Vietnam party chief nominated for post

HANOI • Vietnam's Communist Party leaders have nominated General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong for another term, a setback for his rival candidate, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, as the party plots the country's political course for the next five years.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has been nominated to be the next prime minister, the state-controlled VietnamNet news website reported yesterday.

BLOOMBERG

Direct flight between Urumqi and Bangkok

URUMQI • The first direct flight linking north-west China's Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region and a South-east Asian country has been launched, sources said.

The flight between Urumqi and Bangkok will be operated by China Southern Airlines, reported The China Daily.

XINHUA

Nepal's proposed minority law rejected

KATHMANDU • Nepal's ethnic minorities have rejected a constitutional amendment, dashing hopes of an end to a political crisis that has also led to fuel shortages, and hampered deliveries of relief materials to survivors of last year's earthquakes.

The 597-member Parliament voted 461-7 late on Saturday in favour of a provision of "proportionate inclusion" of minority groups in all government institutions, including the army.

But ethnic lawmakers rejected the proposal, alleging loopholes.

REUTERS

Miss Universe plans to fight Aids stigma

MANILA • The new Miss Universe, back in the Philippines after an epic televised blunder surrounding her crowning, said yesterday she would use the attention the incident attracted to campaign for HIV awareness, especially in her home country.

Ms Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach said she would undergo a "public testing" for HIV, the virus that causes Aids, when she returns to the US where the Miss Universe Organisation is based, to erase the stigma surrounding the disease.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE