
Two senior Communist Party officials absent at top Chinese political event
CNA
Zhang Youxia, China’s highest-ranking general, was not among the party’s 23-member politburo at the opening of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
BEIJING: Two senior Chinese officials were absent on Wednesday (Mar 4) from the ranks of China's highest tier of power at the opening of the country's two largest political events of the year, with top Communist Party cadres ensnared in a wave of purges.
Zhang Youxia, China's highest-ranking general, was not among the party's 23-member politburo at the opening of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), according to a Reuters witness. Neither was Ma Xingrui, formerly the party's top official in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang.
Zhang, also a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), was put under investigation in January. Ma has not been in the public eye since late October.
China’s defence ministry announced in January that Zhang had been placed under investigation over suspected "serious violations of discipline and law" - a common euphemism for corruption.

BAGHDAD: Israel said the war against Iran was entering its "decisive phase" on Saturday (Mar 14), as explosions rocked cities across the Middle East, with strikes on the US embassy in Baghdad and a major Emirati energy facility.Black smoke rose above Washington's embassy in Iraq, AFP journalists saw, the seco

SEOUL/TOKYO: North Korea fired a projectile towards the sea on Saturday (Mar 14), South Korea and Japan said, with Tokyo saying it may have been a ballistic missile, while the US and South Korea conducted military drills.The projectile was fired toward the sea off North Korea's east coast, the South Korean mi

JAKARTA: Two men on a motorbike threw acid in the face of an Indonesian rights activist, leaving him badly hurt and prompting calls on Friday (Mar 13) for a thorough investigation amid concerns of democratic backsliding in the country.Andrie Yunus, deputy coordinator of the KontraS rights group, sustained se










