With growing animal rights’ awareness on the mind, South Korea seems to be looking to prohibit dog meat consumption as debate over the practice intensifies. &nbsp;&nbsp;

On being briefed over concerted efforts to improve the handling of abandoned animals and a registration system for dogs, South Korea's President Moon Jae-in said on Monday that dog meat consumption may get prohibited in future. &nbsp;

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In a statement, Moon's spokeswoman Park Kyung-mee said, "After the briefing, he said time has come to carefully consider imposing a dog meat ban." &nbsp;

In recent weeks, several presidential hopefuls have pledged to ban dog meat to boost popularity. &nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/in-rare-transit-british-warship-hms-richmond-crosses-taiwan-strait-416386" hreflang="en">In ‘rare transit’, British warship HMS Richmond crosses Taiwan Strait</a>

The dog meat is generally eaten by older people. It is not very common nowadays but one can get it in some restaurants or specific markets. &nbsp;

Several advocacy groups have also asked South Korea to ban selling of dog meat as the animals have become popular as pets. &nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/china-removes-three-regulations-linked-to-family-planning-416359" hreflang="en">China removes three regulations linked to family planning</a>

South Koreans are believed to consume about one million dogs a year as a summertime delicacy, with the greasy red meat, which is invariably boiled for tenderness, believed to increase energy. &nbsp;

Dog meat is officially classed as "detestable" by Seoul, as is snake, but the designation has no legal ramifications. &nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

With growing animal rights’ awareness on the mind, South Korea seems to be looking to prohibit dog meat consumption as debate over the practice intensifies. On being briefed over concerted efforts to improve the handling of abandoned animals and a registration system for dogs, South Korea's President Moon Jae-in said on Monday that dog meat consumption may get prohibited in future.

With growing animal rights’ awareness on the mind, South Korea seems to be looking to prohibit dog meat consumption as debate over the practice intensifies. On being briefed over concerted efforts to improve the handling of abandoned animals and a registration system for dogs, South Korea's President Moon Jae-in said on Monday that dog meat consumption may get prohibited in future. Watch: × In a statement, Moon's spokeswoman Park Kyung-mee said, "After the briefing, he said time has come to carefully consider imposing a dog meat ban." In recent weeks, several presidential hopefuls have pledged to ban dog meat to boost popularity. Also Read: In ‘rare transit’, British warship HMS Richmond crosses Taiwan Strait The dog meat is generally eaten by older people. It is not very common nowadays but one can get it in some restaurants or specific markets. Several advocacy groups have also asked South Korea to ban selling of dog meat as the animals have become popular as pets. Also Read: China removes three regulations linked to family planning South Koreans are believed to consume about one million dogs a year as a summertime delicacy, with the greasy red meat, which is invariably boiled for tenderness, believed to increase energy. Dog meat is officially classed as "detestable" by Seoul, as is snake, but the designation has no legal ramifications. (With inputs from agencies)

Amid intense debate over animal rights, South Korea's President Moon Jae-in says dog meat may get banned  

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva criticised as "false and spurious" the findings of an independent probe into allegations that as World Bank head she pressured staff to manipulate data to make China`s business climate appear more favorable. 
 
In a statement she plans to present to the executive board of the International Monetary Fund, Georgieva also accused the office of the World Bank`s past president, Jim Kong Kim, of manipulation. 
 
She said she intervened to block a proposal from a member of Kim`s staff to include Hong Kong data in China`s ranking in the World Bank`s Doing Business 2018 report, which would have significantly improved its standing. Kim has not responded to requests for comment. 
 
The World Bank last week released a report on the investigation by law firm WilmerHale. It found that senior bank leaders including Georgieva unduly pressured staff to alter data to improve China`s ranking in the Doing Business report while the bank was seeking China`s support for a capital increase. 
 
Georgieva, then World Bank chief executive, has excoriated the probe publicly and to her staff, but she went into greater detail in the statement to the IMF`s executive board, a copy of which was seen by Reuters on Friday. 
 
She said the probe`s findings contained "the false and spurious insinuation ... that my colleagues and I at the World Bank would inflate a country’s Doing Business ranking in exchange for capital commitments." 
 
"To be clear: no such thing happened and no such thing would ever happen under my leadership," she said. 
 
Georgieva said her effort to prevent Hong Kong data from being added to China`s Doing Business ranking demonstrated her concern for preserving the integrity of World Bank data. 
 
The Bulgarian economist, the first person from a developing country to head the World Bank, has faced calls for her resignation over the matter, though former colleagues have spoken out in support of her. 
 
The IMF board met on Tuesday to hear an initial report from its ethics committee and agreed to meet again soon. 
 
The chair of the US&nbsp;House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, Maxine Waters, on Friday said the findings detailing "undue influence by China" at the World Bank and Georgieva`s role in "manipulating `Doing Business` data at the behest of the Chinese government is very troubling." 
 
"This has undermined the reputation of the World Bank, and it has also called into question the current leadership at the IMF, where the integrity of data is critical to its mission, and where undue influence by any self-interested power could put the stability of the global financial system at risk," Waters said. 
 
The World Bank`s current president, David Malpass, has said the findings of the WilmerHale investigation speak for themselves, but has not commented in greater detail. 
 
Georgieva said the WilmerHale probe wrongly inferred that she asked bank officials to manage China`s expectations about its ranking in the Doing Business report because she was worried that China could withhold support for the capital increase. 
 
Georgieva said she did regret that colleagues at the bank "did not believe that they could speak out to raise with me issues about data integrity," and was committed to fostering better communication.

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva criticised as "false and spurious" the findings of an independent probe into allegations that as World Bank head she pressured staff to manipulate data to make China`s business climate appear more favorable.

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva criticised as "false and spurious" the findings of an independent probe into allegations that as World Bank head she pressured staff to manipulate data to make China`s business climate appear more favorable. In a statement she plans to present to the executive board of the International Monetary Fund, Georgieva also accused the office of the World Bank`s past president, Jim Kong Kim, of manipulation. She said she intervened to block a proposal from a member of Kim`s staff to include Hong Kong data in China`s ranking in the World Bank`s Doing Business 2018 report, which would have significantly improved its standing. Kim has not responded to requests for comment. The World Bank last week released a report on the investigation by law firm WilmerHale. It found that senior bank leaders including Georgieva unduly pressured staff to alter data to improve China`s ranking in the Doing Business report while the bank was seeking China`s support for a capital increase. Georgieva, then World Bank chief executive, has excoriated the probe publicly and to her staff, but she went into greater detail in the statement to the IMF`s executive board, a copy of which was seen by Reuters on Friday. She said the probe`s findings contained "the false and spurious insinuation ... that my colleagues and I at the World Bank would inflate a country’s Doing Business ranking in exchange for capital commitments." "To be clear: no such thing happened and no such thing would ever happen under my leadership," she said. Georgieva said her effort to prevent Hong Kong data from being added to China`s Doing Business ranking demonstrated her concern for preserving the integrity of World Bank data. The Bulgarian economist, the first person from a developing country to head the World Bank, has faced calls for her resignation over the matter, though former colleagues have spoken out in support of her. The IMF board met on Tuesday to hear an initial report from its ethics committee and agreed to meet again soon. The chair of the US House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, Maxine Waters, on Friday said the findings detailing "undue influence by China" at the World Bank and Georgieva`s role in "manipulating `Doing Business` data at the behest of the Chinese government is very troubling." "This has undermined the reputation of the World Bank, and it has also called into question the current leadership at the IMF, where the integrity of data is critical to its mission, and where undue influence by any self-interested power could put the stability of the global financial system at risk," Waters said. The World Bank`s current president, David Malpass, has said the findings of the WilmerHale investigation speak for themselves, but has not commented in greater detail. Georgieva said the WilmerHale probe wrongly inferred that she asked bank officials to manage China`s expectations about its ranking in the Doing Business report because she was worried that China could withhold support for the capital increase. Georgieva said she did regret that colleagues at the bank "did not believe that they could speak out to raise with me issues about data integrity," and was committed to fostering better communication.

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva accuses former World Bank president Kim's office of manipulation

No president has ever packed as much of his agenda, domestic and foreign, into a single piece of legislation as President Joe Biden has with the $3.5 trillion spending plan that Democrats are trying to wrangle through Congress over the next six weeks.

The bill combines major initiatives on the economy, education, social welfare, climate change and foreign policy, funded in large part by an extensive rewrite of the tax code, which aims to bring in trillions from corporations and the rich. That stacking of priorities has raised the stakes for a president resting his ambitions on a bill that could fail over the smallest of intraparty disputes.

If successful, Biden’s far-reaching attempt could result in a presidency-defining victory that delivers on a decadeslong campaign by Democrats to expand the federal government to combat social problems and spread the gains of a growing economy to workers, striking a fatal blow to the government-limiting philosophy of President Ronald Reagan that has largely defined U.S. politics since the 1980s.

But as Democrats are increasingly seeing, the sheer weight of Biden’s progressive push could cause it to collapse, leaving the party empty-handed, with the president’s top priorities going unfulfilled. Some progressives fear a watered-down version of the bill could fail to deliver on the party’s promises and undermine its case for a more activist government. Some moderates worry that spending too much could cost Democrats their seats in the 2022 midterm elections, erasing the party’s control of Congress.

The legislation contains the bulk of Biden’s vision to overhaul the rules of the economy in hopes of reducing inequality and building a more vibrant middle class. But its provisions go beyond economics.

Democrats hope the package will create a pathway to citizenship for as many as 8 million immigrants living in the country illegally, make it easier for workers to form unions, and lower prescription drug costs for seniors. They want to guarantee prekindergarten and community college for every American, bolster the nation’s strategic competitiveness with China, and stake an aggressive leadership role in global efforts to fight climate change and corporate tax evasion.

The plan includes a large tax cut for the poor and middle class; and efforts to reduce the cost of child care, expand access to home health care for older and disabled Americans, and create the first federally guaranteed paid leave for American workers.

No president has ever packed as much of his agenda, domestic and foreign, into a single piece of legislation as President Joe Biden has with the $3.5 trillion spending plan that Democrats are trying to wrangle through Congress over the next six weeks.

No president has ever packed as much of his agenda, domestic and foreign, into a single piece of legislation as President Joe Biden has with the $3.5 trillion spending plan that Democrats are trying to wrangle through Congress over the next six weeks. The bill combines major initiatives on the economy, education, social welfare, climate change and foreign policy, funded in large part by an extensive rewrite of the tax code, which aims to bring in trillions from corporations and the rich. That stacking of priorities has raised the stakes for a president resting his ambitions on a bill that could fail over the smallest of intraparty disputes. If successful, Biden’s far-reaching attempt could result in a presidency-defining victory that delivers on a decadeslong campaign by Democrats to expand the federal government to combat social problems and spread the gains of a growing economy to workers, striking a fatal blow to the government-limiting philosophy of President Ronald Reagan that has largely defined U.S. politics since the 1980s. But as Democrats are increasingly seeing, the sheer weight of Biden’s progressive push could cause it to collapse, leaving the party empty-handed, with the president’s top priorities going unfulfilled. Some progressives fear a watered-down version of the bill could fail to deliver on the party’s promises and undermine its case for a more activist government. Some moderates worry that spending too much could cost Democrats their seats in the 2022 midterm elections, erasing the party’s control of Congress. The legislation contains the bulk of Biden’s vision to overhaul the rules of the economy in hopes of reducing inequality and building a more vibrant middle class. But its provisions go beyond economics. Democrats hope the package will create a pathway to citizenship for as many as 8 million immigrants living in the country illegally, make it easier for workers to form unions, and lower prescription drug costs for seniors. They want to guarantee prekindergarten and community college for every American, bolster the nation’s strategic competitiveness with China, and stake an aggressive leadership role in global efforts to fight climate change and corporate tax evasion. The plan includes a large tax cut for the poor and middle class; and efforts to reduce the cost of child care, expand access to home health care for older and disabled Americans, and create the first federally guaranteed paid leave for American workers.

Biden’s entire presidential agenda rests on expansive spending bill

The Americans called him “Mikey,” and as an interpreter for the Special Forces he did not just bridge language gaps. He did everything from easing negotiations with local Afghans loyal to the Taliban to warning a convoy away from an ambush.

“Mikey wasn’t just a regular interpreter,” recalls Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Torres, a Texan who served in the Special Forces. “He was our lifeline. He went everywhere we went on the most remote and dangerous missions. It was because of him that we returned home alive after deployments.”

But the day after Kabul fell to the Taliban, the 34-year-old Afghan was on his own.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-lawmakers-write-to-joe-biden-demanding-answers-over-afghanistan-china-terrorism-nuclear-weapon-and-more-409006" hreflang="en">US lawmakers write to Biden demanding answers over Afghanistan, China and more</a>

Determined to get out of Afghanistan, he was making a desperate run to the airport with his wife and two young sons when they were caught in gunfire amid the crush of people who had gathered there to escape. His wife and one son, 6, were both shot in the foot.

As he carried the bloodied and screaming child in search of a hospital, Mikey says, he flashed back to his time on the battlefield with US forces.

“I kept thinking, after everything I did for the Americans,” he said. “After all my hard work and risking my life, now this is what happens to my family? They are leaving us to die here.”

Mikey — who is being identified by his American nickname for safety reasons — is one of tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for the United States and have applications pending for expedited visas allowing them to resettle in America. President Joe Biden has pledged that Afghan allies will be welcomed to “their new homes” and called the situation on the ground “heartbreaking.”

But the evacuation of US&nbsp;citizens and green-card holders remains the immediate priority of the military operation underway at the Kabul airport. That means that for many Afghans who worked with the United States, there is little to do but wait — and try to keep out of the sights of the Taliban.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/heart-wrenching-details-of-some-of-the-13-us-troops-killed-in-afghan-bombings-409001">Heart wrenching details of some of the 13 US troops killed in Afghan bombings</a>

Mikey worked as an interpreter for the Special Forces from 2009 to 2012 in Kandahar, and from 2015 to 2017 in Kabul. He was once so badly wounded in an explosion that he had to be airlifted to a field hospital.

The night his wife and son were shot, Mikey got them into a hospital and then went into hiding. Preferring rooms without windows, he switched locations four times in one week.

He was waiting for the US government to give him an evacuation plan. He was waiting for the approval of his visa application.

And he was waiting for the Taliban to find him.

In interviews from his bunkers in Kabul as events unfolded over the past week, Mikey talked about the ordeal of trying to keep himself alive and his family safe in the chaos left behind by the U.S. exit from Afghanistan. With no word from the US&nbsp;government about when or how he might get out, he realized that the bonds he had forged with U.S. soldiers might offer his only hope for safe passage.

That is where Torres, who now lives in Pecos, Texas, came in.

He had worked with Mikey on multiple deployments, and now he had a new battle: leading a global operation to get him out.

To coordinate those efforts, Torres and a group of about 20 former and current members of the military formed a WhatsApp chat group and an email thread. They reached out to military and Department of State contacts, along with members of Congress, to try to get Mikey and his family onto a military evacuation plane.

They say they understand why US citizens are getting priority when it comes to evacuations. The outrage is over the lack of a clear plan for all those Afghans who worked side by side with the Americans, who may have targets on their backs now that the Taliban is in control.

“It’s infuriating,” Torres said. “My heart breaks for everyone who doesn’t have the support Mikey has.”

It was not the case that Mikey tried to get out of Afghanistan only when the danger became clear.

He started his special visa application in 2012, when he was in Kandahar with the military. He had his interview, one of the final steps in the process, in November 2018 when he worked at Camp Duskin in Kabul. He is still waiting for medical tests and approval. Emails he has sent to follow up on his application have gone unanswered.

Across the US, members of the armed forces are leading their own campaigns to pressure the Biden administration to scale up the evacuation of Afghans who worked as their interpreters. They have taken to social media and created fundraising campaigns such as “Help Our Interpreters.”

Military interpreters are among the most vulnerable of Afghan allies. The nature of their work required that they accompany military personnel in the battlefield and be present during interactions with locals. If residents of the areas where they worked were hostile to Americans, the interpreters could be easily identified for the Taliban.

Mikey was a teenager in Kabul when the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001. In high school he worked hard to learn English, and his language teacher suggested he work as an interpreter for the Americans after graduation.

He was dispatched to Kandahar airfield, one of the largest US military bases in Afghanistan, and from there to multiple remote outposts, quickly working his way up to become a lead interpreter.

“Mikey was always fun to be around, very open-minded with a very big heart,” said Sgt. First Class Raymond Steele, an active member of Special Forces who has stayed in regular contact with him over the years.

Mikey listened to communications to intercept threats, talking to local tribal leaders in person and on his phone. On one patrol, he got word of an ambush and of insurgents burying explosive devices in their path.

“I felt proud of my job because it felt like I was helping my country,” Mikey said.

Between stints in Kandahar and Kabul, Mikey got married. He bought a car and worked as a taxi driver in Kabul. He and his wife had children.

But the US era in Afghanistan was ending — and the Taliban’s resuming. That left countless Afghans feeling helpless and adrift, as Mikey was when we spoke by phone last Saturday night.

“We are in the dark,” he told me. “My American friends say just wait, wait to see what happens. Be ready to leave when we tell you.”

Then Monday around 4 p.m. Mikey received an astonishing text from Torres: We are going to get you out, it said. Get ready now. Wait for instructions.

The mission to rescue Mikey, with the help of current and former military contacts on the ground, was in motion — and things were moving quickly. In a space of two hours, Mikey and his family were hidden in a car, their documents stashed, heading for a gate at the Kabul airport where members of the military were expecting him.

They welcomed him, taking his family to a clinic so his wife and son’s bullet wounds could be treated. The children got candy.

When Torres got the call that Mikey was finally in the clear, he broke into sobs. He never cries, he says. Steele called Mikey and shouted, “I love you, man.”

On Tuesday, Mikey and his family flew out of Afghanistan aboard a US military plane, his initial destination withheld for security reasons.

It was his son’s sixth birthday.

“I am extremely relieved and happy,” Mikey said during a call from the tarmac in Kabul as he waited to board the plane. “My infinite gratitude for the help and kindness of my American brothers. You gave us a second chance at life.”

The Americans called him “Mikey,” and as an interpreter for the Special Forces he did not just bridge language gaps. He did everything from easing negotiations with local Afghans loyal to the Taliban to warning a convoy away from an ambush.

The Americans called him “Mikey,” and as an interpreter for the Special Forces he did not just bridge language gaps. He did everything from easing negotiations with local Afghans loyal to the Taliban to warning a convoy away from an ambush. “Mikey wasn’t just a regular interpreter,” recalls Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Torres, a Texan who served in the Special Forces. “He was our lifeline. He went everywhere we went on the most remote and dangerous missions. It was because of him that we returned home alive after deployments.” But the day after Kabul fell to the Taliban, the 34-year-old Afghan was on his own. Also read | US lawmakers write to Biden demanding answers over Afghanistan, China and more Determined to get out of Afghanistan, he was making a desperate run to the airport with his wife and two young sons when they were caught in gunfire amid the crush of people who had gathered there to escape. His wife and one son, 6, were both shot in the foot. As he carried the bloodied and screaming child in search of a hospital, Mikey says, he flashed back to his time on the battlefield with US forces. “I kept thinking, after everything I did for the Americans,” he said. “After all my hard work and risking my life, now this is what happens to my family? They are leaving us to die here.” Mikey — who is being identified by his American nickname for safety reasons — is one of tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for the United States and have applications pending for expedited visas allowing them to resettle in America. President Joe Biden has pledged that Afghan allies will be welcomed to “their new homes” and called the situation on the ground “heartbreaking.” But the evacuation of US citizens and green-card holders remains the immediate priority of the military operation underway at the Kabul airport. That means that for many Afghans who worked with the United States, there is little to do but wait — and try to keep out of the sights of the Taliban. Also read | Heart wrenching details of some of the 13 US troops killed in Afghan bombings Mikey worked as an interpreter for the Special Forces from 2009 to 2012 in Kandahar, and from 2015 to 2017 in Kabul. He was once so badly wounded in an explosion that he had to be airlifted to a field hospital. The night his wife and son were shot, Mikey got them into a hospital and then went into hiding. Preferring rooms without windows, he switched locations four times in one week. He was waiting for the US government to give him an evacuation plan. He was waiting for the approval of his visa application. And he was waiting for the Taliban to find him. In interviews from his bunkers in Kabul as events unfolded over the past week, Mikey talked about the ordeal of trying to keep himself alive and his family safe in the chaos left behind by the U.S. exit from Afghanistan. With no word from the US government about when or how he might get out, he realized that the bonds he had forged with U.S. soldiers might offer his only hope for safe passage. That is where Torres, who now lives in Pecos, Texas, came in. He had worked with Mikey on multiple deployments, and now he had a new battle: leading a global operation to get him out. To coordinate those efforts, Torres and a group of about 20 former and current members of the military formed a WhatsApp chat group and an email thread. They reached out to military and Department of State contacts, along with members of Congress, to try to get Mikey and his family onto a military evacuation plane. They say they understand why US citizens are getting priority when it comes to evacuations. The outrage is over the lack of a clear plan for all those Afghans who worked side by side with the Americans, who may have targets on their backs now that the Taliban is in control. “It’s infuriating,” Torres said. “My heart breaks for everyone who doesn’t have the support Mikey has.” It was not the case that Mikey tried to get out of Afghanistan only when the danger became clear. He started his special visa application in 2012, when he was in Kandahar with the military. He had his interview, one of the final steps in the process, in November 2018 when he worked at Camp Duskin in Kabul. He is still waiting for medical tests and approval. Emails he has sent to follow up on his application have gone unanswered. Across the US, members of the armed forces are leading their own campaigns to pressure the Biden administration to scale up the evacuation of Afghans who worked as their interpreters. They have taken to social media and created fundraising campaigns such as “Help Our Interpreters.” Military interpreters are among the most vulnerable of Afghan allies. The nature of their work required that they accompany military personnel in the battlefield and be present during interactions with locals. If residents of the areas where they worked were hostile to Americans, the interpreters could be easily identified for the Taliban. Mikey was a teenager in Kabul when the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001. In high school he worked hard to learn English, and his language teacher suggested he work as an interpreter for the Americans after graduation. He was dispatched to Kandahar airfield, one of the largest US military bases in Afghanistan, and from there to multiple remote outposts, quickly working his way up to become a lead interpreter. “Mikey was always fun to be around, very open-minded with a very big heart,” said Sgt. First Class Raymond Steele, an active member of Special Forces who has stayed in regular contact with him over the years. Mikey listened to communications to intercept threats, talking to local tribal leaders in person and on his phone. On one patrol, he got word of an ambush and of insurgents burying explosive devices in their path. “I felt proud of my job because it felt like I was helping my country,” Mikey said. Between stints in Kandahar and Kabul, Mikey got married. He bought a car and worked as a taxi driver in Kabul. He and his wife had children. But the US era in Afghanistan was ending — and the Taliban’s resuming. That left countless Afghans feeling helpless and adrift, as Mikey was when we spoke by phone last Saturday night. “We are in the dark,” he told me. “My American friends say just wait, wait to see what happens. Be ready to leave when we tell you.” Then Monday around 4 p.m. Mikey received an astonishing text from Torres: We are going to get you out, it said. Get ready now. Wait for instructions. The mission to rescue Mikey, with the help of current and former military contacts on the ground, was in motion — and things were moving quickly. In a space of two hours, Mikey and his family were hidden in a car, their documents stashed, heading for a gate at the Kabul airport where members of the military were expecting him. They welcomed him, taking his family to a clinic so his wife and son’s bullet wounds could be treated. The children got candy. When Torres got the call that Mikey was finally in the clear, he broke into sobs. He never cries, he says. Steele called Mikey and shouted, “I love you, man.” On Tuesday, Mikey and his family flew out of Afghanistan aboard a US military plane, his initial destination withheld for security reasons. It was his son’s sixth birthday. “I am extremely relieved and happy,” Mikey said during a call from the tarmac in Kabul as he waited to board the plane. “My infinite gratitude for the help and kindness of my American brothers. You gave us a second chance at life.”

A stranded interpreter, and the soldiers who would not let go

US President Joe Biden announced on Friday that he is nominating Nicholas Burns as ambassador to China and Rahm Emanuel as top envoy to Japan. &nbsp;

For months, the two top diplomatic positions have been in the process of finalisation but were made official only in an announcement by the White House in the midst of the biggest foreign policy crisis of the administration till now. &nbsp;

Career diplomat Burns has served presidents of both the parties. If he gets confirmed, the diplomat would assume one of the most critical ambassador posts in the administration. The rise of China is highly likely to be at the centre of several important policy discussions. &nbsp;

Burns, who is a former member of the foreign service, has previously served as State Department spokesman, Ambassador to NATO and to Greece, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and on the National Security Council staff on Soviet and Russian Affairs.&nbsp;

Meanwhile, Emanuel, who is a former Chicago mayor, a senior adviser for President Bill Clinton, chief of staff to President Barack Obama and a member of Congress representing Illinois, has drawn the ire of progressive Democrats. He was also considered for a number of jobs within the Biden administration. &nbsp;

When Emanuel faces confirmation hearing, his track record in politics may get overshadowed by a series of controversies during his tenure as Chicago mayor. &nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

US President Joe Biden announced on Friday that he is nominating Nicholas Burns as ambassador to China and Rahm Emanuel as top envoy to Japan. For months, the two top diplomatic positions have been in the process of finalisation but were made official only in an announcement by the White House in the midst of the biggest foreign policy crisis of the administration till now.

US President Joe Biden announced on Friday that he is nominating Nicholas Burns as ambassador to China and Rahm Emanuel as top envoy to Japan. For months, the two top diplomatic positions have been in the process of finalisation but were made official only in an announcement by the White House in the midst of the biggest foreign policy crisis of the administration till now. Career diplomat Burns has served presidents of both the parties. If he gets confirmed, the diplomat would assume one of the most critical ambassador posts in the administration. The rise of China is highly likely to be at the centre of several important policy discussions. Burns, who is a former member of the foreign service, has previously served as State Department spokesman, Ambassador to NATO and to Greece, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and on the National Security Council staff on Soviet and Russian Affairs. Meanwhile, Emanuel, who is a former Chicago mayor, a senior adviser for President Bill Clinton, chief of staff to President Barack Obama and a member of Congress representing Illinois, has drawn the ire of progressive Democrats. He was also considered for a number of jobs within the Biden administration. When Emanuel faces confirmation hearing, his track record in politics may get overshadowed by a series of controversies during his tenure as Chicago mayor. (With inputs from agencies)

US President announces picks for ambassador to China, Japan positions

In an address during the&nbsp;main Independence Day ceremony being held at Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad&nbsp;on Saturday,&nbsp;Pakistan’s&nbsp;President Dr Arif Alvi said the country sacrificed over 100,000 lives in the war against terrorism and came out victorious, a Geo TV report said.&nbsp;

The&nbsp;president also&nbsp;lauded&nbsp;armed forces and the people for bravely fighting terrorism. He said&nbsp;Pakistan is the only country in the world to have&nbsp;defeated terrorism.&nbsp;

This comes as the country has been accused of&nbsp;harbouring&nbsp;several terrorist groups, such as Taliban, al Qaeda,&nbsp;LeT,&nbsp;etc, for years.&nbsp;Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was also found to be in Pakistan when the US forces killed him.&nbsp;

Alvi also&nbsp;paid tribute to Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Allam Iqbal, Syed Ahmad Khan and other founding leaders of Pakistan.&nbsp;

Not just this,&nbsp;the president also claimed that&nbsp;three wars were imposed on Pakistan under various pretexts.&nbsp;He also said that an arms race was also imposed on Pakistan.&nbsp;

The country is celebrating the day&nbsp;with traditional zeal and enthusiasm. It is holding&nbsp;special prayers, a 31-gun salute in the federal capital and a 21-gun salute at all provincial capitals. Special prayers were also being offered in mosques at dawn for solidarity, peace and prosperity of the country.&nbsp;

In an address during the main Independence Day ceremony being held at Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad on Saturday, Pakistan’s President Dr Arif Alvi said the country sacrificed over 100,000 lives in the war against terrorism and came out victorious, a Geo TV report said.

In an address during the main Independence Day ceremony being held at Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad on Saturday, Pakistan’s President Dr Arif Alvi said the country sacrificed over 100,000 lives in the war against terrorism and came out victorious, a Geo TV report said. The president also lauded armed forces and the people for bravely fighting terrorism. He said Pakistan is the only country in the world to have defeated terrorism. This comes as the country has been accused of harbouring several terrorist groups, such as Taliban, al Qaeda, LeT, etc, for years. Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was also found to be in Pakistan when the US forces killed him. Alvi also paid tribute to Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Allam Iqbal, Syed Ahmad Khan and other founding leaders of Pakistan. Not just this, the president also claimed that three wars were imposed on Pakistan under various pretexts. He also said that an arms race was also imposed on Pakistan. The country is celebrating the day with traditional zeal and enthusiasm. It is holding special prayers, a 31-gun salute in the federal capital and a 21-gun salute at all provincial capitals. Special prayers were also being offered in mosques at dawn for solidarity, peace and prosperity of the country.

On Independence Day, President Alvi claims Pak to be only country in world to ‘defeat terrorism’ 

Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro ignored calls to drop his feud with the Supreme Court on Friday and called one of its justices a "son of a whore," amid rising tensions over his unfounded claims the nation's voting system is vulnerable to fraud. 
 
Speaking to supporters in southern Brazil, he insulted Luis Roberto Barroso, the top court justice who also heads the Supreme Electoral Court. The insult was uttered during a live broadcast shared on Bolsonaro's Facebook account but later deleted. Copies continue to be shared on social media. 
 
Justice Barroso, speaking at a forum on electoral systems after the comments, said that if his actions were causing such a nuisance, it was a sign he was doing his job properly. 
 
Bolsonaro has railed for weeks against the electronic urns used in Brazil and pushed for the adoption of printed receipts that can be counted if any election result is disputed. 
 
Critics say Bolsonaro, like former US&nbsp;President Donald Trump, is sowing doubts in case he loses next year's presidential election. He has threatened not to accept the result if the system is not changed. 
 
With his popularity falling after overseeing the world's second-highest COVID-19 death toll, opinion polls show Bolsonaro trails former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, though neither of them has officially announced they will run. 
 
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court approved an investigation into the president's unfounded accusations about voter fraud. 
 
On Thursday, in Bolsonaro's worst set-back in Congress since taking office in 2019, a lower house committee voted to shelve a constitutional amendment he has been pushing that would have adopted printed ballots. 
 
Speaker Arthur Lira, however, said on Friday he would put the controversial amendment to the plenary despite the committee defeat. He explained the decision saying that a quick resolution was preferable because political tensions over the issue are holding up the country's legislative agenda. 
 
The proposal is not expected to clear the lower chamber where constitutional amendments need three-fifths of the votes. 
 
Earlier on Friday, Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco criticized Bolsonaro for his attacks on the Supreme Court and offered to mediate, saying the president's insults against Barroso were unacceptable. 
 
Pacheco said Bolsonaro must respect the results of next year's election even if he fails to change the all-electronic voting system - which the president groundlessly claims is vulnerable to tampering. 
 
"Any threat, however slight, to this democracy will be promptly rejected by the Senate," Pacheco said in a GloboNews television interview. 
 
The Senate head said anyone advocating a "democratic retreat" or the suspension of next year's elections would be seen as an "enemy of the nation." 
 
"I think a majority in Congress at this moment want to maintain the electronic voting system," he said.

Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro ignored calls to drop his feud with the Supreme Court on Friday and called one of its justices a "son of a whore," amid rising tensions over his unfounded claims the nation's voting system is vulnerable to fraud.

Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro ignored calls to drop his feud with the Supreme Court on Friday and called one of its justices a "son of a whore," amid rising tensions over his unfounded claims the nation's voting system is vulnerable to fraud. Speaking to supporters in southern Brazil, he insulted Luis Roberto Barroso, the top court justice who also heads the Supreme Electoral Court. The insult was uttered during a live broadcast shared on Bolsonaro's Facebook account but later deleted. Copies continue to be shared on social media. Justice Barroso, speaking at a forum on electoral systems after the comments, said that if his actions were causing such a nuisance, it was a sign he was doing his job properly. Bolsonaro has railed for weeks against the electronic urns used in Brazil and pushed for the adoption of printed receipts that can be counted if any election result is disputed. Critics say Bolsonaro, like former US President Donald Trump, is sowing doubts in case he loses next year's presidential election. He has threatened not to accept the result if the system is not changed. With his popularity falling after overseeing the world's second-highest COVID-19 death toll, opinion polls show Bolsonaro trails former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, though neither of them has officially announced they will run. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court approved an investigation into the president's unfounded accusations about voter fraud. On Thursday, in Bolsonaro's worst set-back in Congress since taking office in 2019, a lower house committee voted to shelve a constitutional amendment he has been pushing that would have adopted printed ballots. Speaker Arthur Lira, however, said on Friday he would put the controversial amendment to the plenary despite the committee defeat. He explained the decision saying that a quick resolution was preferable because political tensions over the issue are holding up the country's legislative agenda. The proposal is not expected to clear the lower chamber where constitutional amendments need three-fifths of the votes. Earlier on Friday, Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco criticized Bolsonaro for his attacks on the Supreme Court and offered to mediate, saying the president's insults against Barroso were unacceptable. Pacheco said Bolsonaro must respect the results of next year's election even if he fails to change the all-electronic voting system - which the president groundlessly claims is vulnerable to tampering. "Any threat, however slight, to this democracy will be promptly rejected by the Senate," Pacheco said in a GloboNews television interview. The Senate head said anyone advocating a "democratic retreat" or the suspension of next year's elections would be seen as an "enemy of the nation." "I think a majority in Congress at this moment want to maintain the electronic voting system," he said.

'He's son of a wh**e': Brazil President insults Supreme Court judge during live broadcast

Venezuela will receive 6.2 million doses of coronavirus vaccines through the COVAX initiative "in the coming days," President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday, potentially speeding up an inoculation campaign well behind regional peers. 
 
The announcement comes after the GAVI alliance, which co-runs the facility along with the World Health Organization (WHO), said in early July that COVAX had received payments from the South American country after Venezuelan officials said some payments were blocked by a bank due to US&nbsp;sanctions. 
 
Maduro had given COVAX an "ultimatum" to send the doses or return the funds Venezuela has already paid. 
 
Venezuela will receive doses of China's Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines through the initiative, according to the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), the regional arm of the WHO. The country has so far been administering Sinopharm, Russia's Sputnik-V, and Cuba's Abdala vaccines. 
 
The country of some 28 million inhabitants has reported 305,766 cases and 3,591 deaths, official data show. It had administered some 2.2 million doses as of July 14, according to PAHO. Reuters data show Venezuela has fully vaccinated 3.9% of the population, among the lowest rates in Latin America.

Venezuela will receive 6.2 million doses of coronavirus vaccines through the COVAX initiative "in the coming days," President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday, potentially speeding up an inoculation campaign well behind regional peers.

Venezuela will receive 6.2 million doses of coronavirus vaccines through the COVAX initiative "in the coming days," President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday, potentially speeding up an inoculation campaign well behind regional peers. The announcement comes after the GAVI alliance, which co-runs the facility along with the World Health Organization (WHO), said in early July that COVAX had received payments from the South American country after Venezuelan officials said some payments were blocked by a bank due to US sanctions. Maduro had given COVAX an "ultimatum" to send the doses or return the funds Venezuela has already paid. Venezuela will receive doses of China's Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines through the initiative, according to the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), the regional arm of the WHO. The country has so far been administering Sinopharm, Russia's Sputnik-V, and Cuba's Abdala vaccines. The country of some 28 million inhabitants has reported 305,766 cases and 3,591 deaths, official data show. It had administered some 2.2 million doses as of July 14, according to PAHO. Reuters data show Venezuela has fully vaccinated 3.9% of the population, among the lowest rates in Latin America.

Venezuela to receive COVAX vaccines in coming days, Maduro says

Tunisia has been struck by a wave of riots and protests amid persistent political instability and a dismal economy, 10 years after the Arab Spring revolt for democracy.&nbsp;

On 17 December 2010, 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest against the police and triggered an uprising.

Here is a timeline of the events that have unfolded since:

The Spark of the Jasmine Revolution 
 
<img alt="Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi " data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="4c4333af-28ec-4695-9c8b-62680c840ea1" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/afp.JPG" /> 
(AFP Photo) 
 
Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi was a Tunisian street seller who set himself on fire on December 17, 2010, in Ben Arous, Tunisia, sparking the Tunisian Revolution and the Arab Spring movement against dictatorial regimes.

He set himself on fire in protest against the confiscation of his goods and the harassment and humiliation he was subjected to by a municipal official and her aides.&nbsp;

He died of his injuries on January 4, 2011.

The end of Ben Ali's rule 
 
<img alt="Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali and his wife Leila (AFP Photo)" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="1dbb3896-55c6-4da2-8545-b7d775fc2156" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/ben.jpg" />

(AFP Photo) 
 
On January 14, ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali departs after weeks of rioting in which 338 people were killed, bringing an end to his 23-year reign.

In 2019, he died in exile.

He was the region's first leader to fall victim to the Arab Spring uprisings, which swept the region like wildfire.&nbsp;

Victory for Islamists

In October 2011, Tunisia's first free election saw the Islamist group Ennahdha win 89 of 217 seats in a new assembly.

It elected former opposition leader Moncef Marzouki as president in December.

Attacks, unrest

In April 2012, police clashed with thousands of jobless protesters in the southwestern mining belt.

More violent demonstrations followed in June and August, with jihadists also staging attacks.

A series of strikes and demonstrations impacted industry, public services, transport and business, with unrest mostly concentrated in the economically marginalised interior.

Opposition leaders killed 
 
<img alt="Chokri Belaid" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="11192721-0057-49d2-85bd-a27136aeca7c" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Chokri%20Belaid.jpg" /> 
 
A file photo of Chokri Belaid. (AFP Photo)

In February 2013, prominent leftist opposition leader Chokri Belaid was assassinated in Tunis.&nbsp;

In July, fellow leftist Mohamed Brahmi was also shot dead.

Islamic State (IS) jihadists claimed both killings, which fueled a crisis.

2014 Tunisian parliamentary election

A new constitution was established in January 2014.

The Islamists were&nbsp;ousted from power, and a technocratic administration was&nbsp;formed.

The secular Nidaa Tounes party, led by Beji Caid Essebsi, won parliamentary elections in October and formed a coalition with Ennahdha.

Essebsi won Tunisia's first free presidential election two months later.

Terrorist attacks in Tunisia (2015-2016)

In 2015, IS extremists claimed responsibility for three assaults in Tunisia, killing 72 people, largely foreign tourists and security personnel, at the Bardo museum in Tunis and a beach resort. 
 
<img alt="Bardo museum" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="f2301e75-d679-4823-8c3e-1af2bac1dd57" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Bardo%20museum%20attack.JPG" />

(AFP Photo) 
 
Jihadists attacked security installations in a town near the Libyan border in 2016, killing 20 people, seven of whom were civilians.

New protests and huge political unrest

After the death of a young unemployed man during a demonstration in January 2016, a fresh wave of protests began.

After the implementation of an austerity budget in January 2018, protests erupted.

Ennahdha won the most seats in the legislative elections in October 2019, but it fell far short of the 109 needed to govern. 
 
<img alt="political unrest" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="ba2c0f9c-9afa-4e30-939a-cdc985ec5cec" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/000_9GB79Y.jpg" />

(AFP Photo) 
 
Kais Saied, a conservative scholar with no prior political experience, was elected president a week later.

MPs elected a technocratic government in September 2020.

Tunisia has had nine governments in the 10 years since the revolution, some of which only lasted a few months, obstructing the reforms needed to revive the country's ailing economy.&nbsp;

The Tunisian president suspends parliament, dismisses PM

On July 26, 2021, following a day of protests against the ruling party, Tunisian President Kais Saied ordered the suspension of the country's parliament and the dismissal of Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi.

Saied's activities are described by Ennahdha as a "coup d'etat against the revolution and the constitution."&nbsp; 
 
<img alt="Tunisian president" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="625f1e68-cfe0-4bb7-a1c7-dfb8e4fc57fc" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/000_9GC2ZP.jpg" />

(AFP Photo) 
 
Thousands of Tunisians had marched in numerous cities earlier in the day, condemning government failings and catastrophic coronavirus rates.

(With inputs from agencies)

Tunisia has been struck by a wave of riots and protests amid persistent political instability and a dismal economy, 10 years after the Arab Spring revolt for democracy.

Tunisia has been struck by a wave of riots and protests amid persistent political instability and a dismal economy, 10 years after the Arab Spring revolt for democracy. On 17 December 2010, 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest against the police and triggered an uprising. Here is a timeline of the events that have unfolded since: The Spark of the Jasmine Revolution (AFP Photo) Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi was a Tunisian street seller who set himself on fire on December 17, 2010, in Ben Arous, Tunisia, sparking the Tunisian Revolution and the Arab Spring movement against dictatorial regimes. He set himself on fire in protest against the confiscation of his goods and the harassment and humiliation he was subjected to by a municipal official and her aides. He died of his injuries on January 4, 2011. The end of Ben Ali's rule (AFP Photo) On January 14, ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali departs after weeks of rioting in which 338 people were killed, bringing an end to his 23-year reign. In 2019, he died in exile. He was the region's first leader to fall victim to the Arab Spring uprisings, which swept the region like wildfire. Victory for Islamists In October 2011, Tunisia's first free election saw the Islamist group Ennahdha win 89 of 217 seats in a new assembly. It elected former opposition leader Moncef Marzouki as president in December. Attacks, unrest In April 2012, police clashed with thousands of jobless protesters in the southwestern mining belt. More violent demonstrations followed in June and August, with jihadists also staging attacks. A series of strikes and demonstrations impacted industry, public services, transport and business, with unrest mostly concentrated in the economically marginalised interior. Opposition leaders killed A file photo of Chokri Belaid. (AFP Photo) In February 2013, prominent leftist opposition leader Chokri Belaid was assassinated in Tunis. In July, fellow leftist Mohamed Brahmi was also shot dead. Islamic State (IS) jihadists claimed both killings, which fueled a crisis. 2014 Tunisian parliamentary election A new constitution was established in January 2014. The Islamists were ousted from power, and a technocratic administration was formed. The secular Nidaa Tounes party, led by Beji Caid Essebsi, won parliamentary elections in October and formed a coalition with Ennahdha. Essebsi won Tunisia's first free presidential election two months later. Terrorist attacks in Tunisia (2015-2016) In 2015, IS extremists claimed responsibility for three assaults in Tunisia, killing 72 people, largely foreign tourists and security personnel, at the Bardo museum in Tunis and a beach resort. (AFP Photo) Jihadists attacked security installations in a town near the Libyan border in 2016, killing 20 people, seven of whom were civilians. New protests and huge political unrest After the death of a young unemployed man during a demonstration in January 2016, a fresh wave of protests began. After the implementation of an austerity budget in January 2018, protests erupted. Ennahdha won the most seats in the legislative elections in October 2019, but it fell far short of the 109 needed to govern. (AFP Photo) Kais Saied, a conservative scholar with no prior political experience, was elected president a week later. MPs elected a technocratic government in September 2020. Tunisia has had nine governments in the 10 years since the revolution, some of which only lasted a few months, obstructing the reforms needed to revive the country's ailing economy. The Tunisian president suspends parliament, dismisses PM On July 26, 2021, following a day of protests against the ruling party, Tunisian President Kais Saied ordered the suspension of the country's parliament and the dismissal of Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi. Saied's activities are described by Ennahdha as a "coup d'etat against the revolution and the constitution." (AFP Photo) Thousands of Tunisians had marched in numerous cities earlier in the day, condemning government failings and catastrophic coronavirus rates. (With inputs from agencies)

Pictures | From Jasmine Revolution to Parliament suspension: 10 years of Tunisia since its Arab Spring revolt

Tunisia's president dismissed the government and froze parliament on Sunday in a dramatic escalation of a political crisis that his opponents labelled a coup, calling their own supporters to come onto the streets in protest. 
 
President Kais Saied said he would assume executive authority with the assistance of a new prime minister, in the biggest challenge yet to the democratic system Tunisia introduced in a 2011 revolution. 
 
Crowds of people quickly flooded the capital and other cities to support Saied, cheering and honking car horns in scenes that recalled the revolution, which triggered the Arab Spring protests that convulsed the Middle East. 
 
As his supporters filled the central Habib Bourguiba Avenue, the epicentre of the 2011 revolution, Saied joined them in the street, state television pictures showed. 
 
However, the extent of backing for Saied's moves against a fragile government and divided parliament was not clear, as Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi called on Tunisians to come into the streets to stop what he called a coup. 
 
Saied, in his televised statement announcing his move, had warned against any violent response. 
 
"I warn any who think of resorting to weapons... and whoever shoots a bullet, the armed forces will respond with bullets," he said in a statement carried on television. 
 
Hours after the statement, military vehicles surrounded the parliament building as people nearby cheered and sang the national anthem, two witnesses said. Local media reported that the army had also surrounded the state television building. 
 
Years of paralysis, corruption, declining state services and growing unemployment had already soured many Tunisians on their political system before the COVID-19 pandemic hammered the economy last year and coronavirus infection rates shot up this summer. 
 
Protests, called by social media activists but not backed by any of the big political parties, took place on Sunday with much of the anger focused on the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, the biggest in parliament. 
 
Ennahda, banned before the revolution, has been the most consistently successful party since 2011 and a member of successive coalition governments. 
 
Its leader the parliament speaker Ghannouchi, immediately labelled Saied's decision "a coup against the revolution and constitution" in a phone call to Reuters. 
 
"We consider the institutions still standing, and the supporters of the Ennahda and the Tunisian people will defend the revolution," he added, raising the prospect of confrontations between supporters of Ennahda and Saied. 
 
After calling for people to come onto the streets in protest in a video message later in the night, Ghannouchi said the parliament would meet in defiance of Saied`s move. 
 
The leader of another party, Karama, and former President Moncef Marzouki both joined Ennahda in calling Saied's move a coup. 
 
"I ask the Tunisian people to pay attention to the fact that they imagine this to be the beginning of the solution. It is the beginning of slipping into an even worse situation," Marzouki said in a video statement.

Tunisia's president dismissed the government and froze parliament on Sunday in a dramatic escalation of a political crisis that his opponents labelled a coup, calling their own supporters to come onto the streets in protest.

Tunisia's president dismissed the government and froze parliament on Sunday in a dramatic escalation of a political crisis that his opponents labelled a coup, calling their own supporters to come onto the streets in protest. President Kais Saied said he would assume executive authority with the assistance of a new prime minister, in the biggest challenge yet to the democratic system Tunisia introduced in a 2011 revolution. Crowds of people quickly flooded the capital and other cities to support Saied, cheering and honking car horns in scenes that recalled the revolution, which triggered the Arab Spring protests that convulsed the Middle East. As his supporters filled the central Habib Bourguiba Avenue, the epicentre of the 2011 revolution, Saied joined them in the street, state television pictures showed. However, the extent of backing for Saied's moves against a fragile government and divided parliament was not clear, as Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi called on Tunisians to come into the streets to stop what he called a coup. Saied, in his televised statement announcing his move, had warned against any violent response. "I warn any who think of resorting to weapons... and whoever shoots a bullet, the armed forces will respond with bullets," he said in a statement carried on television. Hours after the statement, military vehicles surrounded the parliament building as people nearby cheered and sang the national anthem, two witnesses said. Local media reported that the army had also surrounded the state television building. Years of paralysis, corruption, declining state services and growing unemployment had already soured many Tunisians on their political system before the COVID-19 pandemic hammered the economy last year and coronavirus infection rates shot up this summer. Protests, called by social media activists but not backed by any of the big political parties, took place on Sunday with much of the anger focused on the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, the biggest in parliament. Ennahda, banned before the revolution, has been the most consistently successful party since 2011 and a member of successive coalition governments. Its leader the parliament speaker Ghannouchi, immediately labelled Saied's decision "a coup against the revolution and constitution" in a phone call to Reuters. "We consider the institutions still standing, and the supporters of the Ennahda and the Tunisian people will defend the revolution," he added, raising the prospect of confrontations between supporters of Ennahda and Saied. After calling for people to come onto the streets in protest in a video message later in the night, Ghannouchi said the parliament would meet in defiance of Saied`s move. The leader of another party, Karama, and former President Moncef Marzouki both joined Ennahda in calling Saied's move a coup. "I ask the Tunisian people to pay attention to the fact that they imagine this to be the beginning of the solution. It is the beginning of slipping into an even worse situation," Marzouki said in a video statement.

Tunisian president ousts government, critics call move a coup

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, undergoing hospital treatment for an obstructed intestine after a near-fatal 2018 stabbing, said on Friday, he hoped to be "back in action soon," while doctors gave no date for him to be discharged. 
 
Bolsonaro, 66, has been in the hospital since Wednesday, when he traveled from Brasilia to Sao Paulo for treatment relating to complications from the 2018 knifing. After initial concerns he might need emergency surgery, doctors now say he is improving, with an operation less likely. 
 
His doctors said in a statement on Friday evening the president was recovering in a satisfactory manner, and that the president began eating again in a smooth fashion. They gave no date for his release from hospital, however. 
 
Earlier on Friday, Bolsonaro tweeted a photo of himself, walking along a hospital corridor with a drip attached to his neck and looking stern-faced. 
 
"Back in action soon, God willing!," he wrote. "We've done a lot, but we still have a lot to do for our Brazil!" 
 
Bolsonaro had said in a TV interview on Thursday he could be out of hospital on Friday. 
 
On Thursday evening, the president`s doctors said they had removed a gastric catheter from Bolsonaro and that he would begin eating again on Friday. 
 
Bolsonaro has faced several health issues during his presidency, mainly stemming from long-term complications after he suffered a perforated intestine when he was stabbed on the campaign trail in 2018. He was also ill with COVID-19 last year. 
 
Bolsonaro is in a weak political position as senators probe a corruption scandal over the purchase of coronavirus vaccines and he faces criticism over his handling of the pandemic. 
 
COVID-19 has killed nearly 540,000 people in Brazil - the world's second highest death toll behind the United States.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, undergoing hospital treatment for an obstructed intestine after a near-fatal 2018 stabbing, said on Friday, he hoped to be "back in action soon," while doctors gave no date for him to be discharged.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, undergoing hospital treatment for an obstructed intestine after a near-fatal 2018 stabbing, said on Friday, he hoped to be "back in action soon," while doctors gave no date for him to be discharged. Bolsonaro, 66, has been in the hospital since Wednesday, when he traveled from Brasilia to Sao Paulo for treatment relating to complications from the 2018 knifing. After initial concerns he might need emergency surgery, doctors now say he is improving, with an operation less likely. His doctors said in a statement on Friday evening the president was recovering in a satisfactory manner, and that the president began eating again in a smooth fashion. They gave no date for his release from hospital, however. Earlier on Friday, Bolsonaro tweeted a photo of himself, walking along a hospital corridor with a drip attached to his neck and looking stern-faced. "Back in action soon, God willing!," he wrote. "We've done a lot, but we still have a lot to do for our Brazil!" Bolsonaro had said in a TV interview on Thursday he could be out of hospital on Friday. On Thursday evening, the president`s doctors said they had removed a gastric catheter from Bolsonaro and that he would begin eating again on Friday. Bolsonaro has faced several health issues during his presidency, mainly stemming from long-term complications after he suffered a perforated intestine when he was stabbed on the campaign trail in 2018. He was also ill with COVID-19 last year. Bolsonaro is in a weak political position as senators probe a corruption scandal over the purchase of coronavirus vaccines and he faces criticism over his handling of the pandemic. COVID-19 has killed nearly 540,000 people in Brazil - the world's second highest death toll behind the United States.

Brazil's Bolsonaro recovering, says will be 'back in action soon'

In order to strengthen security measures to end the ongoing violent riots in the country,&nbsp;South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that government has deployed the South African&nbsp;Defence&nbsp;Force.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“Parts of the country are reeling from several days and nights of public violence, destruction of property and looting of the sort rarely seen before in the history of our democracy,” the President said while addressing the nation late&nbsp;on&nbsp;Monday.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“Property has been&nbsp;vandalised&nbsp;and destroyed. Shops have been looted.&nbsp;Law-abiding citizens have been threatened and intimidated. Workers are scared that they may not be able to return to work. People have died,” Ramaphosa said.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The president also added that while the violence initially started in KZN, it has since spread to Gauteng. A total of 166 suspects have been arrested in KZN and 323 suspects have been arrested in Gauteng.&nbsp;

Ramaphosa urged the public to refrain from posting and circulating inflammatory messages on social media, and from spreading&nbsp;rumours&nbsp;or false reports that may create further panic.&nbsp;

“We will take action to protect every person in this country against the threat of violence, intimidation, theft and looting.&nbsp;We will not hesitate to arrest and prosecute those,&nbsp;who perpetrate these actions and will ensure that they face the full might of our law,” Ramaphosa said.&nbsp;

He also added that while this violence may have originated from political or ethnic lines, what the country is witnessing now are opportunistic acts of criminality with groups of people instigating chaos merely as a cover for looting and theft.&nbsp;

The President also warned if this violent riot continues, the country will soon run out of medication and food.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“Our vaccination&nbsp;programme&nbsp;has been severely disrupted just as it&nbsp;was gaining momentum. This will have lasting effects on our ability to consolidate some of the progress we were already witnessing in our economic recovery,” he added.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Ramaphosa has&nbsp;authorised&nbsp;the deployment of the South African&nbsp;Defence&nbsp;Force (SADF) personnel in support of the operations of the South African Police Service (SAPS).&nbsp;

The SAPS is putting measures in place to call up operational members from leave and rest-days to increase the presence of law enforcement personnel on the ground.&nbsp;

The&nbsp;NatJOINTS&nbsp;is receiving support from the Intelligence Coordinating Committee, comprising of SAPS Crime Intelligence,&nbsp;Defence&nbsp;Intelligence and State Security.&nbsp;

In addition to greater visibility and an intelligence-driven presence in potential hotspots, the government will&nbsp;prioritise&nbsp;the prosecution of suspects alleged to be involved in this violence.&nbsp;

The National Security Council, chaired by Ramaphosa, will be meeting twice a day to coordinate all measures necessary to restore stability.&nbsp;

The government will work with the business sector to ensure the safety of drivers, cashiers, patients and customers.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Arrangements are being made for government leaders and public representatives as part of their responsibilities to meet with leaders in various communities to promote stability.&nbsp;

As part of the ongoing engagement with key sectors of society, Ramaphosa will be meeting with leaders of political parties to discuss the current situation.&nbsp;&nbsp;

In order to strengthen security measures to end the ongoing violent riots in the country, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that government has deployed the South African Defence Force.

In order to strengthen security measures to end the ongoing violent riots in the country, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that government has deployed the South African Defence Force. “Parts of the country are reeling from several days and nights of public violence, destruction of property and looting of the sort rarely seen before in the history of our democracy,” the President said while addressing the nation late on Monday. “Property has been vandalised and destroyed. Shops have been looted. Law-abiding citizens have been threatened and intimidated. Workers are scared that they may not be able to return to work. People have died,” Ramaphosa said. The president also added that while the violence initially started in KZN, it has since spread to Gauteng. A total of 166 suspects have been arrested in KZN and 323 suspects have been arrested in Gauteng. Ramaphosa urged the public to refrain from posting and circulating inflammatory messages on social media, and from spreading rumours or false reports that may create further panic. “We will take action to protect every person in this country against the threat of violence, intimidation, theft and looting. We will not hesitate to arrest and prosecute those, who perpetrate these actions and will ensure that they face the full might of our law,” Ramaphosa said. He also added that while this violence may have originated from political or ethnic lines, what the country is witnessing now are opportunistic acts of criminality with groups of people instigating chaos merely as a cover for looting and theft. The President also warned if this violent riot continues, the country will soon run out of medication and food. “Our vaccination programme has been severely disrupted just as it was gaining momentum. This will have lasting effects on our ability to consolidate some of the progress we were already witnessing in our economic recovery,” he added. Ramaphosa has authorised the deployment of the South African Defence Force (SADF) personnel in support of the operations of the South African Police Service (SAPS). The SAPS is putting measures in place to call up operational members from leave and rest-days to increase the presence of law enforcement personnel on the ground. The NatJOINTS is receiving support from the Intelligence Coordinating Committee, comprising of SAPS Crime Intelligence, Defence Intelligence and State Security. In addition to greater visibility and an intelligence-driven presence in potential hotspots, the government will prioritise the prosecution of suspects alleged to be involved in this violence. The National Security Council, chaired by Ramaphosa, will be meeting twice a day to coordinate all measures necessary to restore stability. The government will work with the business sector to ensure the safety of drivers, cashiers, patients and customers. Arrangements are being made for government leaders and public representatives as part of their responsibilities to meet with leaders in various communities to promote stability. As part of the ongoing engagement with key sectors of society, Ramaphosa will be meeting with leaders of political parties to discuss the current situation.

President Cyril Ramaphosa deploys South African Defence Force to curb ongoing violent riots 

Former president Jacob Zuma addressed countrymen&nbsp;on Sunday evening from his Nkandla home on matters related to the Constitutional Court judgment against him.&nbsp;

“No honest person can accuse me of being an enemy of the rule of law, consistent with this point, I am pursuing peaceful and constitutional methods to deal with this situation by approaching the courts, again," Zuma said adding, “All I am asking is fairness and consistency.”&nbsp;

The former President said he is not asking for sympathy but justice.&nbsp;

Zuma&nbsp;added, “I acknowledge and appreciate the Constitutional Court for its recent announcement where it indicated on the 12th of July,&nbsp;it will give me audience.”&nbsp;

Last week,&nbsp;the apex court sentenced Zuma to 15-month imprisonment after he was found guilty of contempt of court for failing to appear before the Zondo Commission.&nbsp;&nbsp;

On Friday, Zuma and his legal team filed an urgent application to the Constitutional Court to rescind and reconsider its decision and take into account his unstable health and Constitutional Court agreed to hear Zuma’s rescission application.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The former President was&nbsp;supposed&nbsp;to&nbsp;hand himself over to the police on Sunday before midnight.&nbsp;&nbsp;

In his address&nbsp;on&nbsp;Sunday evening, the former President reiterated, "Contrary to the mainstream narrative and propaganda against me, I've never refused not to appear before the State Capture Commission." He said if Zondo had recused himself and allowed Zuma's submission to&nbsp;'be made to somebody neutral'&nbsp;the nation would have heard Zuma's version on&nbsp;'all the unsubstantiated allegations against me’.&nbsp;

“My age and health condition and any other mitigating circumstances were not considered when the imprisonment was decided,” he said.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“Even murderers, serial killers, bank&nbsp;robbers&nbsp;and child molesters are granted an opportunity to give mitigation after conviction but before sentencing. In my case,&nbsp;a strange procedure was adopted by asking me for mitigation before I was found guilty of any crime,” he said,&nbsp;in his address.&nbsp;&nbsp;

"Sending me to jail during the height of a pandemic at my age is the same as sentencing me to death," Zuma said.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Zuma's legal team is expected to argue in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday that his sentence must be stayed pending the outcome of his rescission application.&nbsp;

Former president Jacob Zuma addressed countrymen on Sunday evening from his Nkandla home on matters related to the Constitutional Court judgment against him. “No honest person can accuse me of being an enemy of the rule of law, consistent with this point, I am pursuing peaceful and constitutional methods to deal with this situation by approaching the courts, again," Zuma said adding, “All I am asking is fairness and consistency.

Former president Jacob Zuma addressed countrymen on Sunday evening from his Nkandla home on matters related to the Constitutional Court judgment against him. “No honest person can accuse me of being an enemy of the rule of law, consistent with this point, I am pursuing peaceful and constitutional methods to deal with this situation by approaching the courts, again," Zuma said adding, “All I am asking is fairness and consistency.” The former President said he is not asking for sympathy but justice. Zuma added, “I acknowledge and appreciate the Constitutional Court for its recent announcement where it indicated on the 12th of July, it will give me audience.” Last week, the apex court sentenced Zuma to 15-month imprisonment after he was found guilty of contempt of court for failing to appear before the Zondo Commission. On Friday, Zuma and his legal team filed an urgent application to the Constitutional Court to rescind and reconsider its decision and take into account his unstable health and Constitutional Court agreed to hear Zuma’s rescission application. The former President was supposed to hand himself over to the police on Sunday before midnight. In his address on Sunday evening, the former President reiterated, "Contrary to the mainstream narrative and propaganda against me, I've never refused not to appear before the State Capture Commission." He said if Zondo had recused himself and allowed Zuma's submission to 'be made to somebody neutral' the nation would have heard Zuma's version on 'all the unsubstantiated allegations against me’. “My age and health condition and any other mitigating circumstances were not considered when the imprisonment was decided,” he said. “Even murderers, serial killers, bank robbers and child molesters are granted an opportunity to give mitigation after conviction but before sentencing. In my case, a strange procedure was adopted by asking me for mitigation before I was found guilty of any crime,” he said, in his address. "Sending me to jail during the height of a pandemic at my age is the same as sentencing me to death," Zuma said. Zuma's legal team is expected to argue in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday that his sentence must be stayed pending the outcome of his rescission application.

Zuma: No honest person can accuse me of being an enemy of rule of law 

A helicopter carrying Colombia's President Ivan Duque and others was struck by multiple bullets in an attack on Friday, he said in a video message. 
 
The incident took place while the president's helicopter was flying through Colombia's Catatumbo region towards the city of Cucuta, capital of the country's Norte de Santander province, Duque said. 
 
"What's clear is that this is a cowardly attack where bullet holes can be seen in the presidential aircraft," Duque said. 
 
As well as Duque, the helicopter was carrying other officials including Defence Minister Diego Molano, Interior Minister Daniel Palacios, and governor of Norte de Santander Silvano Serrano. 
 
No one was injured in the incident, a spokesman for the presidency said. 
 
Security personnel have been given clear instructions to find those behind the attack on the helicopter, the president added. 
 
The troubled Catatumbo region, on Colombia's border with Venezuela, is home to extensive coca crops, the chief ingredient of cocaine. It is where guerrillas of the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) operate, former FARC fighters, who reject a 2016 peace deal with the government, along with armed criminal groups involved in drug trafficking. 
 
This month, a car bomb was detonated at a military base used by the 30th Army Brigade in Cucuta, injuring Colombian troops and US&nbsp;military advisers. 
 
While Molano said the attack could have been carried out by the ELN, the rebel group said it denied having any role in the bombing. 
 
(With inputs from agencies)

A helicopter carrying Colombia's President Ivan Duque and others was struck by multiple bullets in an attack on Friday, he said in a video message. The incident took place while the president's helicopter was flying through Colombia's Catatumbo region towards the city of Cucuta, capital of the country's Norte de Santander province, Duque said.

A helicopter carrying Colombia's President Ivan Duque and others was struck by multiple bullets in an attack on Friday, he said in a video message. The incident took place while the president's helicopter was flying through Colombia's Catatumbo region towards the city of Cucuta, capital of the country's Norte de Santander province, Duque said. "What's clear is that this is a cowardly attack where bullet holes can be seen in the presidential aircraft," Duque said. As well as Duque, the helicopter was carrying other officials including Defence Minister Diego Molano, Interior Minister Daniel Palacios, and governor of Norte de Santander Silvano Serrano. No one was injured in the incident, a spokesman for the presidency said. Security personnel have been given clear instructions to find those behind the attack on the helicopter, the president added. The troubled Catatumbo region, on Colombia's border with Venezuela, is home to extensive coca crops, the chief ingredient of cocaine. It is where guerrillas of the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) operate, former FARC fighters, who reject a 2016 peace deal with the government, along with armed criminal groups involved in drug trafficking. This month, a car bomb was detonated at a military base used by the 30th Army Brigade in Cucuta, injuring Colombian troops and US military advisers. While Molano said the attack could have been carried out by the ELN, the rebel group said it denied having any role in the bombing. (With inputs from agencies)

Helicopter carrying Colombia's President Duque struck by bullets in attack

In Egypt, a female TikTok star was sentenced to ten years in prison for human trafficking.

Haneen Hossam, 20, made a video in which she begged for mercy, claiming she had never done anything wrong.

The decision came five months after a different court overturned Hossam's prison sentence for "violating family values" using TikTok videos.&nbsp;

Hossam was sentenced in her absence because she failed to appear in court.

Hossam posted a video on her social media accounts the day following the judgement, pleading with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi to re-verify her case.&nbsp;

She was screaming and crying, pleading with the President to help her.“Your daughter is dying, Mr President. Your daughter is dying, I swear to God. I kept my calm so that I could speak and request the president's and people's assistance. “What should I do?” said Hossam. 
&nbsp;

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“I was wronged, and I did not do anything. I am literally dying. Save me. My mother is about to have a stroke after the ruling," she added.

In Egypt, a female TikTok star was sentenced to ten years in prison for human trafficking. Haneen Hossam, 20, made a video in which she begged for mercy, claiming she had never done anything wrong.

In Egypt, a female TikTok star was sentenced to ten years in prison for human trafficking. Haneen Hossam, 20, made a video in which she begged for mercy, claiming she had never done anything wrong. The decision came five months after a different court overturned Hossam's prison sentence for "violating family values" using TikTok videos. Hossam was sentenced in her absence because she failed to appear in court. Hossam posted a video on her social media accounts the day following the judgement, pleading with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi to re-verify her case. She was screaming and crying, pleading with the President to help her.“Your daughter is dying, Mr President. Your daughter is dying, I swear to God. I kept my calm so that I could speak and request the president's and people's assistance. “What should I do?” said Hossam. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Offline🖤 (@hanenhossamofficial1___) × “I was wronged, and I did not do anything. I am literally dying. Save me. My mother is about to have a stroke after the ruling," she added.

Video: 'I am dying', Egypt female TikTok star Haneen Hossam tells the president

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will not cooperate with an investigation of the Southeast Asian nation's drug war killings planned by the International Criminal Court (ICC), his spokesperson said on Tuesday. 
 
Rights groups and critics of the drug killings have welcomed the step by the ICC, saying a full-scale investigation will bring justice closer for the thousands of people killed in Duterte's bloody war on drugs. 
 
"We will not cooperate because we are no longer a member," Harry Roque told a news conference. Duterte canceled the Philippines' membership of the ICC's founding treaty in March 2018. 
 
"We do not need foreigners to investigate killings in the drug war because the legal system is working in the Philippines," Roque said, adding he believed launching a formal probe was 'legally erroneous and politically motivated'. 
 
An ICC prosecutor sought authorisation on Monday to open a full investigation into the killings, saying crimes against humanity could have been committed. 
 
"The long arm of the law will soon catch up with Duterte and his accomplices," former opposition senator Antonio Trillanes said in a statement. 
 
Since Duterte took office in 2016 until the end of April this year, police have killed more than 6,100 suspected drug dealers in sting operations, government data show. 
 
Rights group say police were summarily executing suspects, but authorities say they were killed after violently resisting arrest.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will not cooperate with an investigation of the Southeast Asian nation's drug war killings planned by the International Criminal Court (ICC), his spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will not cooperate with an investigation of the Southeast Asian nation's drug war killings planned by the International Criminal Court (ICC), his spokesperson said on Tuesday. Rights groups and critics of the drug killings have welcomed the step by the ICC, saying a full-scale investigation will bring justice closer for the thousands of people killed in Duterte's bloody war on drugs. "We will not cooperate because we are no longer a member," Harry Roque told a news conference. Duterte canceled the Philippines' membership of the ICC's founding treaty in March 2018. "We do not need foreigners to investigate killings in the drug war because the legal system is working in the Philippines," Roque said, adding he believed launching a formal probe was 'legally erroneous and politically motivated'. An ICC prosecutor sought authorisation on Monday to open a full investigation into the killings, saying crimes against humanity could have been committed. "The long arm of the law will soon catch up with Duterte and his accomplices," former opposition senator Antonio Trillanes said in a statement. Since Duterte took office in 2016 until the end of April this year, police have killed more than 6,100 suspected drug dealers in sting operations, government data show. Rights group say police were summarily executing suspects, but authorities say they were killed after violently resisting arrest.

Philippine President will not cooperate with ICC probe into killings

El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said on Saturday that he will send a bill to Congress next week to make bitcoin legal tender in the country. 
 
"In the short term, this will generate jobs and help provide financial inclusion to thousands outside the formal economy," Bukele said in a video shown at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami. 
 
Strike, a mobile payments app that launched in El Salvador in March, said in a statement that it welcomed the legislation and was working with the country to make using bitcoin technology a success. 
 
“This is the shot heard 'round the world for bitcoin," Strike founder and CEO Jack Mallers was quoted as saying at the Miami conference. 
 
"Adopting a natively digital currency as legal tender provides El Salvador the most secure, efficient and globally integrated open payments network in the world," Mallers said. 
 
(With inputs from agencies)

El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said on Saturday that he will send a bill to Congress next week to make bitcoin legal tender in the country. "In the short term, this will generate jobs and help provide financial inclusion to thousands outside the formal economy," Bukele said in a video shown at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami.

El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said on Saturday that he will send a bill to Congress next week to make bitcoin legal tender in the country. "In the short term, this will generate jobs and help provide financial inclusion to thousands outside the formal economy," Bukele said in a video shown at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami. Strike, a mobile payments app that launched in El Salvador in March, said in a statement that it welcomed the legislation and was working with the country to make using bitcoin technology a success. “This is the shot heard 'round the world for bitcoin," Strike founder and CEO Jack Mallers was quoted as saying at the Miami conference. "Adopting a natively digital currency as legal tender provides El Salvador the most secure, efficient and globally integrated open payments network in the world," Mallers said. (With inputs from agencies)

El Salvador's president says will send bill to make bitcoin legal tender

Road blockades connected to weeks of anti-government protests in Colombia will be lifted by security forces in coordination with mayors and provincial governors, President Ivan Duque said on Monday.&nbsp;

The deadly demonstrations, originally called in late April against a now-canceled tax plan, have expanded to include demands like a basic income, an end to police violence and opportunities for young people.&nbsp;

The blockades, many erected by local demonstrators or truckers, have caused shortages of food and gasoline across the country, especially in the city of Cali, an epicenter of protests. The government says some are connected to criminal and guerrilla groups, which it also blames for sparking looting and other violence.&nbsp;

Duque said he had ordered "the increase of all operational capacity of our public security forces on the ground to, together with mayors and governors, unblock the roads of our country with strict adherence to human rights."&nbsp;

The government will also subsidize 25% of the minimum wage for workers between 18 and 28 years old for at least a year, Duque said in a video, in an effort to encourage employers to hire young people.&nbsp;

Vandalism and the blockades have cost the economy about $1.6 billion, while road closures had halted the transport of 700,000 tonnes of food, the government said last week.&nbsp;

The number of deaths connected to the protests is disputed. The attorney general's office says just 15 deaths are tied directly to demonstrations, but human rights groups allege the toll is about two dozen people higher.&nbsp;

Government representatives were meeting late on Monday with representatives from the national strike committee, made up of unions, student groups and others, to agree to terms for a negotiation the government hopes will curb marches.&nbsp;

Protests continued over the weekend and into a federal holiday on Monday, with deaths reported in several smaller cities.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies) &nbsp;

Road blockades connected to weeks of anti-government protests in Colombia will be lifted by security forces in coordination with mayors and provincial governors, President Ivan Duque said on Monday.

Road blockades connected to weeks of anti-government protests in Colombia will be lifted by security forces in coordination with mayors and provincial governors, President Ivan Duque said on Monday. The deadly demonstrations, originally called in late April against a now-canceled tax plan, have expanded to include demands like a basic income, an end to police violence and opportunities for young people. The blockades, many erected by local demonstrators or truckers, have caused shortages of food and gasoline across the country, especially in the city of Cali, an epicenter of protests. The government says some are connected to criminal and guerrilla groups, which it also blames for sparking looting and other violence. Duque said he had ordered "the increase of all operational capacity of our public security forces on the ground to, together with mayors and governors, unblock the roads of our country with strict adherence to human rights." The government will also subsidize 25% of the minimum wage for workers between 18 and 28 years old for at least a year, Duque said in a video, in an effort to encourage employers to hire young people. Vandalism and the blockades have cost the economy about $1.6 billion, while road closures had halted the transport of 700,000 tonnes of food, the government said last week. The number of deaths connected to the protests is disputed. The attorney general's office says just 15 deaths are tied directly to demonstrations, but human rights groups allege the toll is about two dozen people higher. Government representatives were meeting late on Monday with representatives from the national strike committee, made up of unions, student groups and others, to agree to terms for a negotiation the government hopes will curb marches. Protests continued over the weekend and into a federal holiday on Monday, with deaths reported in several smaller cities. (With inputs from agencies)

Colombia president says security forces to lift road blockades 

The Republic of Congo's President Denis Sassou Nguesso has chosen a new government that includes his son as well as an opposition leader, according to a statement read on public television.

The previous government resigned earlier this month in a procedural move after Sassou Nguesso, one of the world's longest-serving leaders, easily won a fifth term in a March election when his main opponent died of <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/coronavirus">COVID-19</a> on polling day.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/congo-republic-opposition-presidential-candidate-kolelas-dies-at-61-372372">Congo Republic opposition presidential candidate&nbsp;Kolelas&nbsp;dies at 61</a>

The new government has 36 members including four ministers and eight women, the official statement said on Saturday night.

The president's son Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso will head up the newly-created ministry of international cooperation and public-private partnerships.&nbsp;

Last July, the NGO Global Witness said US federal prosecutors were probing the 46-year-old over alleged embezzlement of several million dollars from the publicly-owned National Society of Petroleum of Congo.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/congo-republics-sassou-gets-re-elected-with-88-vote-372940">Congo Republic's Sassou gets re-elected with 88% vote</a>

His 77-year-old father has headed authoritarian regimes in the central African country since 1979, with a brief hiatus early in the 1990s, and constitutional changes could keep him in power until 2031.

Sassou Nguesso's son is one of 11 newcomers to the administration.&nbsp;

Philosophy professor Honore Sayi, who had presided over Congo's largest opposition group the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy, will be energy minister.&nbsp;

Rigobert Roger Andely, a former banker from the same northern Cuvette region as the president, is once again taking the role of finance minister, a job he held from 2002 to 2005.

Seven people were sacked, including Henri Djombo who had served as a minister since 1997 and Yvonne Adelaide Mougany who had been in the government since 2002.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/one-in-three-people-critically-hungry-in-dr-congo-says-un-375891/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso, who was appointed on Wednesday after his predecessor submitted his government's resignation on May 6, was told to put the new team to work "without delay".&nbsp;

Among the challenges the new government faces are making good on delayed payments for retirement pensions and scholarships for university students.

Other economic challenges include dealing with public debt, which stood at 87 per cent of the country's GDP in 2020 before the pandemic, and re-starting negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.

The Republic of Congo's President Denis Sassou Nguesso has chosen a new government that includes his son as well as an opposition leader, according to a statement read on public television.

The Republic of Congo's President Denis Sassou Nguesso has chosen a new government that includes his son as well as an opposition leader, according to a statement read on public television. The previous government resigned earlier this month in a procedural move after Sassou Nguesso, one of the world's longest-serving leaders, easily won a fifth term in a March election when his main opponent died of COVID-19 on polling day. Also read | Congo Republic opposition presidential candidate Kolelas dies at 61 The new government has 36 members including four ministers and eight women, the official statement said on Saturday night. The president's son Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso will head up the newly-created ministry of international cooperation and public-private partnerships. Last July, the NGO Global Witness said US federal prosecutors were probing the 46-year-old over alleged embezzlement of several million dollars from the publicly-owned National Society of Petroleum of Congo. Also read | Congo Republic's Sassou gets re-elected with 88% vote His 77-year-old father has headed authoritarian regimes in the central African country since 1979, with a brief hiatus early in the 1990s, and constitutional changes could keep him in power until 2031. Sassou Nguesso's son is one of 11 newcomers to the administration. Philosophy professor Honore Sayi, who had presided over Congo's largest opposition group the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy, will be energy minister. Rigobert Roger Andely, a former banker from the same northern Cuvette region as the president, is once again taking the role of finance minister, a job he held from 2002 to 2005. Seven people were sacked, including Henri Djombo who had served as a minister since 1997 and Yvonne Adelaide Mougany who had been in the government since 2002. Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso, who was appointed on Wednesday after his predecessor submitted his government's resignation on May 6, was told to put the new team to work "without delay". Among the challenges the new government faces are making good on delayed payments for retirement pensions and scholarships for university students. Other economic challenges include dealing with public debt, which stood at 87 per cent of the country's GDP in 2020 before the pandemic, and re-starting negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.

Congo President names son among new government

President Emmanuel Macron's plans for bringing France out of the pandemic aren't just about resuscitating long-closed restaurants, boutiques and museums. They are also about preparing his possible campaign for a second term. &nbsp;

A year before the next presidential election, Macron is focusing on saving jobs and reviving the pandemic-battered French economy as his country inches out of its third partial lockdown.&nbsp;

The centrist president's ability to meet the challenge will be significant for his political future and for France, which is among the world's worst-hit nations with the fourth-highest number of reported COVID-19 cases and the eighth-highest death toll at more than 106,000.&nbsp;

While he has not officially declared his candidacy, Macron has made comments suggesting he intends to seek reelection. And he has pushed recent legislation on issues that potential rivals on the right and the left hold dear, from security to climate change.&nbsp;

Pollsters suggest Macron, who four years ago became the youngest president in French history, has a good chance of winning the presidency again in 2022 despite his government's oft-criticised management of the pandemic and earlier challenges to his policies, from activists protesting what they see as social and economic injustice to unions angry over retirement reforms.&nbsp;

The coronavirus reopening strategy Macron unveiled this month calls for most restrictions on public life to be lifted June 30, when half of France's population is expected to have received at least one vaccine shot. With up to 3 million people in France getting vaccinated each week, the government plans to allow outdoor areas of restaurants and cafes, as well as museums and nonessential shops, to resume operating on May 19.&nbsp;

In an interview with French media, Macron said he would visit France's regions over the summer 'to feel the pulse of the country' and to engage with people in a mass consultation aimed at 'turning the page of that moment in the nation's life'. "No individual destiny is worthwhile without a collective project," he said, giving the latest hint about a potential reelection bid.&nbsp;

At the moment, all opinion polls show Macron and Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader he beat in a presidential runoff election in 2017, again reaching the runoff next year. The polls also forecast that Macron would defeat National Rally leader Le Pen again, though by a smaller margin.&nbsp;

President Emmanuel Macron's plans for bringing France out of the pandemic aren't just about resuscitating long-closed restaurants, boutiques and museums. They are also about preparing his possible campaign for a second term.

President Emmanuel Macron's plans for bringing France out of the pandemic aren't just about resuscitating long-closed restaurants, boutiques and museums. They are also about preparing his possible campaign for a second term. A year before the next presidential election, Macron is focusing on saving jobs and reviving the pandemic-battered French economy as his country inches out of its third partial lockdown. The centrist president's ability to meet the challenge will be significant for his political future and for France, which is among the world's worst-hit nations with the fourth-highest number of reported COVID-19 cases and the eighth-highest death toll at more than 106,000. While he has not officially declared his candidacy, Macron has made comments suggesting he intends to seek reelection. And he has pushed recent legislation on issues that potential rivals on the right and the left hold dear, from security to climate change. Pollsters suggest Macron, who four years ago became the youngest president in French history, has a good chance of winning the presidency again in 2022 despite his government's oft-criticised management of the pandemic and earlier challenges to his policies, from activists protesting what they see as social and economic injustice to unions angry over retirement reforms. The coronavirus reopening strategy Macron unveiled this month calls for most restrictions on public life to be lifted June 30, when half of France's population is expected to have received at least one vaccine shot. With up to 3 million people in France getting vaccinated each week, the government plans to allow outdoor areas of restaurants and cafes, as well as museums and nonessential shops, to resume operating on May 19. In an interview with French media, Macron said he would visit France's regions over the summer 'to feel the pulse of the country' and to engage with people in a mass consultation aimed at 'turning the page of that moment in the nation's life'. "No individual destiny is worthwhile without a collective project," he said, giving the latest hint about a potential reelection bid. At the moment, all opinion polls show Macron and Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader he beat in a presidential runoff election in 2017, again reaching the runoff next year. The polls also forecast that Macron would defeat National Rally leader Le Pen again, though by a smaller margin.

Eyeing reelection bid, Macron looks to repair French economy 

US President Joe Biden said on Friday he expected to be able to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin soon and the White House said ongoing differences between the United States and Russia would not need to be resolved in advance of a summit.&nbsp;

Biden told reporters at the White House, he wanted to meet Putin despite Russia's build-up of military forces near Ukraine.&nbsp;

"It does not impact my desire to have a one-on-one meeting and you'll notice he had more troops before. He's withdrawn troops," he said.&nbsp;

Asked about meeting Putin in June, he said: "I'm confident we'll be able to do it. We don't have any specific time or place. That's being worked on."&nbsp;

The United States has said it supports Ukraine amid what US Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week called Moscow's 'reckless' troop build-up.&nbsp;

Biden and his advisers would like to add a summit with Putin in a third country while the US president is in Europe in mid-June for a Group of Seven meeting in Britain and talks with NATO allies in Brussels.&nbsp;

But negotiations with the Russians on staging the summit are continuing, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.&nbsp;

"We're working through the question of some logistics - place, location, time, agenda, all the specifics - that was always going to happen at a staff level. It's really up to them what they want to achieve," she said.&nbsp;

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cited by Russian news agency TASS as saying Russia was studying the possibility of a Putin-Biden meeting.&nbsp;

"We continue to analyse the situation," TASS quoted Peskov as saying when asked whether the Russian side has officially agreed to the proposed summit.&nbsp;

The United States has a number of grievances with Russia, including its treatment of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. But Psaki said these grievances do not need to be resolved in advance of a Biden-Putin summit.&nbsp;

"Obviously, human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, values are all issues the president, Secretary (of State Antony) Blinken, National Security Adviser (Jake) Sullivan raised with their counterparts. But the invitation to have a discussion and have a meeting was not offered with the prerequisite that every issue is resolved in advance. We expect we will still continue to have disagreements," she said.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

US President Joe Biden said on Friday he expected to be able to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin soon and the White House said ongoing differences between the United States and Russia would not need to be resolved in advance of a summit.

US President Joe Biden said on Friday he expected to be able to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin soon and the White House said ongoing differences between the United States and Russia would not need to be resolved in advance of a summit. Biden told reporters at the White House, he wanted to meet Putin despite Russia's build-up of military forces near Ukraine. "It does not impact my desire to have a one-on-one meeting and you'll notice he had more troops before. He's withdrawn troops," he said. Asked about meeting Putin in June, he said: "I'm confident we'll be able to do it. We don't have any specific time or place. That's being worked on." The United States has said it supports Ukraine amid what US Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week called Moscow's 'reckless' troop build-up. Biden and his advisers would like to add a summit with Putin in a third country while the US president is in Europe in mid-June for a Group of Seven meeting in Britain and talks with NATO allies in Brussels. But negotiations with the Russians on staging the summit are continuing, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. "We're working through the question of some logistics - place, location, time, agenda, all the specifics - that was always going to happen at a staff level. It's really up to them what they want to achieve," she said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cited by Russian news agency TASS as saying Russia was studying the possibility of a Putin-Biden meeting. "We continue to analyse the situation," TASS quoted Peskov as saying when asked whether the Russian side has officially agreed to the proposed summit. The United States has a number of grievances with Russia, including its treatment of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. But Psaki said these grievances do not need to be resolved in advance of a Biden-Putin summit. "Obviously, human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, values are all issues the president, Secretary (of State Antony) Blinken, National Security Adviser (Jake) Sullivan raised with their counterparts. But the invitation to have a discussion and have a meeting was not offered with the prerequisite that every issue is resolved in advance. We expect we will still continue to have disagreements," she said. (With inputs from agencies)

US President Biden says he is confident he can meet Russia's Putin soon 

Colombian President Ivan Duque said on Sunday, he would withdraw a proposed tax reform after deadly protests and widespread lawmaker opposition, though he insisted a reform is still necessary to ensure fiscal stability.&nbsp;

Protests, have led to multiple deaths around the country since they began on Wednesday, continued on Sunday in some cities, despite the announcement.&nbsp;

Duque said on Friday, the law would be revised to remove some of its most controversial points, including the leveling of sales tax on utilities and some food, but the government had previously insisted it could not be withdrawn.&nbsp;

"I am asking Congress to withdraw the law proposed by the finance ministry and urgently process a new law that is the fruit of consensus, in order to avoid financial uncertainty," Duque said in a video.&nbsp;

The reform, which the government has insisted is vital to stabilising Colombia's finances, maintaining its credit rating and funding social programmes, remains necessary, Duque said.&nbsp;

Political parties, local officials, business leaders and civil society have contributed valuable ideas over the last several days, he said.&nbsp;

There is consensus on the need for temporary taxes on businesses and dividends, an increase in income tax for the wealthiest and deepened state austerity measures, Duque said.&nbsp;

"It is a moment for all of us to work together without malice," he said.&nbsp;

The central bank warned on Friday, failure to approve the reform could have a negative impact on the economy, while a loss of the country's investment-grade credit rating has already been priced in by many investors.&nbsp;

Lawmakers, unions and other groups hailed the announcement as a victory. Celebratory cacerolazos, a traditional protest where people beat pots and pans, could be heard in some neighborhoods.&nbsp;

"It is the youth, social organisations and mobilised citizens, who have seen deaths and defeated the government," leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda said on Twitter. "May the government not present the same reform with make-up. The citizens won't accept tricks."&nbsp;

There is not yet a definite national count of deaths connected to protests, amid incidents of looting, destruction of public transport and road blockades in several cities.&nbsp;

Local officials in Cali, the country's third-largest city and where demonstrations have been the most violent, have confirmed three. One death each occurred in the city of Neiva and the municipality of Madrid and a police officer was killed in Soacha.&nbsp;

The procurator's office said in an afternoon statement, it was investigating 14 deaths nationally, while human rights groups have alleged police abuses, especially in Cali, and said deaths number more than 20.&nbsp;

The national police director said the force would contribute all necessary information to the procurator's investigations.&nbsp;

Duque said late on Saturday, cities at high risk for disturbances would get military assistance, an offer rejected by Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez.&nbsp;

(With input from agencies) &nbsp;

Colombian President Ivan Duque said on Sunday, he would withdraw a proposed tax reform after deadly protests and widespread lawmaker opposition, though he insisted a reform is still necessary to ensure fiscal stability.

Colombian President Ivan Duque said on Sunday, he would withdraw a proposed tax reform after deadly protests and widespread lawmaker opposition, though he insisted a reform is still necessary to ensure fiscal stability. Protests, have led to multiple deaths around the country since they began on Wednesday, continued on Sunday in some cities, despite the announcement. Duque said on Friday, the law would be revised to remove some of its most controversial points, including the leveling of sales tax on utilities and some food, but the government had previously insisted it could not be withdrawn. "I am asking Congress to withdraw the law proposed by the finance ministry and urgently process a new law that is the fruit of consensus, in order to avoid financial uncertainty," Duque said in a video. The reform, which the government has insisted is vital to stabilising Colombia's finances, maintaining its credit rating and funding social programmes, remains necessary, Duque said. Political parties, local officials, business leaders and civil society have contributed valuable ideas over the last several days, he said. There is consensus on the need for temporary taxes on businesses and dividends, an increase in income tax for the wealthiest and deepened state austerity measures, Duque said. "It is a moment for all of us to work together without malice," he said. The central bank warned on Friday, failure to approve the reform could have a negative impact on the economy, while a loss of the country's investment-grade credit rating has already been priced in by many investors. Lawmakers, unions and other groups hailed the announcement as a victory. Celebratory cacerolazos, a traditional protest where people beat pots and pans, could be heard in some neighborhoods. "It is the youth, social organisations and mobilised citizens, who have seen deaths and defeated the government," leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda said on Twitter. "May the government not present the same reform with make-up. The citizens won't accept tricks." There is not yet a definite national count of deaths connected to protests, amid incidents of looting, destruction of public transport and road blockades in several cities. Local officials in Cali, the country's third-largest city and where demonstrations have been the most violent, have confirmed three. One death each occurred in the city of Neiva and the municipality of Madrid and a police officer was killed in Soacha. The procurator's office said in an afternoon statement, it was investigating 14 deaths nationally, while human rights groups have alleged police abuses, especially in Cali, and said deaths number more than 20. The national police director said the force would contribute all necessary information to the procurator's investigations. Duque said late on Saturday, cities at high risk for disturbances would get military assistance, an offer rejected by Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez. (With input from agencies)

Colombia's president withdraws tax reform after protests 

Rebels in Chad threatened to depose the son of the country's slain president after he was named interim leader of the central African nation, raising the specter on Wednesday of a potentially violent power struggle.&nbsp;

Uncertainty prevailed on early Wednesday over how far the rebel column was from N'Djamena, a city of 1 million people, and whether the military would remain loyal to Mahamat Deby Itno in the aftermath of his father's death after three decades in power.&nbsp;

The rebel group that the military blamed for President Idriss Deby Itno's death said late on Tuesday that its forces were heading toward N'Djamena at this very moment. &nbsp;

“Chad is not a monarchy," said a statement from the group known as the Front for Change and Concord in Chad. &nbsp;

“There can be no dynastic devolution of power in our country."&nbsp;

The group's claim of advancing toward the capital could not be independently verified, but it immediately created panic in N'Djamena, which another rebel group attacked back in 2008.&nbsp;

Officials with the Transitional Military Council said the fight was not yet over for control of the country.&nbsp;

"The security situation remains highly serious given the persistence and magnitude of the terrorist threat,” the council's vice president, Djimadoum Tiraina, said, adding that the military must now prevent the country from sinking into chaos and anarchy. &nbsp;

Chad's military spokesman said on Tuesday that the president died during a visit to the front lines of the battle against the rebel group. The rebels were based in neighbouring Libya until earlier this month, when authorities say they crossed over into Chad on the country's April 11 Election Day.&nbsp;

Deby ran for a sixth term in that election and faced minimal opposition after several challengers chose not to take part, fearing the vote would be rigged. Over the years, the president had survived numerous armed rebellions and managed to stay in power until the insurgency led by the Front for Change and Concord in Chad.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

Rebels in Chad threatened to depose the son of the country's slain president after he was named interim leader of the central African nation, raising the specter on Wednesday of a potentially violent power struggle.

Rebels in Chad threatened to depose the son of the country's slain president after he was named interim leader of the central African nation, raising the specter on Wednesday of a potentially violent power struggle. Uncertainty prevailed on early Wednesday over how far the rebel column was from N'Djamena, a city of 1 million people, and whether the military would remain loyal to Mahamat Deby Itno in the aftermath of his father's death after three decades in power. The rebel group that the military blamed for President Idriss Deby Itno's death said late on Tuesday that its forces were heading toward N'Djamena at this very moment. “Chad is not a monarchy," said a statement from the group known as the Front for Change and Concord in Chad. “There can be no dynastic devolution of power in our country." The group's claim of advancing toward the capital could not be independently verified, but it immediately created panic in N'Djamena, which another rebel group attacked back in 2008. Officials with the Transitional Military Council said the fight was not yet over for control of the country. "The security situation remains highly serious given the persistence and magnitude of the terrorist threat,” the council's vice president, Djimadoum Tiraina, said, adding that the military must now prevent the country from sinking into chaos and anarchy. Chad's military spokesman said on Tuesday that the president died during a visit to the front lines of the battle against the rebel group. The rebels were based in neighbouring Libya until earlier this month, when authorities say they crossed over into Chad on the country's April 11 Election Day. Deby ran for a sixth term in that election and faced minimal opposition after several challengers chose not to take part, fearing the vote would be rigged. Over the years, the president had survived numerous armed rebellions and managed to stay in power until the insurgency led by the Front for Change and Concord in Chad. (With inputs from agencies)

Chad rebels threaten to depose slain president's son 

Asserting that China and India are to be a factor in the regional prosperity, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has said it is 'a moment of choice' for neighbouring Pakistan as all its calculations have been 'wrong' so far.&nbsp;

Ghani, in an interview to CNN's Fareed Zakaria&nbsp;which aired on Sunday, said that verbally, the leaders of Pakistan all fortunately acknowledge that they do not want the Taliban government in Afghanistan, that they would like to see a peaceful, stable, democratic government in the war-torn country.&nbsp;

"We are key to their prosperity. The rate of growth in Afghanistan could enhance by two per cent in a stable and connected Afghanistan, we have to work together.”&nbsp;

"So, there are two options.&nbsp;Connect to Central Asia through us, share in the joint prosperity through the partnership for peace, gain international credibility and support that they're all in need of, or opt for chaos," he said.&nbsp;

The country that would be most damaged by insecurity or a renewed civil war in Afghanistan is Pakistan, and in that case, it would be a lose proposition, Ghani said.&nbsp;

"It's a moment of choice for Pakistan. All its calculations have been wrong," the Afghanistan president said.&nbsp;

Afghanistan has in the past accused Pakistan of providing safe havens for terror groups that target its territory, especially the Afghan Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Haqqani group.&nbsp;

Responding to a question, Ghani said that China is not an interventionist power.&nbsp;

"It does not want to get engaged with military or proxy wars, and Pakistan in terms of its foreign policy obviously is hedging between China and other countries, because it is still, its reliance on the rest of the region is quite significant. Pakistan can become an anchor of regional stability if it opts for peace in regional cooperation," he said.&nbsp;

The discourse of Pakistan has changed, he said, adding that there was a security conference in Islamabad where the talk was really significantly about harmony and cooperation.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

Asserting that China and India are to be a factor in the regional prosperity, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has said it is 'a moment of choice' for neighbouring Pakistan as all its calculations have been 'wrong' so far.

Asserting that China and India are to be a factor in the regional prosperity, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has said it is 'a moment of choice' for neighbouring Pakistan as all its calculations have been 'wrong' so far. Ghani, in an interview to CNN's Fareed Zakaria which aired on Sunday, said that verbally, the leaders of Pakistan all fortunately acknowledge that they do not want the Taliban government in Afghanistan, that they would like to see a peaceful, stable, democratic government in the war-torn country. "We are key to their prosperity. The rate of growth in Afghanistan could enhance by two per cent in a stable and connected Afghanistan, we have to work together.” "So, there are two options. Connect to Central Asia through us, share in the joint prosperity through the partnership for peace, gain international credibility and support that they're all in need of, or opt for chaos," he said. The country that would be most damaged by insecurity or a renewed civil war in Afghanistan is Pakistan, and in that case, it would be a lose proposition, Ghani said. "It's a moment of choice for Pakistan. All its calculations have been wrong," the Afghanistan president said. Afghanistan has in the past accused Pakistan of providing safe havens for terror groups that target its territory, especially the Afghan Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Haqqani group. Responding to a question, Ghani said that China is not an interventionist power. "It does not want to get engaged with military or proxy wars, and Pakistan in terms of its foreign policy obviously is hedging between China and other countries, because it is still, its reliance on the rest of the region is quite significant. Pakistan can become an anchor of regional stability if it opts for peace in regional cooperation," he said. The discourse of Pakistan has changed, he said, adding that there was a security conference in Islamabad where the talk was really significantly about harmony and cooperation. (With inputs from agencies)

Afghan Prez: India, China factor in regional prosperity; moment of choice for Pak  

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will put forward a three-phase peace roadmap for Afghanistan during a proposed meeting in Turkey, seeking an agreement with the Taliban and a ceasefire before elections, a document shows.

Washington is pushing for a conference to be hosted by Turkey, with UN involvement, this month to finalise a peace deal between the government and the Taliban as a May 1 deadline looms for the withdrawal of all foreign troops.

Ghani’s plan will be presented as a counter to proposals put forward by Washington, rejected by the Afghan government, that envisage immediately drawing up a new legal system for an interim administration to include Taliban representatives.&nbsp;

The document shows Ghani’s ‘Reaching an Endstate’ proposal will include, in the first phase, a consensus on a political settlement and an internationally monitored ceasefire.

The second phase will be holding a presidential election and the establishment of a ‘government of peace’ and implementation arrangements for moving towards the new political system.

The third phase will involve building a ‘constitutional framework, reintegration of refugees and development’ for Afghanistan moving forward.

A senior government official said Ghani has already shared his roadmap with foreign capitals.&nbsp;

A date for the Turkey meeting is yet to be decided, but multiple sources said it could take place in two weeks’ time.

The Afghan government and a number of politicians said they would have to agree on an agenda with the Taliban before the meeting.

In a statement last month, the Taliban threatened to resume hostilities against foreign troops in Afghanistan if they did not meet the May 1 deadline envisaged in an agreement between the insurgents and the Trump administration last year.

US President Joe Biden said this month it would be ‘hard’ to withdraw the last US troops from Afghanistan by May 1 ‘just in terms of tactical reasons’, but he said he did not think they still would be there next year.

A senior government official said the Taliban was willing to extend the May 1 dateline and would not resume attacks against foreign forces in exchange for the release of thousands of their prisoners held by the Kabul authorities.&nbsp;

Mohammad Naeem, a Taliban spokesman in Qatar, said no such offer had been made.

(With inputs from agencies)

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will put forward a three-phase peace roadmap for Afghanistan during a proposed meeting in Turkey, seeking an agreement with the Taliban and a ceasefire before elections, a document shows.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will put forward a three-phase peace roadmap for Afghanistan during a proposed meeting in Turkey, seeking an agreement with the Taliban and a ceasefire before elections, a document shows. Washington is pushing for a conference to be hosted by Turkey, with UN involvement, this month to finalise a peace deal between the government and the Taliban as a May 1 deadline looms for the withdrawal of all foreign troops. Ghani’s plan will be presented as a counter to proposals put forward by Washington, rejected by the Afghan government, that envisage immediately drawing up a new legal system for an interim administration to include Taliban representatives. The document shows Ghani’s ‘Reaching an Endstate’ proposal will include, in the first phase, a consensus on a political settlement and an internationally monitored ceasefire. The second phase will be holding a presidential election and the establishment of a ‘government of peace’ and implementation arrangements for moving towards the new political system. The third phase will involve building a ‘constitutional framework, reintegration of refugees and development’ for Afghanistan moving forward. A senior government official said Ghani has already shared his roadmap with foreign capitals. A date for the Turkey meeting is yet to be decided, but multiple sources said it could take place in two weeks’ time. The Afghan government and a number of politicians said they would have to agree on an agenda with the Taliban before the meeting. In a statement last month, the Taliban threatened to resume hostilities against foreign troops in Afghanistan if they did not meet the May 1 deadline envisaged in an agreement between the insurgents and the Trump administration last year. US President Joe Biden said this month it would be ‘hard’ to withdraw the last US troops from Afghanistan by May 1 ‘just in terms of tactical reasons’, but he said he did not think they still would be there next year. A senior government official said the Taliban was willing to extend the May 1 dateline and would not resume attacks against foreign forces in exchange for the release of thousands of their prisoners held by the Kabul authorities. Mohammad Naeem, a Taliban spokesman in Qatar, said no such offer had been made. (With inputs from agencies)

Afghan President proposes peace roadmap in three phases, says document

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Sunday said the recent UNHRC resolution against his country was the doing of local and foreign forces, which do not want Sri Lanka to progress, however, he vowed that his government would not succumb to such pressures.&nbsp;

On last Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution against Sri Lanka's rights record, giving the UN body a mandate to collect evidence of crimes committed during the country's brutal three-decade-long civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).&nbsp;

Speaking at a gathering in the southern rural district of Matara on Sunday, Rajapaksa said, "We will never succumb to (such) pressures (UNHRC resolution); we are a free nation. We will not be a victim of big power rivalry in the Indian Ocean."&nbsp;

The president said the UNHRC resolution was the doing of 'foreign and local forces', which cannot bare to see his government making progress.&nbsp;

Rajapaksa accused the previous government led by Maithripala Sirisena of betraying Sri Lanka's sovereignty by co-sponsoring the UN rights resolution in 2015.&nbsp;

The resolution titled 'Promotion of Reconciliation Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka' was passed despite heavy lobbying by Sri Lanka. India was among 14 countries, which abstained from voting.&nbsp;

India has said its stand on the matter is governed by two considerations: support to the minority Tamils and stability and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.&nbsp;

The resolution calls upon the Sri Lankan government to ensure prompt thorough and impartial investigation, if warranted, prosecution of all alleged crimes relating to human rights violations and serious violations of international human rights law during the country's three-decade-long civil war. The Tamil minority has welcomed the resolution.&nbsp;

According to the Lankan government figures, over 20,000 people are missing due to various conflicts including the three-decade brutal war with Lankan Tamils in the north and east, which claimed at least 100,000 lives.&nbsp;

The Tamils alleged that thousands were massacred during the final stages of the war that ended in 2009 when the government forces killed LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran.&nbsp;

The Sri Lankan Army denies the charge, claiming it as a humanitarian operation to rid the Tamils of LTTE's control.&nbsp;

At the end of the civil war, the United Nations accused both sides of atrocities, especially during the conflict's final stages.&nbsp;

International rights groups claim at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed in the final stages of the war, but the Sri Lankan government has disputed the figures.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Sunday said the recent UNHRC resolution against his country was the doing of local and foreign forces, which do not want Sri Lanka to progress, however, he vowed that his government would not succumb to such pressures.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Sunday said the recent UNHRC resolution against his country was the doing of local and foreign forces, which do not want Sri Lanka to progress, however, he vowed that his government would not succumb to such pressures. On last Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution against Sri Lanka's rights record, giving the UN body a mandate to collect evidence of crimes committed during the country's brutal three-decade-long civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Speaking at a gathering in the southern rural district of Matara on Sunday, Rajapaksa said, "We will never succumb to (such) pressures (UNHRC resolution); we are a free nation. We will not be a victim of big power rivalry in the Indian Ocean." The president said the UNHRC resolution was the doing of 'foreign and local forces', which cannot bare to see his government making progress. Rajapaksa accused the previous government led by Maithripala Sirisena of betraying Sri Lanka's sovereignty by co-sponsoring the UN rights resolution in 2015. The resolution titled 'Promotion of Reconciliation Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka' was passed despite heavy lobbying by Sri Lanka. India was among 14 countries, which abstained from voting. India has said its stand on the matter is governed by two considerations: support to the minority Tamils and stability and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. The resolution calls upon the Sri Lankan government to ensure prompt thorough and impartial investigation, if warranted, prosecution of all alleged crimes relating to human rights violations and serious violations of international human rights law during the country's three-decade-long civil war. The Tamil minority has welcomed the resolution. According to the Lankan government figures, over 20,000 people are missing due to various conflicts including the three-decade brutal war with Lankan Tamils in the north and east, which claimed at least 100,000 lives. The Tamils alleged that thousands were massacred during the final stages of the war that ended in 2009 when the government forces killed LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran. The Sri Lankan Army denies the charge, claiming it as a humanitarian operation to rid the Tamils of LTTE's control. At the end of the civil war, the United Nations accused both sides of atrocities, especially during the conflict's final stages. International rights groups claim at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed in the final stages of the war, but the Sri Lankan government has disputed the figures. (With inputs from agencies)

Sri Lanka will not succumb to UNHRC pressure, says president 

An Indonesian cathedral was rocked by a suicide bombing on Sunday that wounded 20 as worshippers celebrated the start of Holy Week, an attack slammed by the country's president as an 'act of terror'.&nbsp;

Two suspects behind the powerful blast were killed as they rode a motorbike into the compound of the church in Makassar city on Sulawesi island, authorities said.&nbsp;

"A suicide bombing occurred at the cathedral in Makassar," Indonesia's chief security minister Mahfud MD told reporters in the capital Jakarta.&nbsp;

"The two (bombers) died."&nbsp;

Authorities had not previously confirmed that the bombing, which happened around 10:30 am local time (0330 GMT), was a suicide attack. &nbsp;

Twenty church officials, congregants and security staff were injured by debris from the blast, authorities said.&nbsp;

A church security guard tried to prevent the two perpetrators, who have not been identified, from entering when the explosion occurred, they added.&nbsp;

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said he 'strongly condemned this act of terror'. "Terrorism is a crime against humanity," he said. "I call on everyone to fight against terror and radicalism, which go against religious values."&nbsp;

One witness described hearing two 'very strong' blasts and then seeing plumes of smoke.&nbsp;

"There were several injured people on the street. I helped one woman... who was wounded and covered in blood," Yosi said.&nbsp;

"Her grandchild was also injured. There were body parts everywhere."&nbsp;

It was not clear if the victims' wounds were life-threatening.&nbsp;

"We were finishing the service and people were going home when it happened," Pastor Wilhelmus Tulak told reporters.&nbsp;

Forensic investigators have been poring over body parts scattered at the scene in a bid to determine the attackers' identities.&nbsp;

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.&nbsp;

Churches have been targeted in the past by extremists in Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation and home to several religious minorities including Christians, Buddhists and Hindus.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

An Indonesian cathedral was rocked by a suicide bombing on Sunday that wounded 20 as worshippers celebrated the start of Holy Week, an attack slammed by the country's president as an 'act of terror'.

An Indonesian cathedral was rocked by a suicide bombing on Sunday that wounded 20 as worshippers celebrated the start of Holy Week, an attack slammed by the country's president as an 'act of terror'. Two suspects behind the powerful blast were killed as they rode a motorbike into the compound of the church in Makassar city on Sulawesi island, authorities said. "A suicide bombing occurred at the cathedral in Makassar," Indonesia's chief security minister Mahfud MD told reporters in the capital Jakarta. "The two (bombers) died." Authorities had not previously confirmed that the bombing, which happened around 10:30 am local time (0330 GMT), was a suicide attack. Twenty church officials, congregants and security staff were injured by debris from the blast, authorities said. A church security guard tried to prevent the two perpetrators, who have not been identified, from entering when the explosion occurred, they added. Indonesian President Joko Widodo said he 'strongly condemned this act of terror'. "Terrorism is a crime against humanity," he said. "I call on everyone to fight against terror and radicalism, which go against religious values." One witness described hearing two 'very strong' blasts and then seeing plumes of smoke. "There were several injured people on the street. I helped one woman... who was wounded and covered in blood," Yosi said. "Her grandchild was also injured. There were body parts everywhere." It was not clear if the victims' wounds were life-threatening. "We were finishing the service and people were going home when it happened," Pastor Wilhelmus Tulak told reporters. Forensic investigators have been poring over body parts scattered at the scene in a bid to determine the attackers' identities. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. Churches have been targeted in the past by extremists in Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation and home to several religious minorities including Christians, Buddhists and Hindus. (With inputs from agencies)

Indonesian president slams suicide attack at church as an 'act of terror' 

At the end of a winding answer Thursday about competing with China and about his relationship with Xi Jinping, a man he said does not have a democratic “bone in his body,” President Joe Biden offered up a revealing assessment of one of America’s most pressing challenges.

“This is a battle between the utility of democracies in the 21st century and autocracies,” he told reporters at his first news conference as president. “We’ve got to prove democracy works.”

China’s president, Xi, Biden said bluntly, was “a smart, smart guy” who shared with President Vladimir Putin of Russia a belief that “autocracy is the wave of the future and democracy can’t function” in the complexities of the modern world.

Among the biggest tasks of his presidency, Biden seemed to be arguing, is to prove anew to a skeptical world that both American democracy and its model of democratic capitalism still works — and that it is superior to the very different system Xi is ruthlessly enforcing at home as he tries to extend China’s influence around the world.

For a president barely 10 weeks into office, casting the United States as confronting a global struggle with the Chinese model has some clear political benefits. One of the few issues that unites Democrats and Republicans is the need to compete head-on with Beijing. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said Monday that the Chinese have already taken notice.

“They recognize in many ways that we are now finally awakened to the challenge,” he said this week at the Atlantic Council. “And I would call it a bipartisan awakening.”

Biden’s aides say his view of the Chinese challenge is not solely one of foreign policy. He plans to make full use of the fear of Beijing’s ambitions as he introduces his infrastructure initiative next week.

There will be hundreds of billions of dollars for technologies and projects that the Chinese are also pouring cash into, including semiconductors, artificial intelligence and 5G networks, as well as big breakthroughs in electric cars and synthetic biotechnology.

On Friday, Biden said he suggested to Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain that the big Western democracies work together to counter China’s ambitious efforts to build better trade routes around the world, a project called the Belt and Road Initiative. The project is one of China’s main instruments for influencing nations in its economic orbit by investing in ports, rail lines, roads and other infrastructure in Asia, Africa and Europe.

“We talked about China and the competition they’re engaging in in the Belt and Road Initiative,” Biden said. “And I suggested we should have, essentially, a similar initiative coming from the democratic states, helping those communities around the world.”

There is a striking similarity between Biden’s list and Xi’s “Made in China 2025” initiative — which was first announced six years ago as an effort to make China largely independent of Western suppliers for critical technology.

At the core of Biden’s infrastructure and supply-chain initiatives is an effort — parts of which began in the Trump years — to ensure the West is not dependent on Chinese technology. It is a battle that blossomed over Huawei, the maker of next-generation communications networks, but has now spread to fears that Chinese apps like TikTok could be a pathway for attacks on American infrastructure.

“China is outinvesting us by a long shot,” Biden said, previewing his argument, “because their plan is to own that future.”

It is a time-tested approach: President Dwight D. Eisenhower used the launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, to spur a military and civilian space race, and President John F. Kennedy picked up on the theme in setting the goal for landing a man on the moon.

A decade ago, President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address to call for a “Sputnik moment” of public investment, also using China as a spur, but the effort fell flat.

Yet for all the unanimity around the China challenge, it is far from clear whether Biden’s political strategy will work.

Republicans object to both the huge government spending in the Biden plan and to the overhang of debt it would create. And there seems bound to be a rerun of the arguments, dating to the 1980s, over whether a federal “industrial policy” — where taxpayer dollars are poured directly into technologies in which the United States judges it must stay ahead — that creates a competitive advantage for America makes sense or just squelches the innovations of Silicon Valley.

No matter how that plays out, Biden is casting the United States’ current competition in very different terms than his predecessors did. “Look, I predict to you,” he said, “your children or grandchildren are going to be doing their doctoral thesis on the issue of who succeeded: autocracy or democracy? Because that is what is at stake, not just China.”

Most notable was what was missing. There was no talk of American “exceptionalism,” just a shorter-term assurance that “on my watch,” China would not reach its overall goal “to become the leading country in the world, the wealthiest country in the world, and the most powerful country in the world.”

Biden was also careful not to make Cold War analogies; in fact, he noted that what was missing now was much of an ideological contest. (“You don’t have Russia talking about communism anymore,” he noted.) He has always said he would cooperate with adversaries, and on Friday he invited Xi and Putin to a virtual climate summit meeting he is hosting in April. He speaks of competition, not containment.

“I see stiff competition with China,” Biden said, over everything from chips to national values, which he added was the key to his two-hour conversation with Xi. And that, he said, meant pushing back on China’s stripping of rights in Hong Kong or on its harsh repression of Muslim minorities.

“The moment a president walks away from that, as the last one did,” he said, taking a dig at former President Donald Trump, “is the moment we begin to lose our legitimacy around the world.”

Still, Biden’s discussion of an open contest between two similarly sized superpowers was a significant change for U.S. presidents.

A quarter-century ago, President Bill Clinton would make the case — oftentimes, during visits to Beijing — that the arrival of the internet would force China to embrace an more American-style democracy. Clearly, that did not work out.

President George W. Bush stressed areas where Chinese and American interests overlapped — counterterrorism and North Korea were the two he mentioned the most — but never cast China as a technological equal. Obama would always say the United States “welcomes the rise of China” and recognized that it could not contain the country if it wanted to, so it would be foolish to try.

And Trump spent three years imposing tariffs and insisting he would cut the deal of the century with China, and one year castigating it as the exporter of the coronavirus, while his secretary of state at the time, Mike Pompeo, insisted that over time, the Communist Party would collapse.

Now, Biden’s team says it is assembling a strategy built more around competition than containment.

“I don’t think China is on a mission to export its model abroad and undermine democracy abroad,” said Thomas J. Christensen, a Columbia professor and former State Department official dealing with China during the Bush administration. “But I do think they are on a mission to defend their model from criticism and defend single-party authoritarian rule.”

Christensen published an essay this week in Foreign Affairs titled, “There Will Not Be a New Cold War,” arguing that American allies were “too economically dependent on China to adopt entirely hostile policies,” and that the United States’ advantage was that it had allies and partners who ranked among the greatest technological powers in the world.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken seemed to acknowledge that this week when, on a visit to Brussels, he assured the Europeans that he would not force them to make an “us or them choice.”

The Biden camp’s calculation seems to be that it is more important to hold allies together than to ensure that each one cuts off its dependency on Chinese technology or investment.

The problem will come, as Blinken notes, as China lashes out at those who criticize its actions at home, in the South China Sea, or against Taiwan. “When one of us is coerced,” he said, “we should respond as allies and work together to reduce our vulnerability by ensuring our economies are more integrated with each other.” Which sounds a lot like creating opposing camps.

At the end of a winding answer Thursday about competing with China and about his relationship with Xi Jinping, a man he said does not have a democratic “bone in his body,” President Joe Biden offered up a revealing assessment of one of America’s most pressing challenges.

At the end of a winding answer Thursday about competing with China and about his relationship with Xi Jinping, a man he said does not have a democratic “bone in his body,” President Joe Biden offered up a revealing assessment of one of America’s most pressing challenges. “This is a battle between the utility of democracies in the 21st century and autocracies,” he told reporters at his first news conference as president. “We’ve got to prove democracy works.” China’s president, Xi, Biden said bluntly, was “a smart, smart guy” who shared with President Vladimir Putin of Russia a belief that “autocracy is the wave of the future and democracy can’t function” in the complexities of the modern world. Among the biggest tasks of his presidency, Biden seemed to be arguing, is to prove anew to a skeptical world that both American democracy and its model of democratic capitalism still works — and that it is superior to the very different system Xi is ruthlessly enforcing at home as he tries to extend China’s influence around the world. For a president barely 10 weeks into office, casting the United States as confronting a global struggle with the Chinese model has some clear political benefits. One of the few issues that unites Democrats and Republicans is the need to compete head-on with Beijing. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said Monday that the Chinese have already taken notice. “They recognize in many ways that we are now finally awakened to the challenge,” he said this week at the Atlantic Council. “And I would call it a bipartisan awakening.” Biden’s aides say his view of the Chinese challenge is not solely one of foreign policy. He plans to make full use of the fear of Beijing’s ambitions as he introduces his infrastructure initiative next week. There will be hundreds of billions of dollars for technologies and projects that the Chinese are also pouring cash into, including semiconductors, artificial intelligence and 5G networks, as well as big breakthroughs in electric cars and synthetic biotechnology. On Friday, Biden said he suggested to Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain that the big Western democracies work together to counter China’s ambitious efforts to build better trade routes around the world, a project called the Belt and Road Initiative. The project is one of China’s main instruments for influencing nations in its economic orbit by investing in ports, rail lines, roads and other infrastructure in Asia, Africa and Europe. “We talked about China and the competition they’re engaging in in the Belt and Road Initiative,” Biden said. “And I suggested we should have, essentially, a similar initiative coming from the democratic states, helping those communities around the world.” There is a striking similarity between Biden’s list and Xi’s “Made in China 2025” initiative — which was first announced six years ago as an effort to make China largely independent of Western suppliers for critical technology. At the core of Biden’s infrastructure and supply-chain initiatives is an effort — parts of which began in the Trump years — to ensure the West is not dependent on Chinese technology. It is a battle that blossomed over Huawei, the maker of next-generation communications networks, but has now spread to fears that Chinese apps like TikTok could be a pathway for attacks on American infrastructure. “China is outinvesting us by a long shot,” Biden said, previewing his argument, “because their plan is to own that future.” It is a time-tested approach: President Dwight D. Eisenhower used the launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, to spur a military and civilian space race, and President John F. Kennedy picked up on the theme in setting the goal for landing a man on the moon. A decade ago, President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address to call for a “Sputnik moment” of public investment, also using China as a spur, but the effort fell flat. Yet for all the unanimity around the China challenge, it is far from clear whether Biden’s political strategy will work. Republicans object to both the huge government spending in the Biden plan and to the overhang of debt it would create. And there seems bound to be a rerun of the arguments, dating to the 1980s, over whether a federal “industrial policy” — where taxpayer dollars are poured directly into technologies in which the United States judges it must stay ahead — that creates a competitive advantage for America makes sense or just squelches the innovations of Silicon Valley. No matter how that plays out, Biden is casting the United States’ current competition in very different terms than his predecessors did. “Look, I predict to you,” he said, “your children or grandchildren are going to be doing their doctoral thesis on the issue of who succeeded: autocracy or democracy? Because that is what is at stake, not just China.” Most notable was what was missing. There was no talk of American “exceptionalism,” just a shorter-term assurance that “on my watch,” China would not reach its overall goal “to become the leading country in the world, the wealthiest country in the world, and the most powerful country in the world.” Biden was also careful not to make Cold War analogies; in fact, he noted that what was missing now was much of an ideological contest. (“You don’t have Russia talking about communism anymore,” he noted.) He has always said he would cooperate with adversaries, and on Friday he invited Xi and Putin to a virtual climate summit meeting he is hosting in April. He speaks of competition, not containment. “I see stiff competition with China,” Biden said, over everything from chips to national values, which he added was the key to his two-hour conversation with Xi. And that, he said, meant pushing back on China’s stripping of rights in Hong Kong or on its harsh repression of Muslim minorities. “The moment a president walks away from that, as the last one did,” he said, taking a dig at former President Donald Trump, “is the moment we begin to lose our legitimacy around the world.” Still, Biden’s discussion of an open contest between two similarly sized superpowers was a significant change for U.S. presidents. A quarter-century ago, President Bill Clinton would make the case — oftentimes, during visits to Beijing — that the arrival of the internet would force China to embrace an more American-style democracy. Clearly, that did not work out. President George W. Bush stressed areas where Chinese and American interests overlapped — counterterrorism and North Korea were the two he mentioned the most — but never cast China as a technological equal. Obama would always say the United States “welcomes the rise of China” and recognized that it could not contain the country if it wanted to, so it would be foolish to try. And Trump spent three years imposing tariffs and insisting he would cut the deal of the century with China, and one year castigating it as the exporter of the coronavirus, while his secretary of state at the time, Mike Pompeo, insisted that over time, the Communist Party would collapse. Now, Biden’s team says it is assembling a strategy built more around competition than containment. “I don’t think China is on a mission to export its model abroad and undermine democracy abroad,” said Thomas J. Christensen, a Columbia professor and former State Department official dealing with China during the Bush administration. “But I do think they are on a mission to defend their model from criticism and defend single-party authoritarian rule.” Christensen published an essay this week in Foreign Affairs titled, “There Will Not Be a New Cold War,” arguing that American allies were “too economically dependent on China to adopt entirely hostile policies,” and that the United States’ advantage was that it had allies and partners who ranked among the greatest technological powers in the world. Secretary of State Antony Blinken seemed to acknowledge that this week when, on a visit to Brussels, he assured the Europeans that he would not force them to make an “us or them choice.” The Biden camp’s calculation seems to be that it is more important to hold allies together than to ensure that each one cuts off its dependency on Chinese technology or investment. The problem will come, as Blinken notes, as China lashes out at those who criticize its actions at home, in the South China Sea, or against Taiwan. “When one of us is coerced,” he said, “we should respond as allies and work together to reduce our vulnerability by ensuring our economies are more integrated with each other.” Which sounds a lot like creating opposing camps.

Biden defines his underlying challenge with China: ‘Prove democracy works’

Congo Republic President Denis Sassou Nguesso has been re-elected with more than 88% of the vote, official results showed on Tuesday, extending his 36 years leading the Central African oil producer despite a prolonged economic crisis.&nbsp;

His closest rival, Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas, who died hours after the polls closed, received less than 8%. Kolelas was being evacuated to France to be treated for Covid-19 when he died.&nbsp;

Diplomats and political analysts had expected an easy victory for Sassou, 77, who has a firm grip on state institutions in the country of 5.4 million.&nbsp;

The main opposition party boycotted the vote and two of his other main rivals were convicted of crimes after the last election in 2016.&nbsp;

"It's a feeling of great responsibility, especially toward young people," Sassou, wearing a white button-down shirt emblasoned with his own face, told supporters in a victory speech.&nbsp;

Sassou is a former paratrooper, who took power in 1979. He lost Congo's first multi-party elections in 1992 but returned to office in 1997 after a civil war.&nbsp;

He changed the constitution in 2015 to extend term limits that would have barred him from standing for re-election the following year.&nbsp;

Congo's economy has been in crisis since 2014 when oil prices collapsed. That caused the country's external debt, much of it owed to private oil traders like Glencore, to soar to over 100% of gross domestic product.&nbsp;

The coronavirus pandemic and resulting drop in oil prices last year have made matters worse. The economy contracted by more than 8% last year and is expected to grow by less than 1% this year.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

Congo Republic President Denis Sassou Nguesso has been re-elected with more than 88% of the vote, official results showed on Tuesday, extending his 36 years leading the Central African oil producer despite a prolonged economic crisis.

Congo Republic President Denis Sassou Nguesso has been re-elected with more than 88% of the vote, official results showed on Tuesday, extending his 36 years leading the Central African oil producer despite a prolonged economic crisis. His closest rival, Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas, who died hours after the polls closed, received less than 8%. Kolelas was being evacuated to France to be treated for Covid-19 when he died. Diplomats and political analysts had expected an easy victory for Sassou, 77, who has a firm grip on state institutions in the country of 5.4 million. The main opposition party boycotted the vote and two of his other main rivals were convicted of crimes after the last election in 2016. "It's a feeling of great responsibility, especially toward young people," Sassou, wearing a white button-down shirt emblasoned with his own face, told supporters in a victory speech. Sassou is a former paratrooper, who took power in 1979. He lost Congo's first multi-party elections in 1992 but returned to office in 1997 after a civil war. He changed the constitution in 2015 to extend term limits that would have barred him from standing for re-election the following year. Congo's economy has been in crisis since 2014 when oil prices collapsed. That caused the country's external debt, much of it owed to private oil traders like Glencore, to soar to over 100% of gross domestic product. The coronavirus pandemic and resulting drop in oil prices last year have made matters worse. The economy contracted by more than 8% last year and is expected to grow by less than 1% this year. (With inputs from agencies)

Congo Republic's Sassou gets re-elected with 88% vote 

President Joe Biden has begun reviewing a list of finalists to serve as key ambassadors as he seeks to cut down on the number of political appointees his predecessor Donald Trump installed at embassies abroad, and to send a signal to career Foreign Service officials that they are valued once again.

That has left hundreds of donors and former lawmakers, who have not been Foreign Service officers but do have close relationships to the president, clamoring for about 35 ambassadorship slots available, according to people familiar with the process. It has also led to a push and pull between the desires of the diplomatic and political worlds.

The tension between those spheres has been most prominently on display in internal deliberations about who to appoint as ambassador to China, one of the most important embassy postings, especially after an extraordinarily rancorous meeting in Anchorage between top Chinese and American diplomats signaled a newly confrontational Beijing.

Biden, people familiar with the process said, has expressed interest in choosing someone he views as a “principal” who could be a political fighter, in other words, a former elected official who would send a different kind of message than a career diplomat would.

Rahm Emanuel, a former Chicago mayor and White House chief of staff in the Obama administration, has been in the running for the position after being passed over for transportation secretary, people familiar with the process said. He remains close to Biden and other senior officials in the White House.

But the diplomatic world is pushing for R. Nicholas Burns, a veteran Foreign Service officer and a former ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to get the post, arguing for a career professional over someone whose work has been steeped in domestic politics. Emanuel, who is also said to be under consideration as ambassador to Japan, declined to comment on the state of internal deliberations. Burns did not respond to a request for comment.

Biden has yet to be presented with or weigh in on the full list of posts overseas, according to an administration official. But he has been reviewing a “partial list,” with some candidates for crucial jobs, and intends to be deeply involved in the selection process. Unlike President Barack Obama, who advisers said never dove deeply into his diplomatic nominees and left the jigsaw puzzle of appointments to his staff, Biden was described as an “Irish politician” with great personal interest in where his large network lands.

“Biden has been deeply enmeshed in the foreign policy world his whole life,” said David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Obama. “He spent a lot of his time with ambassadors. It would mean a lot to him.”

The administration is expected to move its first slate of nominees — which is likely to include more substantive posts like NATO ambassador and European Union ambassador, along with posts to some European and other key countries — by mid-April, an administration official said.

So far, the only ambassador appointment Biden has made is to the United Nations, with Linda Thomas-Greenfield taking over in February as the United States’ top representative.

That puts the president at least a month behind the Obama administration, which began announcing appointments in March 2009. Trump, for his part, left some assignments, like U.S. envoy to Singapore, vacant for the entirety of his administration, after his initial pick, K.T. McFarland, stalled in the Senate. She withdrew her nomination after Democrats accused her of misleading lawmakers over whether she had known about discussions between former national security adviser Michael Flynn and a Russian diplomat.

Democrats said the dissolution of the United States’ standing abroad over the past four years would make Biden’s selections more important and more scrutinized.

“It is hard to quantify the extent of the damage caused by Donald Trump’s reckless fixation with installing unvetted, unqualified, incapable and often times offensive political allies to serve in some of the most consequential national security posts of our government,” said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., chair of the Foreign Relations Committee.

There are people who are viewed as “must dos” for ambassadorships in the Biden administration, including Cindy McCain, the widow of former Sen. John McCain; David Cohen, a Comcast executive who was an early Biden donor; and Mark Gitenstein, a close friend of Biden’s and former ambassador to Romania, who is said to be in the running for ambassador to the European Union.

Other close Biden friends who were expected have had their first pick for positions overseas, like Ted Kaufman, the former Delaware senator, and Christopher Dodd, the former Connecticut senator who was seen as a front-runner for Ireland, have taken themselves out of consideration.

Many donors and political appointees eager for help in the process have leaned on Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., to call the White House and advocate them.

Because of the challenge of installing a diverse group representative of the United States in such posts, Biden administration officials have told candidates to name more than one country in which they would be willing to serve.

Biden has a smaller network of big donors than many politicians, making the musical chairs of selecting ambassadors slightly less complicated than it would have been for Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee, known for her close relationships with donors who funded both her own political career and her husband’s.

During a 2020 campaign that was almost all virtual, it was difficult for donors to develop close personal relationships with a presidential candidate they had to meet over video chat instead of host in their living rooms.

What Biden does have, however, is a huge political circle, which is making the stakes more competitive. Former Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Emanuel and Vicki Kennedy, the widow of former Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, are people Biden feels close to and who could make substantive arguments for being appointed to coveted posts abroad. McCaskill declined to comment on her interest in such a posting.

The donor bucket, filled with people who are perceived as simply buying themselves a comfortable perch overseas, and the political bucket, filled with appointees who might have some relevant experience, are often unfairly conflated.

“The professional Foreign Service cares a lot about having competent, professional people in the roles,” said Richard Fontaine, chief executive of the Center for a New American Security. “You have political appointees with experience and access to the president or senior staff. Then you have another group that would struggle to find the country they were nominated for on an unmarked map. That’s the problematic group.”

Briefing books, which include two or three options for every post, have been compiled by Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, and Cathy Russell, director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, are also involved in the selection process.

In a post-Trump world, the nominations are arguably more important to the president’s overall mission than ever before.

“There are more questions all over the world now about where America is going,” said Fontaine, noting that ambassadors would have to explain what Trump-era policies would stay or change.

“Whatever people thought of the past four years, they do have questions about how much was about Trump and how much was about America,” Fontaine added. “They want to know if Trump was the aberration from normal or if Biden will be the aberration from normal. Those are the kinds of things ambassadors are going to have to communicate.”

President Joe Biden has begun reviewing a list of finalists to serve as key ambassadors as he seeks to cut down on the number of political appointees his predecessor Donald Trump installed at embassies abroad, and to send a signal to career Foreign Service officials that they are valued once again.

President Joe Biden has begun reviewing a list of finalists to serve as key ambassadors as he seeks to cut down on the number of political appointees his predecessor Donald Trump installed at embassies abroad, and to send a signal to career Foreign Service officials that they are valued once again. That has left hundreds of donors and former lawmakers, who have not been Foreign Service officers but do have close relationships to the president, clamoring for about 35 ambassadorship slots available, according to people familiar with the process. It has also led to a push and pull between the desires of the diplomatic and political worlds. The tension between those spheres has been most prominently on display in internal deliberations about who to appoint as ambassador to China, one of the most important embassy postings, especially after an extraordinarily rancorous meeting in Anchorage between top Chinese and American diplomats signaled a newly confrontational Beijing. Biden, people familiar with the process said, has expressed interest in choosing someone he views as a “principal” who could be a political fighter, in other words, a former elected official who would send a different kind of message than a career diplomat would. Rahm Emanuel, a former Chicago mayor and White House chief of staff in the Obama administration, has been in the running for the position after being passed over for transportation secretary, people familiar with the process said. He remains close to Biden and other senior officials in the White House. But the diplomatic world is pushing for R. Nicholas Burns, a veteran Foreign Service officer and a former ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to get the post, arguing for a career professional over someone whose work has been steeped in domestic politics. Emanuel, who is also said to be under consideration as ambassador to Japan, declined to comment on the state of internal deliberations. Burns did not respond to a request for comment. Biden has yet to be presented with or weigh in on the full list of posts overseas, according to an administration official. But he has been reviewing a “partial list,” with some candidates for crucial jobs, and intends to be deeply involved in the selection process. Unlike President Barack Obama, who advisers said never dove deeply into his diplomatic nominees and left the jigsaw puzzle of appointments to his staff, Biden was described as an “Irish politician” with great personal interest in where his large network lands. “Biden has been deeply enmeshed in the foreign policy world his whole life,” said David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Obama. “He spent a lot of his time with ambassadors. It would mean a lot to him.” The administration is expected to move its first slate of nominees — which is likely to include more substantive posts like NATO ambassador and European Union ambassador, along with posts to some European and other key countries — by mid-April, an administration official said. So far, the only ambassador appointment Biden has made is to the United Nations, with Linda Thomas-Greenfield taking over in February as the United States’ top representative. That puts the president at least a month behind the Obama administration, which began announcing appointments in March 2009. Trump, for his part, left some assignments, like U.S. envoy to Singapore, vacant for the entirety of his administration, after his initial pick, K.T. McFarland, stalled in the Senate. She withdrew her nomination after Democrats accused her of misleading lawmakers over whether she had known about discussions between former national security adviser Michael Flynn and a Russian diplomat. Democrats said the dissolution of the United States’ standing abroad over the past four years would make Biden’s selections more important and more scrutinized. “It is hard to quantify the extent of the damage caused by Donald Trump’s reckless fixation with installing unvetted, unqualified, incapable and often times offensive political allies to serve in some of the most consequential national security posts of our government,” said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., chair of the Foreign Relations Committee. There are people who are viewed as “must dos” for ambassadorships in the Biden administration, including Cindy McCain, the widow of former Sen. John McCain; David Cohen, a Comcast executive who was an early Biden donor; and Mark Gitenstein, a close friend of Biden’s and former ambassador to Romania, who is said to be in the running for ambassador to the European Union. Other close Biden friends who were expected have had their first pick for positions overseas, like Ted Kaufman, the former Delaware senator, and Christopher Dodd, the former Connecticut senator who was seen as a front-runner for Ireland, have taken themselves out of consideration. Many donors and political appointees eager for help in the process have leaned on Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., to call the White House and advocate them. Because of the challenge of installing a diverse group representative of the United States in such posts, Biden administration officials have told candidates to name more than one country in which they would be willing to serve. Biden has a smaller network of big donors than many politicians, making the musical chairs of selecting ambassadors slightly less complicated than it would have been for Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee, known for her close relationships with donors who funded both her own political career and her husband’s. During a 2020 campaign that was almost all virtual, it was difficult for donors to develop close personal relationships with a presidential candidate they had to meet over video chat instead of host in their living rooms. What Biden does have, however, is a huge political circle, which is making the stakes more competitive. Former Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Emanuel and Vicki Kennedy, the widow of former Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, are people Biden feels close to and who could make substantive arguments for being appointed to coveted posts abroad. McCaskill declined to comment on her interest in such a posting. The donor bucket, filled with people who are perceived as simply buying themselves a comfortable perch overseas, and the political bucket, filled with appointees who might have some relevant experience, are often unfairly conflated. “The professional Foreign Service cares a lot about having competent, professional people in the roles,” said Richard Fontaine, chief executive of the Center for a New American Security. “You have political appointees with experience and access to the president or senior staff. Then you have another group that would struggle to find the country they were nominated for on an unmarked map. That’s the problematic group.” Briefing books, which include two or three options for every post, have been compiled by Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, and Cathy Russell, director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, are also involved in the selection process. In a post-Trump world, the nominations are arguably more important to the president’s overall mission than ever before. “There are more questions all over the world now about where America is going,” said Fontaine, noting that ambassadors would have to explain what Trump-era policies would stay or change. “Whatever people thought of the past four years, they do have questions about how much was about Trump and how much was about America,” Fontaine added. “They want to know if Trump was the aberration from normal or if Biden will be the aberration from normal. Those are the kinds of things ambassadors are going to have to communicate.”

Insiders jockey for whittled-down ambassadorship slots

Paraguayan opposition lawmakers lost a bid on Wednesday to impeach President Mario Abdo over the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the South American country.&nbsp;

Abdo's conservative government has faced fierce protests in recent weeks as a surge in Covid-19 cases has left hospitals on the brink of collapse and out of drugs, while the country has been slow to secure vaccines.&nbsp;

Opposition lawmakers in the lower house of deputies put forward the motion to impeach Abdo and his vice-president.&nbsp;

Fifty-three votes were needed for the motion to pass and at the end, the president was thrown a lifeline by a voting bloc within the ruling Colorado Party led by former President Horacio Cartes.&nbsp;

"Just because you have a majority does not always mean you are right," said opposition deputy Edgar Acosta during the plenary session. "They may have won the political trial but they lost the citizen's trial."&nbsp;

Those, who argued against the motion, said the country needed stability to move forward with the purchase of vaccines and medicine critical to address the Covid-19 crisis.&nbsp;

The failed push will nonetheless pile further pressure on Abdo's government, which has been forced to shuffle several ministers, including the health minister and chief of staff, to help calm public anger.&nbsp;

Shortly after the result came through, police dispersed stone-throwing protesters with rubber bullets and water cannons near the congressional headquarters in the historic centre of Asunción.&nbsp;

A smaller group of protesters attacked the headquarters of the ruling party, starting a small fire in part of the building, which was later brought under control by police with no major damage or injuries reported.&nbsp;

Paraguay's health ministry reported a record daily high of 2,540 Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of infections in the landlocked Latin nation to 185,888 and 3,588 people dead.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

Paraguayan opposition lawmakers lost a bid on Wednesday to impeach President Mario Abdo over the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the South American country.

Paraguayan opposition lawmakers lost a bid on Wednesday to impeach President Mario Abdo over the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the South American country. Abdo's conservative government has faced fierce protests in recent weeks as a surge in Covid-19 cases has left hospitals on the brink of collapse and out of drugs, while the country has been slow to secure vaccines. Opposition lawmakers in the lower house of deputies put forward the motion to impeach Abdo and his vice-president. Fifty-three votes were needed for the motion to pass and at the end, the president was thrown a lifeline by a voting bloc within the ruling Colorado Party led by former President Horacio Cartes. "Just because you have a majority does not always mean you are right," said opposition deputy Edgar Acosta during the plenary session. "They may have won the political trial but they lost the citizen's trial." Those, who argued against the motion, said the country needed stability to move forward with the purchase of vaccines and medicine critical to address the Covid-19 crisis. The failed push will nonetheless pile further pressure on Abdo's government, which has been forced to shuffle several ministers, including the health minister and chief of staff, to help calm public anger. Shortly after the result came through, police dispersed stone-throwing protesters with rubber bullets and water cannons near the congressional headquarters in the historic centre of Asunción. A smaller group of protesters attacked the headquarters of the ruling party, starting a small fire in part of the building, which was later brought under control by police with no major damage or injuries reported. Paraguay's health ministry reported a record daily high of 2,540 Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of infections in the landlocked Latin nation to 185,888 and 3,588 people dead. (With inputs from agencies)

Paraguay president survives impeachment bid by opposition over pandemic

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