440 officials of China Communist Party probed for corruption
PTI, Beijing
About 440 senior officials of the ruling Communist Party of China have been probed in the last five years in a sweeping anti-corruption campaign launched by President Xi Jinping, a party official said today.
Xi launched the high-profile anti-corruption campaign five years ago, which led to the downfall of a number of high-level officials, known as “tigers”, and lower-level “flies” who serve at the grassroots level.
Missile program will accelerate despite
pressure: Iran’s Guards
Reuters, Ankara
Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said on Thursday its ballistic missile program would accelerate despite U.S. and European Union pressure to suspend it, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
In a significant U.S. policy shift on Oct. 13, President Donald Trump disavowed Iran’s compliance with a landmark 2015 nuclear deal and unveiled a more aggressive approach to the Islamic Republic over its missile development activity.
ICC probing several crimes in Mali
AFP, Bamako
The International Criminal Court said Wednesday it was investigating several potential war crimes including murder in Mali, months after finding an ex-jihadist guilty liable for millions worth of damage in the landlocked country.
“Our investigations are continuing (into) other crimes… sexual crimes and crimes against peacekeepers, killings and all those,” ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told reporters in Bamako.
Trial of S. Korea’s Park on hold after lawyers quit
AFP, Seoul
Ousted South Korean president Park Geun-Hye’s corruption trial was put on hold Thursday after her lawyers resigned to protest what they called biased proceedings.
The defence team quit en masse on Monday, when Park condemned the trial as “political revenge”, after her detention warrant was extended for another six months.
Park-who faces multiple charges including bribery, coercion and abuse of power for offering governmental favours to tycoons-refused to attend the Seoul Central District Court on Thursday, citing her allegedly poor health.
