Taiwan islet to clear landmines as China ties grow

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan will finish clearing about 70,000 landmines by 2013 from an outlying island that was once a front-line battlefield with China but is now being developed for civilian use, officials said on Friday. 

A military team formed earlier this year would clear mines from 153 fields spread over 850 acres of Kinmen, an island about 2 km off the coast of China, the Kinmen Defence Command said in a statement. The job began in 1996 with foreign expertise, and more than half the work is done.