100-year-old expelled

TOKYO (Reuter) - A 100-year-old co-founder of Japan's Communist Party has been expelled for betraying a comrade who was shot in Moscow in 1939 after being accused of spying.

The party newspaper, Akahata, said the central committee expelled Sanzo Nosaka after a fact-finding mission returned from Russia last week. The affair centred on the fate of Kenzo Yamamoto who worked in Moscow for the Communist International. During exile in the US in 1939, Mr Nosaka told the Communist International that Mr Yamamoto was spying for Japan. Mr Yamamoto was shot. 'I accept this decision because regrettably, that is the truth,' said Mr Nosaka, who helped found the party in 1922.