IN BRIEF (Page 6)

Thailand

Yingluck faces more pressure

Thailand's Constitutional Court on Friday opened the way to put off a general election the government has set for Feb 2, piling pressure on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra who looks increasingly cornered by legal challenges to her administration. The Election Commission sought court approval to postpone the vote, arguing that the country was too unsettled by mass anti-government protests.

The Philippines

Police seize meth worth $30m

Philippine police arrested four men and seized 1.3 billion pesos ($30 million) worth of methamphetamine on Friday in the second largest drug bust in Manila in 10 days. The men were in a van loaded with five wooden crates containing 272 kg of crystal meth when they were intercepted by police, said Bartolome Tobias, head of the Philippine National Police anti-illegal drugs task force.

Mali

France says 11 militants killed

A French counterterrorism offensive in northern Mali's Timbuktu region ended on Friday with 11 Islamist militants killed and a French soldier wounded, military sources said. "The operation in the Timbuktu region is completed. Eleven terrorists were killed. A French soldier was wounded, but his life is not in danger," said an official from France's Operation Serval military mission in its former colony.

United States

F-35 jets faulty, report says

A new US Defense Department report warns that ongoing software, maintenance and reliability problems with Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 stealth fighter could delay the Marine Corps' plans to start using the jets by mid-2015. The report by the Pentagon's chief weapons tester, Michael Gilmore, provides a detailed critique of the F-35's technical challenges, and focuses heavily on what it calls the "unacceptable" performance of the plane's software.

Tunisia

Constitution goes to vote Saturday

Tunisian lawmakers will vote Saturday on adopting a long-delayed new constitution, more than three years after the onset of unrest, Mofdi Mssedi, spokesman for the national assembly speaker's office, said on Friday, a day after Parliament completed its review of each article in the draft charter.

Germany

2 die in attack at Frankfurt court

Two men were fatally wounded on Friday in a shooting and stabbing attack at a court complex in Frankfurt, police said. The incident happened at about 8:45 am. The two victims were aged 45 and 50. Police didn't give other details about their identities but said that one died at the scene and the other shortly afterward at a hospital. A statement said the suspected attacker was a 47-year-old Afghan national.

Reuters-AP-AFP

(China Daily 01/25/2014 page6)