Briefly

JAPAN

Suga sticks with Cabinet continuity

The new head of Japan's ruling party, Yoshihide Suga, in line to become the next prime minister, appeared set on Tuesday to continue his predecessor's policies by keeping key Cabinet ministers and party officials in their posts, as he had promised. Suga, the chief Cabinet secretary under outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on Monday won a landslide victory to take over the Liberal Democratic Party. He pledged to carry on many of Abe's programs, including his "Abenomics" strategy. Finance Minister Taro Aso and Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi are likely to stay in their positions, media predicted.

IRAN

Assassination plot claim called 'baseless'

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman on Monday dismissed the report of an assassination plot as "baseless" and part of "repetitive and rotten methods to create an anti-Iranian atmosphere on the international stage". A US media report, quoting unnamed officials, said that the alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the US ambassador to South Africa was planned before the presidential election in November as Iran looked to avenge the killing of general Qasem Soleimani. US President Donald Trump warned that any attack by Iran would be met with a response"1,000 times greater in magnitude".

UNITED STATES

Scientists buoyed by Venus gas find

Scientists have detected a gas called "phosphine" in the toxic atmosphere of Venus, a gas linked to the presence of life on Earth. In an article published on Monday in Nature Astronomy, a group of scientists said they used telescopes in the US state of Hawaii and Chile's Atacama Desert to observe Venus' upper cloud deck, around 60 kilometers from the surface, and traced the apparent presence of phosphine gas. The head of NASA hailed the discovery as "the most significant development yet" in the hunt for extraterrestrial life.

Agencies - Xinhua