Mori slips up again

The Japanese Prime Minister, Yoshiro Mori, has committed a new verbal blunder during his tour of South Africa.

Mr Mori, who has been criticised at home for his frequent gaffes, used wartime terminology considered perjorative towards China.

In particular, he referred to Japan's invasion of China as "the Shina incident", a term that Beijing has said is discriminatory.

In Tokyo, the top government spokesman Yasuo Fukuda defended Mr Mori, saying that he had been educated during the war, and that he had not used these terms with any special motive.

In May, Mr Mori unleashed a storm of criticism by using a phrase that revived memories of the ideology of emperor worship used to justify Japan's aggression towards its Asian neighbours. Opinion polls show him to be one of the most unpopular prime ministers in Japanese history.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service