IN BRIEF (Page 12)

MONGOLIA

New prime minister elected

Mongolia's parliament on Friday chose a new prime minister to head its fractured government, an official website said, as the sprawling, resource-rich nation struggles with stalling economic growth. The Democratic Party's Chimed Saikhanbileg was overwhelmingly voted in after the opposition Mongolian People's Party boycotted the vote. Landlocked Mongolia enjoyed world-beating growth in recent years - peaking at 17.5 percent in 2011 - on the back of a boom in resource exports, mainly coal, copper and iron ore.

UNITED KINGDOM

UKIP wins second seat

The British anti-immigration party, UKIP, has easily won its second seat in Parliament, as a former Conservative lawmaker ran far ahead of his old party. Mark Reckless, the second Conservative to leave the party and win a seat for UKIP, won 42 percent of the vote in a special election in the Rochester and Strood constituency in southeast England. The Conservative candidate received 14.4 percent of the vote, followed by Labour with 11.7 percent.

THE PHILIPPINES

Airliner makes urgent landing

A Japan-bound All Nippon Airways jet made an emergency landing at an airport in the Metro Manila region near the capital on Friday morning, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said. Flight NH950 departed Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 9:54 am local time but was forced to return half an hour later after smoke entered the jet's cockpit.

MIDDLE EAST

Suspects held in plot to kill FM

Israel has arrested four Palestinians suspected of planning to assassinate Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman with an anti-tank rocket as the minister drove to Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, officials said. The alleged Hamas plot was hatched during the July-August war in Gaza, they said. Its disclosure comes as ties fray between Israel and US-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank, over a contested Jerusalem shrine.

UAE

US supply ships collide

A US navy spokesman said two supply ships collided in the Gulf of Aden but no one was injured. The spokesman for the US 5th Fleet, Kevin Stephens, said the USNS Amelia Earhart and the USNS Walter S. Diehl were involved in a minor collision during an exchange of goods early on Thursday. The two ships resupply US navy warships that conduct operations for the fleet, which is based in Bahrain.

AP - Reuters - AFP

(China Daily 11/22/2014 page12)