Briefly

JAPAN

Suga faces challengers in LDP leadership race

Former foreign minister Fumio Kishida challenged Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Thursday for the leadership of the ruling party, as the premier struggles with crumbling approval rates ahead of a general election. Suga repeated that he would seek reelection for Liberal Democratic Party president in the Sept 29 race, while former internal affairs minister Sanae Takaichi also threw her hat in the ring. The winner is assured of being prime minister because of the LDP's majority in parliament's lower house. Suga, 72, took office in September with support of about 70 percent, but his ratings have sunk below 30 percent as Japan battles its worst wave of COVID-19 infections.

UNITED STATES

Israeli PM promises 'new spirit' in meeting

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was scheduled to meet US President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday to urge pressure on Iran's nuclear program and to shore up bipartisan support for Israel. Bennett told reporters ahead of his first state visit that Biden was "an old and true friend of the state of Israel". The 49-year-old leader took office in June as head of an ideologically divided coalition in which his hawkish party holds only a handful of seats. Dan Kurtzer, former US ambassador to Israel, told Agence France-Presse that Bennett's visit would set a new tone after 12 straight years of Benjamin Netanyahu, who is a close ally of Biden's predecessor Donald Trump.

UNITED KINGDOM

Arrest made over shop food tampering

Police in London arrested a man on suspicion of contaminating food in three supermarkets by injecting them with syringes. Local authorities advised shoppers at the stores in the west London area of Hammersmith to throw away their purchases after the suspect was detained on Wednesday night. Authorities have not identified how many items were tampered with or if the syringes had anything inside. London's Metropolitan Police Service said the suspect allegedly used "a number of needles" to inject into processed meat and microwaveable products at small branches of Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose on Fulham Palace Road.

Agencies - Xinhua