Chinese maritime surveillance vessels were seen sailing near the Senkaku Islands, a Japanese-controlled islet group disputed by China, for the third day in a row, the Japan Coast Guard said Saturday. Two of the three ships have been in the area since Thursday and one since Friday, it said, adding that its patrol ships are on alert for their possible intrusion into Japanese waters in the East China Sea. ==Kyodo

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Friday announced that the hull of the Chinese fishing vessel, which ran aground off Tubbataha Reef Monday midnight, is structurally sound and can be towed without any danger of sinking or breaking apart. Commodore Enrico Efren Evangelista, PCG Palawan District head, said the hull, engines, and propellers of the stricken Chinese ship is intact and very much capable of floating again. "The ship's hull is intact. It's not like the case of the USS Guardian, which was badly holed upon her grounding last Jan. 17," he said.

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Wednesday bared its plan to drain all the fuel oil from a Chinese fishing boat which ran aground at Tubbataha Reef before midnight Monday. Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Cmdr.

Japan's coastguard arrested the captain of a Chinese boat on suspicion of fishing in the country's exclusive economic zone on Saturday amid a festering territorial row between the two countries. The coral fishing boat with a crew of 13 was stopped by a coastguard patrol in waters some 45 kilometres (28 miles) northeast of Miyako island in the Okinawan chain, the local branch of the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) said.