BEIJING – China’s ruling Communist Party declared its General Secretary Xi Jinping the “core” of its leadership on Thursday, the official Xinhua news agency reported, elevating his already powerful status.

A communique issued by top party leaders after a four-day meeting in Beijing called on all its members to “closely unite around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core”, Xinhua said.

The announcement followed a gathering of 400 top party leaders in Beijing for a meeting known as the Sixth Plenum to discuss changes to party structure and discipline.

Xi has sought to bend the party to his will since taking its helm in 2012, and has already taken control of more levers of power than any leader since Mao.

Regional cadres began using the term “core” for Xi last December, but it then disappeared, suggesting that the Chinese president had encountered resistance to his efforts to further consolidate his power.

JAKARTA, Oct 27 (Reuters) – An Indonesian court jailed a woman for 20 years on Thursday for murdering her college friend by poisoning her coffee, ending a dramatic case that gripped the country for months.

Jessica Kumala Wongso, 27, an Indonesian citizen and permanent resident of Australia, remained expressionless while hearing the verdict and sentence.

“The defendant has been proven guilty of premeditated murder,” presiding judge Kisworo said to applause from a packed courtroom without suggesting a motive.

“…The murder was vile and sadistic because the defendant did it to her own friend.” Wongso told the three-judge panel she thought the verdict was “unfair and one-sided”.

Defence lawyers said she would appeal.

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Poisoned coffee case in Indonesia draws nationwide interest

Source:

AFP

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The two women had been meeting at a cafe in a central Jakarta mall when victim Wayan Mirna Salihin took a sip of a cyanide-laced drink, collapsed on the floor and went into convulsions, according to prosecutors. She died by the time she arrived at hospital.

Dozens of police were positioned around the Central Jakarta courtroom as crowds scrambled to get in to hear the verdict.

The trial had heard testimony from a string of forensic and psychological experts and the case has generated headlines since Wongso was arrested earlier this year.

President Joko Widodo’s administration waded into the case, saying Wongso would not be executed if she got the death penalty, according to media. The deal was made with Australia in order for Australian police to assist in the investigation.

BEIJING – China’s latest drill in the South China Sea was a normal search and rescue exercise, the defence ministry said on Thursday, less than a week after a US navy destroyer sailed near the Paracel Islands, provoking a warning from Chinese warships to leave.

China routinely holds drills in the busy waterway, where Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have rival claims.

The search and rescue exercises were being conducted off the coast of the island province of Hainan and were regular drills forming part of annual plans, a defence ministry spokesman, Wu Qian, told a monthly news briefing, but gave no further details.

China’s maritime safety administration said the exercises would run all day on Thursday, and ordered all other shipping to keep away.

Reactions to South China Sea ruling

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Reuters, AFP, Weibo

The maritime administration has given coordinates for an area south of Hainan and northwest of the Paracel Islands, which are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan, but controlled by China.

China has a runway on Woody Island, its largest presence on the Paracels, and has placed surface-to-air missiles there, according to US officials.

Beijing’s claim in the South China Sea is the largest of all the claimants. It argues it can do what it wants on the islands it claims as they have been Chinese since ancient times.