Netanyahu heads to Washington next month
WASHINGTON • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the White House next month, a senior United States administration official said.
The March 5 visit comes after a war of words between the Israeli and US governments over settlements in the occupied West Bank, and a scandal that has seen police recommend Mr Netanyahu be indicted for graft.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Pahang hotel evacuated after walls collapse
KUANTAN • Ninety guests of a hotel in Bukit Tinggi in Pahang were evacuated early yesterday after part of its walls collapsed.
The guests were all asleep when the 2am incident happened on the holiday hills below Genting Highlands, an official from the fire department said. The collapse on the first level of a block of the hotel injured a boy and an elderly man.
BERNAMA
Japan okays later pension withdrawals
TOKYO • Japan has okayed plans to let people start drawing their state pensions after the age of 70 as it grapples with severe labour shortages, ballooning welfare costs and a shrivelling tax base due to its greying population.
The government said last Friday that it would look at raising in stages the mandatory retirement age for some 3.4 million civil servants to 65 from the current 60.
The Japanese can currently choose to start receiving their pensions at any point between the ages of 60 and 70, with bigger monthly payments offered to those who do so after their 65th birthdays.
REUTERS