NEPAL PM WINS VOTE OF CONFIDENCE BY LONG SHOT

Newly-elected Prime Minister of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal survived a vote of confidence in the Nepalese House of Representatives in Kathmandu on Tuesday. Dahal received 268 votes in the 275-member strong parliament. A total of two lawmakers voted against and none remained neutral. A total of 270 lawmakers were present in today’s meeting. The prime minister required at least 138 votes to win the trust motion.

Dahal said on Tuesday that he wanted to take forward the politics of consensus, cooperation and mutual trust rather than the politics of negation, disrespect and vengeance before the vote of confidence in the parliament. The 68-year-old CPN-Maoist Centre leader was sworn in as the Prime Minister for the third time on December 26 after he dramatically walked out of the pre-poll alliance led by the Nepali Congress and joined hands with opposition leader K P Sharma Oli.

IRAN 'WEAPONIZING' DEATH PENALTY TO FRIGHTEN PUBLIC, SAYS UN

Tehran is weaponizing the death penalty to punish individuals taking part in protests in order to strike fear into the Iranian population and stamp out dissent, the UN human rights chief said on January 10. "The weaponization of criminal procedures to punish people for exercising their basic rights -- such as those participating in or organizing demonstrations -- amounts to state sanctioned killing," Volker Turk said.

BRAZIL RIOTS: ARRESTS ORDERED FOR TOP OFFICIALS AFTER CAPITAL STORMED

Brazil's judicial authorities have ordered the arrest of top public officials after rioters stormed key government buildings in Brasília.

One official, the former commander of the military police, has been arrested, local media reported.

The officials also include Brasília's former public security chief Anderson Torres and others "responsible for acts and omissions" leading to the riots, the attorney general's office said.

Mr Torres denies any role in the riots.

Colonel Fábio Augusto, the police commander, was dismissed from his role after supporters of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro stormed Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court.

Of the approximately 1,500 people arrested and brought to the police academy after the riot, officials say that nearly 600 have been taken to other facilities, where police officials have five days to formally charge them.

Earlier on Tuesday, the federal intervenor in public security accused Mr Torres of "a structured sabotage operation".

Ricardo Cappelli, who has been appointed to run security in Brasília, said there was a "lack of command" from Mr Torres before government buildings were stormed.

Lula's inauguration on 1 January was "an extremely successful security operation," Mr Cappelli told CNN.

What changed before Sunday was that, on 2 January, "Anderson Torres took over as Secretary of Security, dismissed the entire command and travelled", he said.

"If this isn't sabotage, I don't know what is," Mr Cappelli added.

Mr Torres said that he deeply regretted the "absurd hypotheses" that he played any part in the riots.

Lula has accused security forces of "neglecting" their duty in not halting the "terrorist acts" in Brasília.

GLOBAL RECESSION WARNING AS WORLD BANK CUTS ECONOMIC FORECAST

The global economy is "perilously close to falling into recession", according to the latest forecast from the World Bank.

It expects the world economy to grow by just 1.7% this year - a sharp decrease from the 3% it predicted in June.

The report blames a number of factors stemming from Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the impact of the pandemic.

The effects of higher interest rates are picked out as the key challenge for policy makers to overcome.

World Bank president David Malpass said the downturn would be "broad-based" and growth in people's earnings in almost every part of the world was likely to "be slower than it was during the decade before Covid-19".

The 1.7% growth figure would be the lowest since 1991, with the exceptions of the recessions of 2009 and 2020, which were caused by the global financial crisis and the Covid pandemic.

The World Bank said the US, the Eurozone and China - the three most influential parts of the world for economic growth - were "all undergoing a period of pronounced weakness", a downturn that was worsening the problems faced by poorer countries.

After surging 5.3% in post-pandemic 2021, growth in the world's richest economies is likely to slow sharply from 2.5% in 2022 to just 0.5% this year.

"Over the past two decades, slowdowns of this scale have foreshadowed a global recession," the bank warned, adding that it anticipated "a sharp, long-lasting slowdown".

If a global recession were to occur, it would be the first time since the 1930s that there have been two global recessions within the same decade.

POLL PANEL ISSUES WARRANTS AGAINST KHAN, AIDES IN CONTEMPT CASE

Pakistan’s Election Commission on Tuesday issued bailable arrest warrants for former PM Imran Khan and other top leaders in a contempt case. The Commission had issued notices in 2022 in the exercise of its powers of contempt after the PTI leaders repeatedly bashed the commission.

CHINA HALTS ISSUING VISAS IN JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA TO RETALIATE FOR CURBS

Beijing : China suspended issuing short-term visas in South Korea and Japan on Tuesday, after announcing it would retaliate against countries that required negative Covid-19 tests from Chinese travellers.

China has ditched mandatory quarantines for arrivals and allowed travel to resume across its border with Hong Kong since Sunday, removing the last major restrictions under the “zero-Covid” regime. But the virus is spreading unchecked and worries over the scale and impact of its outbreak have prompted Japan, South Korea, the US and other countries to require negative Covid tests from travellers from China.

Although China imposes similar testing requirements for all arrivals, foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday entry curbs for Chinese travellers were “discriminatory” and China would take “reciprocal measures”.

In the first retaliatory move,the Chinese embassy in South Korea suspended issuing shortterm visas for South Korean visitors. It would adjust the policy subject to the lifting of South Korea’s “discriminatory entry restrictions” against China, the embassy said on its WeChat account. The Chinese embassy in Japan later announced a similar move, saying the mission and its consulates had suspended the issuing of visas from Tuesday. The embassy statement did not say when they would resume.

The move came soon after Japan toughened Covid-19 rules for travellers coming directly from China, prescribing a negative result of a PCR test taken less than 72 hours before departure, as well as a negative test on arrival in Japan. The Chinese announcement in South Korea appeared to apply only to new applicants, and said nothing about South Koreans currently holding visas.

CONTROVERSIAL HARRY MEMOIR HITS THE SHELVES

After months of anticipation and a blanket publicity blitz, Prince Harry’s autobiography “Spare” went on sale Tuesday. In it, Harry portrays his father, King Charles, as emotionally crippled, the victim of childhood bullying. But he also characterises the king as a doting father. He accuses members of the royal family,including his stepmother Camilla, of leaking stories to the media to burnish their own reputations. Citing British sales figures, Transworld Penguin Random House managing director Larry Finlay said it had sold 400,000 copies so far across hardback, e-book and audio formats.

REPUBLICANS TO INVESTIGATE CLASSIFIED FILES AT BIDEN OFFICE

A congressional committee says it will investigate why files marked classified were found in President Joe Biden's former private office at a think tank.

The oversight panel "is concerned that President Biden has compromised [intelligence] sources", James Comer, its Republican chairman, said.

The papers, discovered at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, reportedly contain briefings on foreign countries.

The US justice department is reviewing the matter.

Mr Comer, who represents a Kentucky district, has asked the White House to turn over its documents and communications related to the classified materials, as well as a list of people who had access to the office space, by 24 January. It is a request, not a legal summons.

In Mexico City, where he was attending a summit, Mr Biden told reporters on Tuesday he was "surprised" by the discovery.

"I don't know what's in the documents," he said, indicating his lawyers had advised him not to inquire about the contents.

"We're co-operating fully with the review," he added.

The documents' level of classification or why they were there is unclear.

IRAN EX-PREZ DAUGHTER GETS 5-YR JAIL, CHARGES NOT CLEAR

Dubai : The activist daughter of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been sentenced to five years in prison, her lawyer said on Tuesday. The lawyer did not give detail of the charges against Faezeh Hashemi. But Tehran’s public prosecutor indicted Hashemi last year on charges of “propaganda against the system”, as per the semi-official ISNA newsagency. State media in September reported she had been arrested for “inciting riots” in Tehran during protests triggered by the death of a Kurdish woman in police custody. The demonstrations have posed one of the biggest challenges to Iran’s clerical rulers since the 1979 revolution. In2012, Faezeh was sentenced to jail for “anti state propaganda” dating back to 2009’ disputed presidential poll.

FIRST IN 50K YEARS: ‘GREEN’ COMET TO COME CLOSEST TO EARTH ON FEB 2

A ‘green’ comet that took about 50,000 years to take a round of the Sun will come closest to Earth for the first time on February 2 since the Old Stone Age. This might also be the last time humans will be able to witness the passing of the comet as it will never again be sighted closest to Earth due to its parabolic path. The comet, named C/2022 E3 (ZTF), is expected to be about 26 million miles from the Earth on February 2. This will be the closest the comet has been to the Earth in 50,000 years.

Astronomers first spotted the comet last March. “Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was discovered by astronomers using the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility in early March. Since then the new long-period comet has brightened substantially and is now sweeping across the northern constellation Corona Borealis in predawn skies. It’s still too dim to see without a telescope though,” Nasa said on Decmber 24.