IN BRIEF (Page 12)

United States

Coast Guard officer had planned attack

US authorities have arrested a US Coast Guard lieutenant who described himself as a white nationalist and had amassed a cache of weapons to "murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country", according to court documents. Christopher Paul Hasson, who is assigned to the Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington and lives in a Maryland suburb, was arrested on Friday on weapons and drugs charges, prosecutors said in court documents. The prosecutors called Hasson a "domestic terrorist" and said he wrote in a draft email in June 2017 that he was "dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth", and pondering how he might be able to acquire anthrax and toxins to create botulism or a deadly influenza.

France

Anti-Semitism worst since World War II

Anti-Semitism appears to have reached its worst levels since World War II, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday, a day after thousands of people took to the streets to denounce hate crimes. With Europe's biggest Jewish community, France is reeling after a string of attacks that have made global headlines. Macron announced measures including legislation to fight hate speech on the internet, to be introduced by May. He also vowed that France would recognize anti-Zionism as a form of anti-Semitism. On a visit on Tuesday to a cemetery in the Alsace region, near Germany, where 96 Jewish tombstones were daubed with swastikas, Macron promised: "We shall act, we shall pass laws, we shall punish."

Turkey

Heavy fog disturbs air, sea transport

Heavy fog hit Turkey's largest city Istanbul on Thursday, causing hundreds of flights and ferries to be canceled or delayed. The Turkish Airlines, the national flag carrier, advised its passengers to regularly check their flight status before departing for the airports, citing "adverse weather conditions". The Pegasus Airlines announced that all of its flights to and from the Sabiha Gokcen Airport located on the Asian side of Istanbul were affected by the thick fog. Meanwhile, the cityline ferry agency canceled all the ferry services for the day due to the extremely poor visibility in the Bosphorus Strait and the Marmara Sea, resulting in a heavy land traffic during the morning rush hour. Experts said the visibility was reduced to 10 meters in some locations.

Brazil

Govt seeks $270b pension savings

President Jair Bolsonaro delivered his proposed pension overhaul to Congress on Wednesday, a plan to save more than 1 trillion reais ($270 billion) in a decade that raised doubts about whether lawmakers would pass a package of that scale. The social security bill is the cornerstone of the new president's effort to close what most economists call an unsustainable public deficit and boost a weak economic recovery. "The creation of a new pension system is fundamental to balance our country's accounts so the system does not collapse, as already happened in other countries and in some Brazilian states," Bolsonaro said in an address to the nation.

Ap - Reuters - Xinhua - Afp

(China Daily 02/22/2019 page12)