Vivian in Indonesia for two-day official visit
Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan will visit Medan in North Sumatra and Batam in Riau Islands on a trip starting today.
Dr Balakrishnan will officiate at the upgrading of the Singapore consulates in Medan and Batam to the status of consulate-general during his two-day visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement last night.
He will also attend the Singapore National Day receptions in the two cities, which are held in conjunction with the commemoration of 50 years of diplomatic relations between Singapore and Indonesia this year.
Ex-prime minister of Japan Tsutomu Hata dies
TOKYO • Japan's former prime minister Tsutomu Hata died of natural causes at his home in Tokyo yesterday at the age of 82.
Mr Hata was first elected to the Lower House in 1969 from a constituency in Nagano prefecture. He went on to be re-elected 13 times.
Between April and June 1994, he headed a coalition government while leading the now-defunct Japan Renewal Party.
XINHUA
Pakistan delays US envoy's visit
ISLAMABAD • Pakistan has postponed a visit by an American diplomat who had been due to arrive yesterday, a week after United States President Donald Trump publicly upbraided Islamabad for harbouring militants attacking US and Afghan troops.
The delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Alice Wells was set to be the first major visit by an American official since Mr Trump slammed Pakistan for offering safe havens to "agents of chaos".
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Kill 'idiots' who resist arrest, Duterte tells cops
MANILA • Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told police yesterday they could kill "idiots" who violently resist arrest, two days after hundreds of people turned the funeral of a slain teenager into a protest against his deadly war on drugs.
"Your duty requires you to overcome the resistance of the person you are arresting ... (if) he resists, and it is a violent one ... you are free to kill the idiots, that is my order to you," said Mr Duterte.
Meanwhile, he also met the parents of the slain 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos at the presidential palace yesterday to assure them their son's case would be handled fairly.
REUTERS
