BEIJING - FIVE officials in central China have been sacked and five other people arrested over a scam involving a lottery for apartments, state media reported on Saturday.

TOKYO - JAPAN and South Korea have agreed to team up to nurse their economies back to financial health, Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said on Saturday.

'We have reached a joint understanding that to ride out the current economic and financial crisis, Japan and South Korea will cooperate in a variety of settings,' he told reporters. The Finance Ministry wouldn't elaborate on his comments.

SEOUL - NORTH Korea on Saturday warned that any Japanese plane entering its airspace would be shot down for spying, as recent surveillance suggests Pyongyang may be preparing to fire more missiles.

'The air force of the Korean People's Army will not tolerate even a bit the aerial espionage by the warmongers of the Japanese aggression forces but mercilessly shoot down any plane intruding into the territorial air of the DPRK (North Korea) even 0.001 millimeter,' the air force said in a statement.