BANGKOK: The death toll in Thailand's controversial crackdown on drugs soared to nearly 600 people since the campaign was launched at the beginning of the month, the interior ministry said yesterday.
The figure is nearly double the 319 deaths announced by police on Monday.
Officials attributed most of the killings to drug traffickers trying to silence other peddlers.
Police earlier stated they were responsible for 15 deaths in self-defence. – AFP
BEIJING: China is facing a serious shortfall in teachers and it could get worse when the number of youths entering high school and universities peaks in coming years, state media said yesterday.
The country will need an extra 1.16 million senior high school teachers and 110,000 college teachers by 2005, the Xinhua news agency said, citing China's first official research document on education and human resources. – AFP
JAKARTA: An Indonesian minister and member of the ruling Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), led by President Megawati Sukarnoputri, declared his own party the most corrupt, news reports said yesterday.
“The largest corruption is committed by my own party,” Minister of National Development Planning Kwik Kian Gie was quoted as saying by The Jakarta Post. – dpa
HONG KONG: A leading company, Sun Hung Kai Properties, that employs 19,000 people is to introduce English testing and dismiss staff with poor language skills, a news report said yesterday.
The move comes amid growing concern about the standard of English in Hong Kong since the former British colony was returned to Chinese rule in 1997. – dpa
HONG KONG: A woman disfigured by her jealous boyfriend when he threw acid on her face is to marry him when he is released from jail, a news report said yesterday.
Salesman Lai Yuk-kong, 25, was jailed for five years for maiming waitress Lam Sau-man in May when he discovered she was having an affair with one of his friends, the South China Morning Post reported. – dpa
