BEIJING: President Xi Jinping is to launch a “thorough clean-up” of the ruling Communist Party, state media reported yesterday. The “upcoming year-long campaign” will target what the Xinhua news agency described as “undesirable work styles such as formalism, bureaucracy, laxity and extravagance”. A high-profile campaign against government waste and corruption was launched after Xi and others took over the party last November.
Landslides kill 12 in Nepal
KATHMANDU: At least 12 people were killed in landslides triggered by three days of heavy monsoon rain in remote parts of Nepal, officials said yesterday. Seven members of a family, including five children, and four others were killed after landslides buried their homes in a village in the northwest.
Store robber returns coin
BANGKOK: A robber made off with 2,200 baht from a convenience store in Phuket province yesterday, but minutes later returned a 10-baht coin before escaping a second time. Clerks Wanna Ketkaew and Fontip Rakrit at Family Mart in Thalang district told police that the robber was wearing a pink raincoat, a pair of shorts, a helmet and a sanitary mask. Police found his fingerprints at the store and on the coin.
18 Vietnamese crew detained
MANILA: Eighteen Vietnamese crew members of a cargo ship were detained after it ploughed into a coral reef in the central Philippines, the coastguard said yesterday. The Unicorn Logger, a Panama-flagged freighter, ran aground at a marine sanctuary off the tiny island of Sambawan. “The crew are detained aboard their vessel as the damage to the reef is assessed,” an official said.
Rebels abduct five soldiers
DAVAO: Communist insurgents wearing military uniforms abducted five soldiers in the southern Philippines, in the latest violent act following the collapse of peace talks, authorities said yesterday. The New People’s Army guerrillas set up a roadblock on the outskirts of Davao City and seized the soldiers passing through on motorcycles. The rebels also attacked a tree plantation on the island of Mindanao and killed five workers. AGENCIES
