China appoints new officials to run Tibet, Yunnan and Hunan

BEIJING • China's ruling Communist Party appointed a new senior official yesterday to run Tibet, considered one of the country's most politically sensitive positions due to periodic anti-Chinese unrest in the devoutly Buddhist Himalayan region.

Mr Wu Yingjie will replace Mr Chen Quanguo as Tibet's next party secretary, according to Xinhua news agency. Mr Wu has worked almost his entire career in Tibet, having previously served as a deputy governor and propaganda chief, among other roles.

Xinhua said new party bosses have also been appointed to serve in the strategically located south-western province of Yunnan and the populous southern province of Hunan.

REUTERS

Air-con issues force Japan-made jet's test flight to be aborted again

TOKYO • Japan's new passenger jet yesterday aborted a test flight to the United States for the second time in two days because of problems in its air-conditioning system, its maker said.

On Saturday, a Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) left Nagoya airport in central Japan for the US but soon turned back. The plane took off again yesterday but faced the same problems, Mitsubishi Heavy and its subsidiary, Mitsubishi Aircraft, said in a joint statement.

The development of the MRJ, Japan's first domestically produced passenger jet in over half a century, has suffered a series of delays.

In December, Mitsubishi Heavy said it was postponing delivery of the planes by one year to the second quarter of 2018 for system software upgrades and other design changes.

Mitsubishi Heavy unveiled the jet - which is about 35m long and seats about 80 passengers - in October last year and has received more than 400 orders.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE