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LAMU Mark Stone Senators Jersey , Kenya, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Suspected Al-Shabaab militantskilled three people and torched houses in the latest overnightattacks in Kenya's coastal region of Lamu County.

Kenyan Coast Regional Police Commander Larry Kieng confirmed theattack in Maleli village near Witu town on Friday, saying thesecurity officers are pursuing the attackers.

Kieng said the attackers torched three houses in the samevillage. He said more security officers have been dispatched to thearea to pursue the insurgents who have been attacking villages andambushing travelers along the roads in the region.

""We have launched investigations into the attack at Malelivillage by suspected Al-Shabaab militants who also torched severalhouses,"" Kieng told Xinhua by telephone.

He said Al-Shabaab has remained a major security threat in LamuCounty, adding that its fighters have been using the vast BoniForest to wage terrorist attacks on the locals.

""The militants attacked and butchered the locals. The victimswere beheaded after being dragged from their houses at night,""Kieng said.

The forest is used as a recruitment and training ground forAl-Shabaab members. The government has enhanced security in therestive county following frequent attacks by the Islamistmilitants

Lamu County Commissioner Joseph Kanyiri said he has reports thatAl-Shabaab was soon planning attacks on the routes. Kanyiri saidsecurity officers thwarted attempts by the group to disrupt thejust concluded general election.

""We intensified patrols and deployed more officers strategicallyin areas mapped as potential hotspots and prevented attacks duringthe polls,"" Kanyiri said and appealed to locals to shareinformation with security agents.

The government last week banned passenger vehicles on theLamu-Garsen highway due to security concerns.

The police have said the explosive devices strategically plantedalong the roads near the Kenyan-Somali border are slowing downsecurity operations to flush out militants hiding in the vast BoniForest which is near the border.

Several areas in northeastern Kenya that border Somalia havebeen the target of Al-Shabaab terrorists who have killed innocentcitizens since Kenyan soldiers entered Somalia in 2011 to securethe two countries' shared border. Enditem

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BEIJING, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Quality has outweighed pure speed in economic growth in the eyes of local government officials as China deepens its structural supply-side reform.

At the annual provincial legislative sessions, different economic growth performances last year, and targets set for this year, with supporting measures ranging from innovation to opening up, have highlighted the vital transition.

China's GDP expanded 6.9 percent in 2017, picking up for the first time in seven years. Yet more than half of its 31 provinces, regions and municipalities saw their economic growth rates slow last year. Tianjin slowed the most, from 9 percent in 2016 to 3.6 percent in 2017.

The GDP of southern Guangdong Province and eastern Jiangsu Province reached nearly 9 trillion yuan (1.4 trillion U.S. dollars) and 8.6 trillion yuan last year, respectively, ranking first and second among 31 provincial-level regions.

The GDP of Shanghai grew 6.9 percent year-on-year to hit 3 trillion yuan, ranking the first among cities.

As good results from structural reform, the GDP of coal-rich Shanxi Province grew 7 percent last year, compared with 4.5 percent in 2016. The northeastern Liaoning Province, part of the old industrial base, reported 4.2 percent growth from a 2016 contraction.

Drawing development blueprints, a number of places such as Tianjin, Anhui, Gansu, Chongqing and Inner Mongolia, lowered their expected growth targets for 2018 compared with the ones they had set for 2017.

The change highlighted the pursuit of high-quality development at the local level after decades of rapid growth, which has made China's economy rise to the world's second largest after the United States.

"The adjustments of targets show local governments put less emphasis on the pure expansion of GDP and pay more attention to structural reform," said Zhang Peng, assistant researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Central China's Hubei Province lowered its target from around 8 percent for 2017 to 7.5 percent this year.

"The adjustment is practical. With the hard task of cutting overcapacity and high environmental protection standards, Hubei needs to leave space for economic transition," said Zou Wei, a provincial political advisor and professor of Wuhan University.

While pledging to further reform in their pilot free trade zones, coastal Tianjin, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Guangdong listed the exploration of the construction of free trade ports as their work agendas this year.

The moves came after the 19th National Congress of the CPC in October last year, which said the country would grant more powers to pilot free trade zones to conduct reform and explore the opening of free trade ports.

Ying Yong, mayor of Shanghai, said the city planned to apply a negative list approach to market entry, which states sectors and businesses that are off limits to foreign investment. The move is expected to give foreign firms greater opportunities in China's market.

Tianjin authorities regard 2018 as a decisive year for the port city's economic transition and set a 5-percent growth target this year.

The eastern Shandong Province set up a government fund of 40 billion yuan in January to foster new growth drivers in high-tech and emerging sectors and boost opening-up.

Overcapacity cutting remains one of the priorities. Shanxi will further cut its outdated coal production capacity by around 23 million tonnes this year in an effort to improve the environment.

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