LEBANON, ISRAEL REACH ‘HISTORIC’ AGREEMENT ON MARITIME BORDERS

Jerusalem : Israel and Lebanon have agreed to resolve a decades-old dispute over the control of an eastern stretch of the Mediterranean Sea, leaders of the two countries announced Tuesday, in a major diplomatic breakthrough between two neighbours that technically remain at war and have no direct diplomatic relations.

If ratified by both countries, the deal is expected to avert the threat of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, and to make it easier for energy companies to extract gas from the eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea. The office of the Lebanese President Michel Aoun said the draft deal satisfied “Lebanon, meets its demands and preserves its rights to its naturalwealth. ”

Israeli PM Yair Lapid called the deal a “historic achievement that will strengthen Israel’s security, inject billions into Israel’s economy, and ensure the stability of our northern border”. The deal settled a deca-des-old dispute about the location of the two countries’ exclusive economic zones in the eastern Mediterranean, demarcating where both countries have the sole right to extract resources. Lebanon also recognised Israel’s existing control of a 3-mile-wide stretch of water closest to their shared coast, while Israel allowed Lebanon the right to drill in a previously contested gas field that stretches between the Israeli and Lebanese economic zones, an Israeli official said.

In exchange, Israel will receive compensation for any gas taken from the section of the field, known as Qana, which is within the Israeli zone. And Lebanon has renounced any claims to a second gas field nearby, Karish, allowing Israel to proceed with the extraction of gas there without fear of reprisals from Hezbollah. The dealrepresented a significant breakthrough for two countries that have a long history of conflic and fought a monthlong war in 2006 with Hezbollah.

IMF CUTS GLOBAL GROWTH FORECAST FOR NEXT YEAR, WARNS ‘THE WORST IS YET TO COME’

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday downgraded its forecast for the global economy next year and warned inflation will be worse than previously expected due largely to the ongoing disruptions spurred by the war on Ukraine—highlighting the difficulties faced by central banks around the world as they try to cool decades-high price increases without spurring a recession.

In its biannual World Economic Outlook report published Tuesday, the IMF said global growth is expected to fall from 6% in 2021 to 3.2% this year and 2.7% in 2023—0.2 percentage points lower than its forecast just three months ago.

The organization blamed the lagging growth prospects on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, persistent and broadening inflation pressures and the slowdown in China exacerbated by stringent Covid-19 measures.

Fueling the overall decline, the IMF downgraded its U.S. economic growth forecast to 1% as a result of the Fed’s ongoing interest rate hikes, but noted the slowdown could be “most pronounced” in Europe, where an energy crisis spurred by the unprovoked war on Ukraine will continue to take a “heavy toll” into next year.

“In short, the worst is yet to come,” the IMF’s Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said of the data, noting that a third of the world economy will likely contract this year or next and that “for many people, 2023 will feel like a recession.”

The organization said it expects global inflation will peak at 9.5% later this year before falling to 4.1% by 2024—still significantly higher than 3.4% last year—but it also emphasized the risk of central banks raising rates too much and pushing the global economy into an “unnecessarily severe recession.”

Overall, there’s a one-in-four chance that global growth could fall below the historically low level of 2%, the IMF estimates, but the chances of growth falling to near-zero—or worse—next year remain notable, at about 10% to 15%.

UKRAINE SEEKS AIR DEFENCE HELP FROM G7, NATO TIGHTENS SECURITY

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to leaders of the Group of Seven nations on Tuesday for more air defence capabilities and the G7 vowed to support Kyiv for “as long as it takes” while warning Russia against any use of nuclear weapons.

The G7 — which groups the United States, Germany, France, Japan, Britain, Italy and Canada — pledged continued “financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic and legal support... for as long as it takes” to Ukraine, it said in a statement.

NATO said it was closely monitoring Russia’s nuclear forces following a string of Russian battlefield defeats in Ukraine and that the allies were also boosting security around key infrastructure after recent attacks on Baltic Sea gas pipelines.

Russian missiles again hit Ukrainian cities but with less intensity than on Monday, when dozens of strikes killed 19 persons, wounded more than 100 and knocked out power supplies across the country.

“When Ukraine receives a sufficient quantity of modern and effective air defence systems, the key element of Russia’s terror, rocket strikes, will cease to work,” Mr. Zelensky told G7 leaders at a virtual meeting where he again ruled out peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky has urged countries to hit Russia with more sanctions in response to "a new wave of terror" after Monday's attacks on Ukraine.

Belarus, Moscow’s closest ally, said it had begun an exercise to assess its “combat readiness” after ordering troops on Monday to deploy with Russian forces near its border with Ukraine.

Mr. Zelensky denied Minsk’s claim that Ukraine planned to attack Belarus but told the G7 he wanted to make sure there was no threat from its northern neighbour, and he called for a mission of international observers to monitor the border area.

RUSSIA ADDS META TO ‘TERRORIST AND EXTREMIST’ GROUPS LIST

Russia on Tuesday added US tech giant Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, to a list of “terrorist and extremist” organisations, according to a database of the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring (Rosfinmonitoring).

Russia in late March banned Facebook and Instagram for “carrying out extremist activities” after authorities accused Meta of tolerating “Russophobia” during Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine. Meta had announced on March 10 that the platforms would allow statements like “death to Russian invaders” but not credible threats against civilians, before saying the change only applied to users posting from inside Ukraine. Facebook and Instagram have been inaccessible in Russia since March, but many Russians resorted to VPN to keep using the social media network.

No ban on Whatsapp

The ban does not apply to popular messenger app Whatsapp. Billions of people use Meta’s app around the world.

Limit electricity use, Kyiv tells citizens

Ukrainian PM Denys Shmyhal on Tuesday called on Ukrainians to limit their electricity use after Russian strikes left energy facilities across the country badly damaged. “We are asking you today to again to limit your electricity consumption. In peak hours — between 5pm and 11pm —please do not turn on energy-intensive appliances... as the terrorist state is continuing massive attacks on the energy infrastructures of our country for the second day in a row,” Shmyhal said on Telegram.

40 CANADIAN TECHIES TO TRAIN KYIV FORCES

Canada said on Tuesday it will send 40 more combat engineers to help support Polish efforts to train Ukrainian forces, as part of its commitment to increase military aid for Ukraine. The Canadian Armed Forces have trained over 33,000 Ukrainian military and security personnel since 2015, but have paused aspects of the training effort since February. “In the coming weeks, Canada will deploy 40 combat engineers to help Polish Forces train Ukrainian sappers,” its defence minister Anita Anand said.

IRAN PROTESTS: ALARM AT CRACKDOWN BY SECURITY FORCES IN KURDISH CITY

Human rights activists have expressed alarm at a crackdown on protests in a Kurdish-populated city in western Iran.

Amnesty International said there were reports that security forces had used firearms indiscriminately in Sanandaj.

Kurdish group Hengaw posted a video which it said showed police shooting at homes in the city and another in which gunfire and cries could be heard.

It reported that at least five civilians had been killed and 400 injured across the region since Sunday.

But it warned that the death toll might be higher because authorities were disrupting local internet and mobile networks.

Protests against the clerical establishment have swept across Iran since the death three weeks ago of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman from the western city of Saqqez who fell into a coma after being detained by morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating the strict hijab law.

The unrest is now considered the most serious challenge to the Islamic Republic since its inception in 1979.

Iran's leaders have accused foreign enemies and exiled opposition groups of fomenting "riots" that they will not tolerate.

Hengaw reported on Tuesday that over the past three days protests had taken place in 10 areas of Kurdistan, Kermanshah and West Azerbaijan provinces, with Sanandaj the epicentre of the unrest and the crackdown by authorities.

NASA'S DART SPACECRAFT 'CHANGED PATH OF ASTEROID'

The American space agency says its recent attempt to deflect the path of an asteroid was successful.

Scientists have now confirmed the orbit of a 160m-wide (520ft) space rock known as Dimorphos was altered when the Dart probe struck it head on last month.

Researchers came to the conclusion after making measurements using a range of space and Earth-based telescopes.

The mission was conceived to test a potential strategy to defend the Earth against threatening objects.

Dart's achievement proves such an idea would work, provided it was initiated early enough and the target wasn't overly massive.

"This mission shows that Nasa is trying to be ready for whatever the Universe throws at us," said agency administrator Bill Nelson.

"I believe that Nasa has proven that we are serious as a defender of the planet," he told reporters.

The space agency released a raft of data on Tuesday to support its assessment, including new pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope and from a small Italian spacecraft that stood off from the impact by about 50km (30 miles).

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) took place some 11 million km (7 million miles) from Earth.

It saw the refrigerator-sized Nasa satellite drive straight into Dimorphos at 22,000km/h (14,000mph), destroying itself in the process.

BIDEN TO ‘RE-EVALUATE’ TIES WITH SAUDI AFTER OIL PRODUCTION CUT

Washington : President Joe Biden is re-evaluating the US relationship with Saudi Arabia after Opec+ announced last week that it would cut oil production, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday.

“I think the president’s been very clear that this is a relationship that we need to continue to re-evaluate, that we need to be willing to revisit,” Kirby said in an interview with CNN. “And certainly in light of the Opec decision, I think that’s where he is. ” Biden is willing to work with Congress on the future of Saudi relations, Kirby added. Bob Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the US Senate foreign relations committee, on Monday called for a freeze on cooperating with Saudi Arabia, including on most arms sales, accusing the kingdom of helping to underwrite the Russian war in Ukraine after Opec+ announced last week that it would cut oil production.

Biden was disappointed in the Opec+ decision, Kirby said, and “he’s willing to work with Congress to think through what that relationship ought to look like going forward”.

“And I think he’s going to be willing to start to have those conversations right away. I don’t think this is anything that’s going to have to wait or should wait, quite frankly, for much longer,” Kirby added.

The issue does not only concern the war in Ukraine but it is amatter of US national security interests, Kirby said.

1,200 SCHOOLS IN SWAT STAY SHUT TO PROTEST VAN ATTACK

Islamabad : Over1,200 private schools remained shut in Pakistan’s northwestern Swat district on Tuesday in protest against an attack on a school van on Monday, with the agitators warning of a march to Islamabad if the culprits were not arrested within 24 hours and peace restored. The attack left the van driver dead and two students injured. The latest violence gripping Swat Valley in recent days revived memories of the horrors seen in the years when the area was controlled by the Pakistani Taliban. The school van was targeted a day after the 10th anniversary of the shooting of Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai by the TTP in Swatl. Locals blamed the banned TTP for Monday’s attack, but it denied the allegation.

FLOOD-HIT PAKISTAN TO BUY 6M MOSQUITO NETS FROM INDIA

Pakistan’s health ministry has approved the purchase of over 6 million mosquito nets from India, as the country scrambles to contain the spread of malaria and other diseases due to the unprecedented floods, media reported on Tuesday. WHO is using financial resources provided by Global Fund to acquire the nets for Pakistan, Geo.tv report said.

MALAYSIA EX-PM MAHATHIR, 97, TO CONTEST ELECTIONS

Malaysia’s 97-year-old former leader Mahathir Mohamad announced Tuesday he will defend his seat in the

general elections expected next month, though he wouldn’t say whether he would be PM a third time if his political alliance wins. PM Ismail Sabri Yaakob dissolved Parliament on Monday for snap polls, caving in to pressure from his United Malays National Organization party, which is hoping for a big win on its own amid feuds with allies inthe ruling coalition. The EC is due to fix a date within the week for a vote, which must be held within 60 days of Parliament’s dissolution.

CHARLES TO BE CROWNED MAY 6 NEXT YR: PALACE

King Charles III will be crowned at Westminster Abbey on May 6 in a ceremony that will embrace the past but look to the modern world after the 70-year reign of the late Queen Elizabeth II. Tuesday’s announcement from Buckingham Palace comes amid speculation that the coronation will be shorter and less extravagant than the three-hour ceremony that installed Elizabeth in 1953, in keeping with Charles’ plans for aslimmed down monarchy. While the palace gave few details, media reported the guest list would be pared to 2,000 from 8,000.

PREGNANT CABIN CREW CAN NOW KEEP JOBS: SINGAPORE AIRLINES

Singapore Airlines flight attendants will no longer be let go after becoming pregnant, the carrier said on Tuesday as it ditched the longcriticised practice. Previously, cabin crew were terminated after they became pregnant and company doctors declared them medically unfit to fly. Those who wanted to return to flying after giving birth had to re-apply for the job. But the airlines said on Tuesday that pregnant cabin crew can now apply to work in a temporary ground position for three tonine months after declaring their pregnancy.