Ukrainian civil servants to be screened

Ukraine's prime minister said on Wednesday that 1 million civil servants, including those from government ranks, will be screened for loyalty under new legislation to root out corrupt practices hanging over from the previous ousted administration.

"According to our calculations, 1 million civil servants of different kinds will come under this law, including the whole Cabinet of ministers, the Interior Ministry, the intelligence services, the Prosecutor's Office," Arseny Yatsenyuk told a Cabinet meeting.

"All the bodies of central power who worked at the time of president Viktor Yanukovych will fall under this law," he said.

Kiev has also approved a plan to implement the Association Agreement with the European Union, Yatsenyuk said.

"The agreement must be fully implemented by 2017."

Deadly gunbattles

Meanwhile, fierce gunbattles in the rebel-held eastern Ukraine city of Donetsk killed two people on Wednesday and wounded three others, municipal authorities said.

Heavy shelling has been reported around the flashpoint eastern industrial hub almost daily despite the warring sides signed a cease-fire deal almost two weeks ago.

The city council of Donetsk confirmed that shells had hit a neighborhood to the north of the city, where fighting that is centered on the government-controlled airport has caught many residential neighborhoods in the crossfire.

"Ukrainian army units are keeping the cease-fire," Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko told reporters.

"But illegal military groups continue to fire at the positions of the anti-terrorist forces, particularly near the Donetsk airport."

A total of 30 civilians and soldiers have been killed in eastern Ukraine since a truce was signed on Sept 5, most of them in the Donetsk region, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Full implementation

Those involved in Ukraine's Minsk cease-fire should safeguard the effective implementation of the agreement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Wednesday.

The comment came after two bills offering concessions to the eastern regions were approved in the Ukrainian Parliament on Tuesday.

When asked to comment on the newly approved laws during a daily news conference, Hong said, "China took notice of the situation".

"China hopes relevant sides will make joint efforts to push forward the process on a political solution to the Ukraine crisis," he said.

The laws offer major concessions to independence-seeking insurgents and more autonomy to select regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Reuters-AP-Xinhua-AFP

(China Daily 09/18/2014 page12)