Viet ex-official gets death penalty

HANOI • A court in Vietnam yesterday sentenced to death a former chairman of state-run PetroVietnam after finding him guilty in a mass trial of 51 officials and bankers accused of graft and mismanagement that led to losses of US$69 million (S$94 million).

The death sentence for Nguyen Xuan Son was the first time in years it had been given to such a senior former official and comes amid an intensifying corruption crackdown within the ruling Communist Party.

REUTERS

Unilever: KJU gel not linked to Kim

BEIJING • Unilever, which is trying to make a splash in the Asian cosmetics market, came to a surprising realisation after it developed a new shower gel for China. The initials of the KJU Perfumed by Lux label matched those of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un. The Anglo-Dutch firm created the label with a Korean designer. But it insists the name has nothing to do with Mr Kim. "It was only after we trademarked it that I realised that it also stood for Kim Jong Un," said head of personal care Alan Jope.

BLOOMBERG

Duterte praises US for Marawi help

MANILA • Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, a fierce critic of the United States, is now singing Washington's praises for helping him fight pro-Islamic State in Iraq and Syria militants in Marawi. "I would not say that they were our saviours, but they are our allies and they helped us," he said on Thursday.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE