BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s ruling Communist Party put the demand for loyalty front and center in an official resolution on toughening internal discipline, and vowed to keep waging its high-pressure anti-corruption campaign to cleanse the party of “impurities and viruses”. The resolution, adopted during a key party leadership gathering this week and previewed in a shorter communique on Thursday, stressed the need to intensify efforts to instil loyalty to the party within its ranks, vet and promote officials based on their “party spirit” assessed through their day-to-day work, personal conduct and remarks, social contacts and family values, and carry forward its “self-revolution”.

 

*** 

BERN (Euronews) - Switzerland is renewing direct talks with North Korea as tensions rise on the peninsula. Seoul hopes the Swiss office will help it engage with Pyongyang. Switzerland has formally reopened its diplomatic office in North Korea as Ignazio Cassis became the first Swiss foreign minister to visit the country since 2003. Cassis visited Pyongyang on 29 and 30 October before travelling to Seoul. In a statement issued on Saturday, the Swiss foreign ministry said the trip aimed to restore direct political dialogue with North Korea as it looks to maintain contact with both sides of the divided peninsula. The office restarted operations on 19 October. It falls under the Swiss embassy in Beijing, which remains responsible for diplomatic and consular relations with North Korea. Switzerland’s previous office in Pyongyang handled humanitarian cooperation and closed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

*** 

LISBON (Reuters) - Police moved into Lisbon’s Rossio Square on Sunday to clear a tent camp erected after thousands marched demanding Portugal’s minority center-right government withdraw a rental bill they say would worsen the country’s housing crisis. Portugal is grappling with one of Europe’s worst housing crises, with young people among those hardest hit. House prices have more than doubled since 2017 and rents for new leases have nearly doubled. Protests over soaring housing costs have intensified in Portugal in recent weeks, mirroring similar unrest sweeping across Spain, France, Germany and elsewhere in Europe.

 

*** 

SOFIA (AFP) – Bulgarians went to the polls on Sunday to vote in the second round of the country’s elections for president and vice-president. Nearly 6.6 million voters are eligible to choose between incumbent President Iliana Iotova, running with Kiril Valchev as her vice-presidential candidate, and Andrey Gurov, who is seeking the presidency with Georgi Kandev as his running mate. The Iotova-Valchev ticket, backed by the ruling Progressive Bulgaria party and the Bulgarian Socialist Party, among others, came on top in the first round on Oct 25 with 34.76 percent of the votes. The Gurov-Kandev ticket, supported by the parties We Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria, came second among the 27 candidate pairs with 31.95 percent. The first exit polls are expected to be released at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT), immediately after the close of the polls. Official results are due no later than Wednesday.

 

*** 

PARMA (Reuters) - Two men wearing head torches climbed through a forced-open window at the Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum near Parma on the night of March 22 and calmly lifted artworks by Cézanne, Renoir and Matisse from the walls. Within three minutes, they had passed the works, valued at about €9 million ($10 million), to an accomplice and fled. At the museum’s main gate, a fourth man discharged a fire extinguisher when the alarm sounded, distracting the custodian. “Whatever could go wrong, did,” said Stefano Roffi, director of the private foundation that runs the museum. The raid was one of a string of museum thefts in France, Italy and Spain since last year’s heist at the Louvre in Paris, raising concerns that criminals are increasingly targeting smaller institutions with fewer resources to protect valuable collections.