Russian court imposes fine on Japanese fishing boat skipper

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia - Noboru Sakashita, the captain of the crab fishing boat Kisshin Maru No. 31, attends a hearing at the South Kuril District Court in Yuzhno-Kurilsk on the Russian-held Kunashiri Island on Sept. 21. The Russian court ordered him to pay about 500,000 rubles ($12,700, or 2.2 million yen) in fines and damages for intruding into and poaching in Russian-claimed territorial waters just off Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido in mid-August.