INDONESIA
Trade minister resigns
Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan yesterday said he had resigned, effective immediately, to focus on his campaign to win the presidential nomination for the ruling Democratic Party. The US-educated former investment banker is one of 10 candidates vying for the party’s nomination. State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan, a media magnate, is expected to throw his hat in the ring, forcing a small Cabinet reshuffle as early as this weekend. The general election is in April. Political parties must secure either 20 percent of the seats or 25 percent of the vote to nominate a candidate for the July presidential poll.
IRAQ
Public building attacked
Gunmen and suicide bombers staged a brazen assault on a government building in Baghdad on Thursday, officials said, killing two people. The firefight at a state-run transportation company was one of several attacks that left 11 dead across the city. At least six gunmen stormed the Company for Transportation, interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan Ibrahim said. Police shot and killed four of the militants inside the building, while the other two blew themselves up at the entrance, Maan said. He added that the stand-off ended with at least one employee and a policeman killed in the attack, but gave no details on how they died.
PANAMA
32 N Koreans released
Authorities have released 32 of the 35 North Koreans detained since July last year after an undeclared cargo of Cuban arms was found on their ship, prosecutors said on Thursday. The remaining three North Koreans — the Chong Chon Gang vessel’s captain, first officer and political secretary — face trial on arms trafficking charges, prosecutor Nathaniel Murgas told reporters. He said the organized crime office ordered the sailors’ release on Tuesday, and that they were turned over to immigration authorities. The other crew members face up to 12 years in prison if convicted.
LIBYA
Assembly poll date set
The nation is to elect an assembly on Feb. 20 to draft a constitution intended to advance the transition to democracy and break political stalemate more than two years after a NATO-backed uprising toppled Muammar Qaddafi. Just hours before the congress decision, gunmen kidnapped the son of the special forces commander in Benghazi, later calling the colonel to demand he withdraw troops in return for his son’s release, state news agency LANA said. At least one soldier was killed, medical and security sources said, after troops clashed with gunmen in the eastern city. “We want all Libyan people and groups to reconcile and support these elections,” General National Congress President Nouri Abusahmain said after announcing the date of the vote on Thursday.
UNITED STATES
Heroin in Happy Meals
A McDonald’s worker accused of dealing heroin in Happy Meal boxes to customers using the code phrase “I’d like to buy a toy” was being held on bail on Thursday in Pittsburgh, a spokesman for a local prosecutor said. Police arrested Shantia Dennis, 26, on Wednesday on charges of drug distribution after undercover officers conducted a controlled buy under the Golden Arches, a statement from the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office said. They also seized a 50-unit bag of heroin from Dennis as well as 10 units purchased by the plainclothes officers, office spokesman Mike Manko said.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while