Police say they have arrested a deputy head from Indonesia's top corruption-fighting body, days after the official said a national police chief hopeful was a graft suspect.
	Police spokesman Ronny Franky Sompie said today that Bambang Widjojanto, 55, one of the Corruption Eradication Commission deputies, was arrested for alleged false testimony when he was dealing with a regional election dispute as a lawyer in 2010.
	Two weeks ago, President Joko Widodo nominated Lt. Gen. Budi Gunawan as National Police chief, but a day before parliament held a confirmation hearing on his nomination the commission declared him a graft suspect. Parliament still endorsed his nomination.
	The case is seen as a test of Widodo's commitment to reform after being elected in July, largely on the back of his clean image.

Indonesian police arrest deputy of anti-graft body

PTI Automatic

South Korean President Park Geun-hye today nominated ruling party lawmaker Lee Wan Koo to replace Prime Minister Chung Hong-won nearly 10 months after Chung offered to resign over a ferry disaster that killed more than 300 people in April last year.
	Park also reshuffled her secretarial units and plans to introduce a team of special policy advisers in a shake-up that follows criticism about her allegedly poor communications with the public and lack of transparency in personnel decisions, presidential official Yoon Du-hyun said in a televised briefing.
	South Korea's executive power is concentrated in the president but the prime minister leads the country if the president becomes incapacitated.
	Park decided to retain Chung in June after two possible replacements for the job abandoned their nominations because of questions over past behavior. Chung will hold his No. 2 spot in the government until Lee gains approval from lawmakers.
	Park saw Lee as an ideal prime ministerial candidate ..

South Korean president nominates new prime minister

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned trip to Washington in March is kicking up a diplomatic dust storm in the nation's capital.
	Yesterday, the White House said President Barack Obama would not meet the prime minister when he comes to the US to address a joint session of Congress. The official White House explanation was that Netanyahu's visit fell too close to the Israeli election and the Obama administration wanted to avoid the appearance of taking sides.
	"As a matter of longstanding practice and principle, we do not see heads of state or candidates in close proximity to their elections, so as to avoid the appearance of influencing a democratic election in a foreign country," National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said.
	But the timing of Netanyahu's visit also gave the White House a convenient means of retaliating against the prime minister for his decision to accept an invitation from Republican leaders to address Congress.
	Republican lawmakers ...

Obama to pass on meeting Netanyahu during Washington visit

The first UN General Assembly meeting on anti-Semitism has sparked calls for global action to combat the rising hatred of Jews and a surprising denunciation from the world's 57 Islamic nations of all words and acts that lead "to hatred, anti-Semitism, Islamaphobia."
	US Ambassador Samantha Power yesterday said the statement delivered by Saudi Arabia's UN Ambassador Abdallah Al-Moualimi on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation was "extremely significant," especially since the United Nations has often been a venue to try to de-legitimize Israel.
	The assembly met at the request of 37 mainly Western countries including the United States who urged the world body to address the "alarming outbreak of anti-Semitism worldwide."
	It was an informal meeting, attended by about half the 193 member states, so no resolution could be adopted.
	But 40 mainly Western countries issued a joint statement afterward urging all nations to "declare their categorical rejection of anti-Semitism," ..

UN meeting challenges world to stand up to anti-Semitism

Anti-government protests in Congo have left at least a dozen people dead, officials said today, as the Senate postponed a vote on a proposed law that the opposition fears will prolong the president's time in power.
	After three days of unrest, Congo's capital returned cautiously to normal today, but protests continued elsewhere.
	In the east, four people died, an official said.
	The Internet, which was cut amid the protests, was partially restored although text messages were still blocked.
	UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern over the deaths and called on both sides to exercise restraint. A UN Security Council statement deplored the deaths and urged Congo's government to set a framework and calendar for "peaceful, credible and timely elections."
	The Senate had been expected to vote today on a proposed law that would require a census before presidential elections next year. But the chamber postponed the vote until tomorrow.
	Critics say the logistical challenges of ...

At least 12 dead in Congo in protests over electoral law

Iraq and its international partners have made significant gains in the fight against Islamic State militants, killing thousands of the group's fighters and 50 percent of its leadership, US Secretary of State John Kerry said.
	At an anti-IS coalition meeting in London, Kerry also said Iraqi ground troops backed by almost 2,000 air strikes had retaken 700 square kilometers of territory. He said the number of IS militants killed was in the "single digit" thousands.
	But the US diplomat said the coalition "can do better" at stopping the militant group's flow of funds and foreign fighters and the global spread of its message.
	Kerry met British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and officials from 21 countries at a one-day London conference intended to seal the cracks in the international coalition against the extremist group, which controls a large swath of Syria and Iraq.
	Abadi has complained recently that weapons and ammunition have not been reaching 

Kerry: Iraq coalition has killed 50 percent of IS leaders

Sweden's former foreign minister says he helped an Afghan student and journalist secretly flee the country in 2009, which saved the man from a death penalty.
	Carl Bildt says Sayed Pervez Kambaksh was convicted for publishing critical texts about Islam. He was smuggled into a Swedish government plane at Kabul airport while Bildt waited on board.
	In an interview with Swedish daily Expressen, Bildt said the operation was coordinated with Kai Eide, the U.N.'s envoy to Afghanistan at the time.
	Bildt said Kambaksh was pardoned after his escape and is now likely in the US.
	He described the experience as "nerve-racking" for fear that Afghan security personnel would discover the plan.
	Bildt tweeted Thursday that the operation was secret, but could now be revealed as all relevant leaders had changed.

Swedish official says he smuggled condemned man from Kabul

Heavily armed Shiite rebels remained stationed outside the Yemeni president's house and a presidential palace, raising doubts about a deal meant to end the violent standoff that has plunged the country into crisis.
	Under the agreement struck late Wednesday between President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the Houthi rebel movement, Houthi gunmen were to withdraw from the presidential residence and key areas of the capital in return for political concessions.
	It remains unclear who really controls the country and how much power is still in the hands of Hadi, whose government is viewed as a key U.S. Ally in the fight against al-Qaida. Hadi agreed to the deal while being held captive at his home in Sanaa.
	Yemen's emerging power vacuum has raised fears that the country's dangerous al-Qaida's branch, which claimed the recent attack on a French satirical weekly, will only grow more powerful and popular as the nation slides toward fragmentation and the conflict takes on an increasingly ...

Yemen Shiite gunmen remain in capital, violence flares

About 70 people in South Africa have been arrested in because of violent protests and looting, much of which was aimed at shops owned by nationals from other African countries, local media reported today.
	Residents began looting shops and attacking foreign nationals in the Soweto area of Johannesburg after a teen-ager was allegedly shot dead by a foreign shop owner on Monday, the South African Press Association said. The 14-year-old boy was reportedly in a group that tried to rob the shop.
	The targeted shops include those owned by Ethiopians, Somalis as well as Pakistanis, according to witnesses. Local media quoted some foreign shopowners as saying they had left the area for their own safety.
	Police said they had sent reinforcements to stop the looting.

2 killed in South Africa riots

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists says Earth is now closer to human-caused doomsday than it has been in more than 30 years because of global warming and nuclear weaponry.
	The US advocacy group founded by the creators of the atomic bomb moved their famed "Doomsday Clock" ahead two minutes on Thursday.
	 It said the world is now three minutes from a catastrophic midnight, instead of five minutes.
	This is the second closest the world has been to midnight in the 68 years of the doomsday clock. The only closer time was two minutes till midnight in 1953 when the United States and the then-Soviet Union pursued the hydrogen bomb.
	Group executive director Kennette Benedict called both climate change and modernization of nuclear weaponry undeniable threats to humanity's continued existence.

US Atomic Scientists: Doomsday getting closer

Two men who have been under investigation since last year were arrested in Germany suspicion of membership in the Islamic State group, prosecutors said.
	The two, identified only as 26-year-old Mustafa C. And 27-year-old Sebastian B. In accordance with German privacy laws, were arrested Thursday morning in raids in the western state of North-Rhine Westphalia, federal prosecutors said.
	The two Germans are accused of traveling to Syria through Turkey in March and August 2013 where they joined a group known as the Muhajireen Brigade. By the end of 2013, they were suspected of joining IS, undergoing training and providing logistical support during battles.
	Sebastian B returned to Germany in November 2013, while Mustafa C returned in September 2014. Prosecutors said there is no evidence they were planning attacks.
	Separately, three apartments in the central city of Kassel were searched early Thursday in an investigation of three German nationals, aged between 19 and 23.
	The three are ..

2 Islamic State group suspects arrested in Germany

The leader of the House Democrats said that Republican Speaker John Boehner blundered when he invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address the US Congress amid sensitive negotiations about Iran's nuclear program and in the shadow of Israel's elections.
	"If that's the purpose of Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit two weeks before his own election, right in the midst of our negotiations, I just don't think it's appropriate and helpful," Rep. Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday at her weekly news conference.
	The March 3 speech, Pelosi suggested, could give Netanyahu a political boost in elections a few weeks later and inflame international talks aimed at stopping Iran's nuclear program.
	"These negotiations have gone on for a long time," Pelosi added. "They're delicate."
	She spoke as Netanyahu accepted Boehner's invitation, saying the speech will give him the chance to "thank President Barack Obama, Congress and the American people for their support of Israel."
	He is ..

US House leader: Boehner invite to Netanyahu inappropriate

A suicide car bomb and an explosive device hidden in a booby-trapped house killed 14 soldiers and Shiite militiamen north of Baghdad today, Iraqi officials said.
	The suicide bomber slammed a car packed with explosives into the gate of a military base in Taji, some 20 kilometres north of Baghdad, killing at least eight soldiers, police officials said.
	The attack took place as dozens of soldiers were departing the facility for weekend leave. The officials said 21 troops were wounded in the bombing.
	In a separate incident, an explosion in a booby-trapped house in a village recently retaken from Islamic State militants killed four soldiers and two Shiite militiamen.
	The explosion at the house in Um al-Talayib village, near the city of Samarra, took place as Iraqi troops were inspecting the house.
	At least 14 troops were wounded.
	Samarra is 95 kilometres north of Baghdad. The city and surrounding areas have been under near-constant attack by the Islamic State group, which captured ...

Bombings kill 14 soldiers, militiamen in Iraq

Macau, the Chinese territory known for casino gambling, outperformed the rest of the world's major cities economically last year, according to a report out Thursday.
	Cities in the developing world, especially China, dominated the top of the annual economic rankings of 300 cities worldwide by the Brookings Institution and JPMorgan Chase. One exception: Bangkok, Thailand, came in last, its economy wrecked by political strife.
	Macau has enjoyed a tourism boom, with gamblers coming to bet at more than 30 casinos, including the Venetian Macau, the world's largest.
	Cities in wealthy, developed countries tended to lag behind. Though most of the cities surveyed around the world have recovered from the Great Recession, 65 percent of European and 57 percent of North American cities have not, according to the study, which ranks cities by growth in employment and in economic output per person.

Macau ranks No. 1 in economic performance among world cities

Indonesian divers retrieved six more bodies today from waters around the sunken fuselage of the AirAsia jetliner that crashed last month.
	Divers were struggling against strong current and poor visibility to lift the fuselage and what appears to be the plane's cockpit from the seabed at a depth of 30 meters (100 feet).
	So far, 59 bodies have been recovered from AirAsia Flight 8501, which plunged into the Java Sea with 162 people while en route from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, to Singapore. Officials believed the rest are still inside the main fuselage.
	National Transportation Safety Committee head Tatang Kurniadi yesterday ruled out sabotage, as investigators downloaded and began analyzing data from the aircraft's cockpit voice and flight data recorders with advisers from Airbus, the plane's manufacturer.
	Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan told Parliament earlier this week that radar data showed that the plane was climbing at an abnormally high rate about 6,000 feet a 

Indonesian divers recover 6 more bodies from AirAsia crash

Iran's supreme court has sentenced a former vice president to five years in prison and ordered him to pay a 10 billion rial (USD 300,000) fine, the country's official news agency said.
	The IRNA report late yesterday did not specify what Mohammad Reza Rahimi, a top aide to ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was convicted of but said the verdict was binding.
	It also said the court ordered Rahimi to pay compensation equivalent to some USD 800,000.
	A local court had initially sentenced Rahimi to 15 years prison, but the supreme court reduced the term to five years and three months, IRNA said. Rahimi has long maintained his innocence
	Opponents of Ahmadinejad's hard-line government have long accused his administration of massive corruption.
	Ahmadinejad's successor, President Hassan Rouhani, in December criticised growing corruption in the country in unusually blunt terms, saying that bribes once paid secretly are now being disbursed in the open.
	Ahmadinejad has repeatedly claimed that .

Iran gives ex-vice president 5-year prison term

A man who walked into a leading hospital, asked for a cardiac surgeon by name and fatally shot him outside an examination room had been upset about his mother's death and had blamed the doctor for it, relatives said.
	Gunman Stephen Pasceri entered Brigham and Women's Hospital, which is associated with Harvard University, on Tuesday morning seeking Dr Michael Davidson and then shot him twice, police said. He then killed himself, and officers found his body with the weapon shortly afterward.
	Pasceri's sister and brother said yesterday they were shocked by his actions and believe he held Davidson responsible for the November death of their mother, who had heart and lung problems.
	Marguerite Joly told the Boston Herald her mother, Marguerite Pasceri, was Davidson's patient and her brother and the doctor had had "a fine relationship." She said she doesn't know why her brother snapped.
	"I think it comes down to the fact that my brother thought it was the doctor's fault that my mother ...

Kin: Man who killed doctor had blamed him for mother's death

Japan said today it was considering all possible ways to gain the release of two hostages held by the Islamic State group, as two people with contacts there offered to try to negotiate.
	The Islamic State group, in a video message seen Tuesday, said it would kill the hostages within 72 hours unless it receives USD 200 million. Based on the video's release time, that deadline would come sometime tomorrow.
	Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said today that Japan was trying to reach those holding the hostages, 47-year-old freelance journalist Kenji Goto and 42-year-old Haruna Yukawa, the founder of a private security company.
	Suga said Japan had not received any message from IS since the release of the video.
	Ko Nakata, an expert on Islamic law and former professor at Kyoto's Doshisha University, told reporters he was able to reach the Islamic State.
	He and Kosuke Tsuneoka, a Japanese journalist who was held hostage in Afghanistan in 2010, have both offered to reach out to the ...

Japan says looking at all possible ways to free hostages

US Ambassador Samantha Power says Russia's latest "peace plan" for Ukraine is nothing more than an "occupation plan."
	Power told the UN Security Council yesterday that "the current situation is dangerous" and urged Russia to implement a September cease-fire agreement.
	She said Russian President Vladimir Putin's new plan would free Moscow from its commitments under the Minsk agreement.
	Moscow has repeatedly "extended an olive branch in one hand, while passing out Grad missiles and tanks with the other hand" to Ukrainian separatists, Power said.
	Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin insisted Moscow is fulfilling the Minsk agreement and called for a speedy resumption of Minsk peace talks.

US says Russian peace plan for Ukraine is an occupation plan

Australia has called for a broader international coalition, led by the US, to combat the "terrifying challenge" of jihadist groups that are challenging governments and aiming to establish an Islamic caliphate in the Middle East.
	Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she's "deeply troubled" by the way that foreign fighters are organizing. She said that 180 Australian citizens are known to be fighting with the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria or supporting it from Australia.
	Bishop, who met Tuesday with the heads of US security and intelligence agencies, said she gathered that there's a similar number of American recruits.
	US officials say about 150 Americans have gone or tried to go to Syria and Iraq to support extremist groups.
	Australia is a close US ally and currently has 600 personnel conducting air strikes and supporting Iraqi security forces - the second largest contribution to a US-led military effort.
	Eight countries have conducted more than 1,000 airstrikes across Iraq .

180 Australians backing Islamic State group, says minister

The leader of a German organization against the perceived "Islamisation" of Europe has stepped down after online posts surfaced in which he used derogatory language to refer to refugees and posed looking like Adolf Hitler.
	Lutz Bachmann, co-founder of the Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West, or PEGIDA, announced his departure on Facebook after German media published the comments where he called refugees "cattle" and "filthy," and a photo showing him with a Hitler mustache and hair combed over like the Nazi Fuehrer.
	Bachmann didn't comment directly on the picture, but apologized for the anti-refugee comments, which he made online in September, a month before the group staged its first protest.
	"I earnestly apologize to all citizens, who felt attacked by my postings," Bachmann said in a statement on the group's Facebook page.
	"They were ill-considered comments that I wouldn't make in this way today," he said, expressing regret for harming the movement, which has 

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