Briefly

VIETNAM

President resigns out of personal wish

Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has resigned and has had his memberships at the Politburo and the 13th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam removed, the Vietnam News Agency reported on Tuesday. He made the decision out of his personal wish, which was announced at a meeting of the Central Committee of the CPV's meeting held on Tuesday, the official news agency said. Phuc was elected as the Vietnamese president in April 2021. Earlier this month, two deputy prime ministers Pham Binh Minh and Vu Duc Dam also had their memberships at the 13th Central Committee of the CPV removed at an extraordinary meeting of the committee.

ITALY

Mafia boss nabbed after 30 years on run

After 30 years on the run, notorious mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro was arrested in Sicily, the Italian authorities said on Monday. He was captured by police at a private health clinic where he was receiving treatment in the Sicilian capital Palermo. Messina Denaro, 60, is considered the top boss of the Cosa Nostra crime syndicate, one of Italy's three most powerful mafia groups. He had been on the run since 1993. A year later, the first international arrest warrant was issued against him. He was sentenced in absentia to a life term for his role in several murders, including those of top anti-mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1993 and of an 11-year-old boy.

BULGARIA

Socialists given chance to form govt

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev on Monday asked the Bulgarian Socialist Party, or BSP, to nominate a candidate for prime minister and form a government, in a bid to avoid another early parliamentary election. The move came after the failures of the GERB-UDF and We Continue the Change parliamentary groups to form a government in December and January. If the BSP also fails to form a ruling coalition and a government, Radev will be obliged to dissolve the National Assembly and schedule new elections.

UNITED STATES

Baby among 6 killed in California shooting

Six people were killed in a shooting in central California in the United States early on Monday morning, local media reported. Two of the victims of the shooting in Goshen, Tulare County, were a 17-year-old mother and a 6-month-old baby, reported KFSN-TV, a television station in central California. The Tulare County Sheriff's Office said in a release posted on its Facebook page that deputies were called to a home in the 6800 Block of Harvest Road in Goshen around 3:30 am on Monday after multiple shots were heard.

Xinhua - Agencies