■ China
Anti-corruption book adopted
The school where Chinese Communist Party trains its top officials is adopting an anti-corruption textbook for the first time, state media reported yesterday. Chronic corruption has fed public anger that top leaders say could undermine their grip on power. "This will be the first systematic, formal and exclusive textbook on anti-corruption in the history of the Central Party School," Hou Shaohua, a deputy director at the school, was quoted as saying by the China Daily newspaper. The school is the training center for high-ranking members of the party. The newspaper did not say what was in the book.
■ China
HK to get pandas as gift
Beijing announced the selection of a pair of pandas yesterday to be sent to Hong Kong to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the former British colony's handover to Chinese rule. The pair, a male and female both born in 2005, weigh about 60km each and will move to their new home in Ocean Park before May 1, the official Xinhua news agency said. There, they will join another pair of pandas who were given to Hong Kong in 1999, it said. China has been building anticipation over the July 1 handover commemorations as part of efforts to instill patriotism and faith in the Chinese Communist Party's leadership.
■ China
New centers to open abroad
The government plans to open 60 new language and cultural centers abroad to help meet "surging demand" for thousands of Chinese language teachers each year, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday. The additional Confucius Institutes will join the more than 40 that have opened in nearly two dozen countries since the first was established in Seoul, South Korea, in late 2004. Patterned on the British Council and Germany's Goethe Institutes, the rapid spread of the institutes has been hailed as a sign of China's rising global influence. Analysts say the institutes serve an additional function of spreading Beijing's official positions on human rights and claims to Taiwan and Tibet.
■ Hong Kong
`Post' editor-in-chief resigns
The editor-in-chief at the South China Morning Post, the territory's leading English-language newspaper, has resigned after a tumultuous year on the job. Mark Clifford, a respected magazine journalist and author, will leave the paper on April 1 "to pursue another opportunity," the Post said on Monday in a statement on its Web site. Clifford will be replaced by C.K. Lau, a veteran Post journalist and editor, the paper said. The statement said Clifford's relations with the editorial staff were often rocky. After several editors were dismissed, staffers circulated a petition telling the newspaper's ownership they lost confidence in his leadership.
■ Malaysia
Machete robber stopped
A machete-wielding Indonesian robber died when his victims turned on him and fought back during a break-in, newspapers yesterday. After looking for valuables, four robbers -- one armed with a large knife -- began attacking a family of five, including a four-year-old girl, the Star said. In an ensuing scuffle, one of the robbers, an Indonesian identified as Mohamad Nor of Riau, was stabbed in the stomach and died. Four residents of the home were hospitalized with stab wounds. Police launched a manhunt for three assailants after they escaped.
■ United Kingdom
Corpse flies first class
RSS