Briefly

JAPAN

Long-term debt reaches all-time high

The balance of long-term Japanese government debt exceeded 1,000 trillion yen ($7.7 trillion) for the first time in the fiscal year of 2021 to reach its highest-ever level, said the Finance Ministry on Tuesday. The debt amounted to 1,017.1 trillion yen in fiscal 2021 that ended in March, posting fresh records for the 18th consecutive year. The record-setting amount of debt came on the back of swelling social security costs amid rapid aging of its population and emergency spending in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The long-term debt balance, excluding some types of bonds, rose by 44 trillion yen compared to the previous year.

SOMALIA

39 candidates registered for presidential vote

Somalia has registered a record 39 candidates for the presidential elections on May 15, said a parliamentary committee tasked with organizing the long-delayed polls in the fragile Horn of Africa nation on Tuesday. The election is well over a year behind schedule, marred by deadly violence and a power struggle between President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble. Lawmakers and senators will choose the next head of state inside the capital Mogadishu's heavily guarded airport complex, as the country battles a decadelong insurgency.

IRAN

2 Europeans detained as talks envoy visits

Iran's Intelligence Ministry said on Wednesday it detained two Europeans as a European Union envoy visits the country over its stalled nuclear negotiations with world powers. The announcement by the ministry, during the visit of EU envoy Enrique Mora, comes as Teheran is already threatening to execute an Iranian-Swedish researcher imprisoned since 2016, and as another Iranian national faces a life sentence in Sweden. Iran long has faced allegations that it uses its arrests as a bargaining chip with the West. Teheran denies that, though negotiations around its landmark 2015 nuclear deal saw US citizens freed in a swap.

Agencies - Xinhua