Vietnam arrests ex-deputy minister over rare-earth mining violations

HANOI (Reuters) -- Police in Vietnam have arrested a former environment deputy minister and four other senior officials accused of violating mining regulations, following a wider investigation into wrongdoings at a rare-earth company in northern Vietnam.

Nguyen Linh Ngoc, who was the deputy minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment from 2010 to 2018, was accused of "deliberate violations of state economic management regulations, causing serious consequences," the police-run Ministry of Public Security said in a statement.