing Carriles' extradition and obstructing justice. Castro issued a statement condemning the district court's ruling [JURIST report]. Carriles is wanted in both countries on terrorism charges.

The Seoul District Court in South Korea sentenced five people to jail Monday for spying for North Korea. Group ringleader Korean-American Michael Jang received a nine-year sentence for encouraging anti-US sentiment in South Korea under orders from North Korea in 2005. Jang initiated contact with North Korean agents in 1998 and first established a spy ring to pass secret information to North Korea in 2002. The other group members were sentenced to between four and six year terms for violating an anti-communist National Security Law.

The group was indicted by South Korean officials last December in what has been labeled the largest spy case since the two countries began reconciliation at a North-South summit in 2000. North Korea has accused the case of being a plot by pro-US forces to bolster anti-North Korean feelings in the south.

The earlier quake, with an epicenter 16 kilometers underground in central Mie prefecture, also affected nearby prefectures including Nara, Shiga, Aichi Nagano, Wakayama, Ishikawa and others. The focus of the second quake was also in central Mie prefecture.

A part of the stone wall of Kameyama Castle fell in Mie prefecture due to the earlier quake. Shinkansen bullet train service in the area was briefly suspended and later resumed. Parts of expressways in the areas were also closed due to the quake.

Electronic device maker Sharp Corp. temporality suspended its liquid crystal production lines for safety checks at its flagship plant in Kameyama, Mie prefecture, Kyodo said.

Some 4,300 households in Mie prefecture temporarily went without electricity and over a dozen houses and buildings were damaged in Kameyama city, the report said.

Russia denounces the use of double standards in the human rights sphere, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yakovenko told reporters on Thursday.

Moscow "proceeds from the necessity to de-politicize the human rights sphere.... It is absolutely inadmissible to use human rights as an instrument of political pressure or for squaring accounts," Yakovenko was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

"Russia is opposed to the attempts by certain countries and groups of countries and nongovernmental organizations to impose on the international community their own approaches in the human rights sphere under the pretense of universal standards," he said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the U.S. State Department report on human rights and democracy in the world is politicized in nature..

"The section of the document dealing with Russia applies a whole arsenal of simple logical methods -- exaggeration, selection of facts to support conclusions formulated in advance, the substitution of notions, arbitrary interpretation of facts and some others to convince the U.S. and international public that Russia urgently needs democratization," the statement said.

A special panel of the Japanese House of Representatives Thursday approved a bill authorizing a national referendum on revisions to the country's pacifist constitution. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe initiated the bill, hoping it would become law before the current parliamentary session adjourns on June 23. Opposition Social Democrats voiced strong dissent in the panel discussions, even scuffling with ruling party members. The bill will be taken up on Friday before the full House, which has a conservative majority; if passed, it will then be presented to the House of Councillors. Each house requires a two-thirds approval.

The proposed revisions are particularly focused on Article 9, which has been interpreted to bar Japan from maintaining military forces and from using force in international conflicts except in self-defense. Some fear the article may potentially hinder Japan's ability to respond to crises. A poll released last week by the daily Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper showed that only 46 percent of Japanese now want to amend Japan's constitution, a drop of 9 percentage points since 2006.