KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA'S coalition government which has ruled for half a century will be dumped at the next elections if it continues to embrace corrupt leaders, former premier Mahathir Mohamad said on Sunday.

JAKARTA - A LANDSLIDE at a gold mine killed four workers and left 11 missing on the Indonesian island of Lombok, a Health Ministry official said on Sunday.

BANGKOK - THE Thai government will give more money to the rural poor to jump-start the economy, the prime minister said on Sunday, adopting and expanding a much-criticised key programme of ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said he planned to double government spending in the programme that provides grants to poor villages as part of a stimulus package. Mr Abhisit's Democrat Party had previously decried the programme as a brazen attempt at buying the loyalty of the country's poor majority.