1.   Taiwan said Monday it rebuffed a Vietnamese protest about its conduct in the Spratly Islands and reasserted its claim to sovereignty over the disputed archipelago.

2.   Adding to tensions in the area, Japanese fishermen are frequently caught poaching inside Russian waters around the disputed archipelago.

3.   Eritrea has released a French couple detained in Asmara since mid-March for snapping photographs on an island of the disputed Hanish archipelago, the French foreign ministry announced Thursday.

4.   The Taiwanese boat took refuge from the wind for two days before arriving at one of the islands, a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea.

5.   Prince Andrew served as a helicopter pilot in the war with Argentina over the Falklands, a disputed archipelago in the South Atlantic.

6.   The Philippines and China are among six claimants to the disputed Spratly archipelago in the South China Sea along with Brunei, Malaysian, Taiwan and Vietnam.