IN BRIEF (Page 12)

UNITED STATES

Budget deficit lowest since 2008

The deficit for the just completed 2014 budget year was $483 billion, the lowest of President Barack Obama's six years in office, the US government reported on Wednesday. It's the lowest since 2008 and, when measured against the size of the economy, is below the average deficits of the past 40 years. The deficit equaled 2.8 percent of gross domestic product, which is the economy's total output of goods and services.

RUSSIA

Defense funds record high

Russia's military spending planned for 2015 will be at record high, a senior lawmaker said on Thursday. The defense-related spending envisaged in the next year's federal budget amounts to $82 billion, said the head of the defense committee of the Parliament's lower house, State Duma, Vladimir Komoyedov. "The 2015 military spending makes up 4.2 percent of the GDP," he said.

Sanctions will help economy, poll says

More than half of Russians believe their economy will benefit from Western economic sanctions imposed over the Ukraine crisis and from the countermeasures adopted by Moscow, according to an opinion poll published on Thursday. Western countries imposed sanctions targeting Russia's financial and energy sectors over Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.

IRAN

'Progress' made in nuclear talks

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, said on Thursday that progress was made in "very difficult" nuclear talks in Vienna this week when possible solutions were discussed, after meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. Iran and the powers - China, the United States, France, Germany, Russia and Britain - aim to end a decadelong standoff over Iran's nuclear program by a Nov 24 target date.

THE PHILIPPINES

US Marine faces murder charges

Police in the Philippines filed murder charges on Wednesday against a US Marine over the death of a transgender Filipino he met in a bar outside the former US naval base of Subic Bay. A senior Philippine official warned that the case could damage military ties between the allies.

SWITZERLAND

100 m affected by natural disasters

Some 100 million people were affected by natural disasters worldwide in 2013, said a recent report released by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies on Thursday. According to the report, 337 natural disasters were reported across the world in 2013.

BRAZIL

Police arrest 51 for child pornography

Brazil's Federal Police arrested 51 suspected pedophiles on Wednesday in a massive dragnet against child pornography, Brazilian news portal G1 news reported. Some 500 police officers took part in the operation, called Darknet, which led to arrests in 18 states, including the Federal District, home to the capital Brasilia.

AUSTRALIA

Naval training base in lockdown

A naval base in the Australian state of Victoria went into lockdown and a police bomb squad was sent to the scene to investigate unspecified "hazardous material", security officials said on Thursday. An exclusion zone of 400 meters was declared around a residential apartment at HMAS Cerberus, a naval training base on the Mornington Peninsula, 75 km southeast of Melbourne, Victorian police said.

MALAYSIA

Country's main recruiters caught

Islamic State's main recruiters in Malaysia, who funded trips to Syria for converts and used Facebook to attract young supporters, were among the 14 suspected militants arrested earlier this week, Malaysian authorities said late on Wednesday. The three Malaysians played individual roles to promote, recruit and finance trips to Syria, police said.

MEXICO

Search widened for 43 missing

Mexican police sent horse-mounted patrols and officers with trained dogs up into the hills around the city of Iguala on Wednesday in an expanded search for 43 college students missing since a clash with police last month. The hunt was ordered after investigators determined that 28 sets of human remains discovered last weekend were not those of any of the youths.

AP - AFP - Reuters - Xinhua

(China Daily 10/17/2014 page12)