World datelines

Australia: Grassy bridge

SYDNEY — Thousands of people ate breakfast on the Sydney Harbor Bridge as the iconic steel span was transformed today into a grassy picnic ground.

Usually bustling with traffic, the bridge was covered by lawn laid specially for the morning event. It was attended by 6,000 lucky picnickers chosen in a ballot to enjoy food, music and the majestic view. New South Wales state Premier Nathan Rees said the tourism promotion would likely become an annual event.

Germany: Weapons out?

BERLIN — Germany's new center-right coalition government pledged Saturday to reform the health-care system, cut taxes and pull all remaining nuclear weapons from the country, a promise that could hurt relations with NATO, already strained over the military deployment in Afghanistan.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Germany would only be carried out after "talks with our partners."

Indonesia: Polygamy club

JAKARTA — Plans to open branches of a Malaysian "Polygamy Club" in Indonesia have upset women's groups and religious leaders in the world's most populous Muslim nation, who say the search for multiple wives should be handled privately — not by a matchmaking service.

Under Islamic law, Muslim men are permitted four wives. The club says it is providing a noble service of helping single mothers, reformed prostitutes and women who feel they are past marrying age meet spouses.

Iraq: Arrest warrant

BAGHDAD — A local criminal court in Iraq's Diyala province issued an arrest warrant for a Sunni member of parliament on suspicion of financing and inciting sectarian violence, a security official in the northeastern province said Saturday.

The security official said the warrants for parliamentarian Tayseer al-Mashhadani and her husband, Hashim al-Hiyali, were issued on Thursday. A man in police detention told his interrogators the couple gave him instructions and money to kill and expel Shiites from the religiously mixed province.

Israel: Elections push

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday his government would hold presidential and parliamentary elections on Jan. 24, regardless of whether it reaches a power-sharing deal with the rival militant Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip. Hamas criticized the announcement, deepening the rift between the Islamic group and Abbas' secular Fatah movement.

Zimbabwe: Police raid

HARARE — Police loyal to President Robert Mugabe raided a house used by the prime minister's supporters Saturday and accused them of hoarding weapons in a move that is likely to push Zimbabwe's fragile coalition government closer to collapse.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change said the raid on a house where the party's executives stay was provocation by Mugabe's party. Mugabe was forced into a power-sharing government with Tsvangirai, the country's longtime opposition leader, in February after disputed elections last year. Tsvangirai withdrew temporarily from the coalition government on Oct. 16.