Tokyo  - Japan Friday signalled its plans to participate in the international counter-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia, on the Horn of Africa.

Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada ordered two destroyers to the waters off Somalia, Japan's news agency Kyodo reported.

Each ship is equipped with two helicopters and two speed boats.

The move marks the first time that Japan is sending self defence vessels to participate in such an operation in foreign waters. The destroyers are to be deployed into the Gulf in early April.

Earlier Thursday, European Union defence officials said they had no plans to boost its Somali counter-piracy mission off the Somali coast.

Winnenden, Germany  - The teenager who killed 15 people in a school shooting in Winnenden, south-west Germany might not have revealed his intentions in advance, police said on Thursday.

Earlier, officials had said the youth, identified as Tim Kretschmer, 17, had told another person in an internet chat forum that he planned to kill pupils at his former school because they had made fun of him.

Police said reports that information to this effect was found on his computer turned out to be false. It was not clear why. A police spokesman said there was no such information on the computer.

Vienna  - Germany openly criticized Thursday a new United Nations plan on fighting the global drug problem, saying the document did not specifically mention harm reduction measures for addicts.

"To be frank, the draft political declaration does not fully satisfy us," German Ambassador Ruediger Luedeking told UN member countries at a conference of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna.

Taipei  - A Taiwanese handbag thief who tried to withdraw cash from his victim's bank account was caught in the act by the victim's daughter, who happened to work at the bank branch.

Taipei police said Chang Shih-chun, 55, broke into the house of a retired teacher Tuesday and stole her handbag containing some cash, a bank book and an ink seal used by the victim to stamp her signature when withdrawing money.

Johannesburg  - An armed gang walked into a church north of Johannesburg during a service and shot a man in the face, South African police said Thursday.

The South African Press Association quoted the police as saying that nine armed attackers - eight men and a woman - entered an evangelical church in the Randburg district during Wednesday evening service and robbed the worshippers of mobile phones and cash.

They then took the caretaker to his room and shot him in the face after stealing his DVD and mobile phone, police said.

Hong Kong  - A bullet and a warning letter aimed at the Hong Kong pop star at the centre of a sex photos scandal has been sent in the post from the United States to a local TV station, police said Thursday.

The letter, written in English, warned singer-actor Edison Chen to disappear from public life and said it was a final warning to him to take his personal safety seriously.

Chen, 28, was embroiled in a scandal last year when photographs of him romping naked with a number of young starlets were circulated over the internet.