Pakistan and Afghanistan to Resume 'Dosti' Transport Service
Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to resume the suspended "Dosti" bus service between the two countries in 2022 after more than five years, a move that would help mitigate the travel woes of people living across the border of the two countries. The decision to resume the bus service was taken during the recent visit by the Afghan delegation.
Nov 15, 2021
Sri Lanka Calls for in-person BIMSTEC Summit, Postpones December Meet
Sri Lanka has called for an in-person BIMSTEC summit, the date of which is yet to be decided. This will be the 5th such summit of the grouping.
BIMSTEC or Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation has 7 members - India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. The grouping is more than 20 years old and was formed in 1997. The last summit took place in Kathmandu in 2018 with PM Modi and other member-leaders attending the meet.
Sri Lanka is the chair of the grouping and had earlier proposed holding a virtual summit on 9th December which has now been postponed. Before that it had proposed August for the summit.
This is the 2nd time Colombo had to post the summit, the reason for which has not been given. First April saw BIMSTEC foreign minister meet taking place virtually during which agenda for the leaders' summit was taken up.
Joe Biden Picks Senior Google Health Advisor Robert Califf as FDA Chief
US President Joe Biden picked senior Google Health advisor Dr. Robert Califf as next chief of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Currently, Califf is a professor of medicine at the Duke University School of Medicine, where he previously served as Vice Chancellor and founded the Duke Clinical Research Institute, and works as senior advisor for Verily Life Sciences and Google Health, two divisions of parent company Alphabet.
Dr. Califf is an internationally-recognised expert in clinical trial research, health disparities, healthcare quality, and cardiovascular medicine.
Philippine: Duterte's Daughter Files Candidacy for Vice President Elections
Sara Duterte-Carpio, the daughter of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, filed her candidacy for Vice President in the May 2022 elections.
Carpio sent a representative to the Commission on Elections to file her candidacy as substitute vice presidential candidate under the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) that she joined earlier.
Nov 14, 2021
Race to Lead Angela Merkel's Party in German Opposition Takes Shape
A former German Environment Minister announced his second run for the leadership of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right party as the race to lead it in opposition started to take shape.
The Christian Democratic Union has decided to hold a ballot of its entire roughly 400,000-strong membership on who will take over after incumbent Armin Laschet led it to defeat and its worst-ever national election result in September.
Nov 13, 2021
Professor Bimal Patel Elected to International Law Commission for 5-year Term
Professor Bimal Patel, Vice-Chancellor, Rashtriya Raksha University and Member of National Security Advisory Board of India, has been elected to the International Law Commission for a five-year term starting January 1, 2023 in a hard-fought election at the United Nations.
"Hearty felicitations to Prof Bimal Patel @RakshaUni for election to International Law Commission by topping the group," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti tweeted, thanking all UN member states for overwhelming support to India's candidature.
Prof. Patel garnered 163 votes in the UN General Assembly out of 192 members present and voting, topping the Asia-Pacific group that included candidates from China, South Korea and Japan.
Nov 12, 2021
Sudan's Army Chief Appoints New Ruling Council
Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has formed a new transitional council, headed by himself, to lead the country following the military takeover late last month,.
The new 14-member Sovereign Council, for which one member isyet to be named, includes civilians representing Sudan's regions but none from the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) political coalition that had been sharing power with the military since 2019. Gen. Burhan's deputy will remain Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with both men keeping roles they held before the coup.
The move is likely to harden opposition among civilian groups who have pledged to resist the takeover through a campaign of civil disobedience, strikes and mass rallies.
The council also includes representatives of rebel groups that reached a peace deal with the government last year but had rejected the coup in a statement this week.
Sudan's Army Chief Appoints New Ruling Council
Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has formed a new transitional council, headed by himself, to lead the country following the military takeover late last month,.
The new 14-member Sovereign Council, for which one member isyet to be named, includes civilians representing Sudan's regions but none from the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) political coalition that had been sharing power with the military since 2019. Gen. Burhan's deputy will remain Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with both men keeping roles they held before the coup.
Belarus President Threatens to Shut EU Gas Flow in Border Spat
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko threatened to shut down a key pipeline carrying Russian gas to the European Union as the bloc considers new sanctions, escalating a dispute flaring over migrants seeking to cross from his country into the EU.
European gas prices reversed earlier losses after the threat. The continent is dealing with the worst energy crisis in decades amid limited Russian supplies of gas, among other factors.
The refugee tensions on the border between Belarus and Poland -- which the EU accuses Lukashenko of instigating in retaliation for its pressure on his government over its brutal crackdown on domestic opponents -- has spiraled in recent days, with several thousand people stuck on the frontier.