World Briefs

USA Vice President Joe Biden said he won’t be a candidate in the 2016 White House campaign, solidifying Hillary Rodham Clinton’s status as the Democratic front-runner and the party’s likely heir to President Barack Obama’s legacy.

USA Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton took center stage yesterday as the star witness in the Republican-led investigation into the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya that have long shadowed her presidential aspirations.

SOUTH KOREAN singer PSY is fighting a legal battle with artist tenants who are reluctant to leave a building he owns in Seoul. The property dispute has struck a nerve in a country where super-high rents have been criticized as killing vibrancy in cities by spurring gentrification and evictions.
PAKISTAN says airstrikes have killed 21 “terrorists” in a northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border.

INDIA One of the world’s most polluted capitals, New Delhi, closed a major stretch of a road to private cars for a few hours, hoping to give its citizens a brief breath of fresh air by observing a car-free day.

THAILAND-INDONESIA Officials say the southern parts of Thailand have been hit by the most severe haze ever from forest fires in Indonesia, forcing all schools in a province to close and disrupting flights at a popular tourist area.

SWEDEN A masked man attacked a school in southern Sweden yesterday before being shot by police. Health authorities said one teacher was killed and two students seriously wounded in the attack. Students fled yesterday morning from the Kronan school in Trollhattan, near Goteborg, Sweden’s second-largest city. In a statement, police in Trollhattan said the attack took place in the school’s cafe area.

MALAYSIA Former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad is under investigation for potential defamation as the country’s longest-serving leader continues to pressure Prime Minister Najib Razak to step down. Police opened several investigation papers after reports were made against Mahathir, Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi said in a written reply to a parliamentary question. He said the probes relate to Section 500 of the penal code on defamation, and there was no immediate information on who filed the reports.