COMMUNIST RIFT PLUNGES NEPAL’S COALITION INTO CRISIS

Splits within Nepal’s communist-dominated ruling coalition plunged the Himalayan nation into crisis on Monday as a Marxist-Leninist party said it would withdraw support after the Maoist Prime Minister backed an Opposition candidate for the presidency.

Elected in December, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ formed a seven-party coalition including his own Maoist Centre party, the Communist Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML) party and five other smaller groups. Last week, Mr. Prachanda infuriated the UML by pledging support for the Opposition Nepali Congress’s presidential candidate, Ram Chandra Paudel.

Mr. Prachanda had earlier agreed to support a UML candidate for the presidency, according to politicians in the coalition.

Members of both Houses of Parliament and members of seven provincial Assemblies will cast their votes on March 9 to elect the President.

Senior UML figure Bishnu Paudel, who serves as Deputy Prime Minister in charge of finance, said he and all eight Ministers of his party had submitted resignation letters to the Prime Minister as Mr. Prachanda failed to “honour the consensus” that was reached when forming the government.

“We’ll also withdraw support to the coalition government,” Mr. Paudel said.

PIOS RAPIDLY ACQUIRE POLITICAL CLOUT IN US

In 2013, the House of Representatives had a single Indian American member. Fewer than 10 Indian Americans were serving in state legislatures. None had been elected to the Senate. None had run for president. Despite being one of the largest immigrant groups in the US, Americans of Indian descent were barely represented in politics.

Ten years later, the Congress sworn in last month includes five Indian Americans. Nearly 50 are in state legislatures. Vice-President Kamala Harris is Indian American. Nikki Haley’s campaign announcement this month makes 2024 the third consecutive cycle in which an Indian American has run for president, and Vivek Ramaswamy’s newly announced candidacy makes it the first cycle with two.

A range of factors, such as the relative wealth of Indian immigrants and high education levels, has propelled a rapid political ascent for the second and third generations.

CHINA BLASTS U.S. AGENCY’S COVID-19 ‘LAB LEAK’ REPORT

China on Monday accused the U.S. of “smearing” the country and “politicising” scientific research, after a government agency in Washington published a report concluding that the COVID-19 pandemic likely began from a laboratory accident.

A classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and members of Congress, reported The Wall Street Journal on Monday, said the U.S. Energy Department “concluded that the…pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak”.

The newspaper said the Energy Department’s conclusion “is the result of new intelligence and is significant because the agency has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of U.S. national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research.” At the same time, It added, the Energy Department made its judgment with “low confidence”.

China’s Foreign Ministry slammed the report as being “politicised”. “A laboratory origin of the pandemic was considered to be extremely unlikely is a science-based, authoritative conclusion reached by the experts of the WHO-China joint mission after field trips to the lab in Wuhan and in-depth communication with researchers. It was accurately recorded in the mission’s report and has received extensive recognition from the international community,” spokesperson Mao Ning said. “Certain parties should stop rehashing the ‘lab leak’ narrative, stop smearing China and stop politicising origins-tracing.”

Chinese officials, however, have also suggested the virus could have lab origins — except they have pointed the finger at U.S. facilities. Chinese state media outlets have widely publicised U.S. “lab leak” theories, so much so that the widespread view among the public in China is that the virus did not, as most of the world’s scientific community has concluded, originate in Wuhan.

UK AND EU HAIL ‘NEW CHAPTER’ WITH DEAL TO FIX BREXIT TRADE SPAT

London : The UK and the EU sealed a deal on Monday to resolve their thorny post-Brexit trade dispute over Northern Ireland, hailing the agreement as the start of a “new chapter” in their often fractious relationship. British PM Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the “Windsor Framework” after agreeing to the final details in Windsor.

Von der Leyen said it was “historic what we have achieved today”. Sunak said that there had been a “decisive breakthrough”. The agreement, which will allow goods to flow freely to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK and removes “any sense of a border” between Britain and its province, ends a dispute that has soured UK-EU ties.

Fixing it is a big victory for Sunak — but not the end of his troubles. Selling the deal to his own Conservative Party and its Northern Irish allies may be a tougher struggle. Now Sunak awaits the judgment of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, which is boycotting the region’s power-sharing government until the trade arrangements are changed to its satisfaction. DUP leader, Jeffrey Donaldson, said he was “neither positive nor negative” about the deal but would wait to see the details.

‘PAK IS FACING SHORTAGE OF MEDICINES, ANAESTHETICS’

Islamabad : The ongoing economic crisis in Pakistan has badly hit the healthcare system where patients have been struggling for essential medicines. The lack of forex reserves in the country has affected Pakistan’s capacity to import the required medicines or the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) used in domestic production.

As a result, pharmaceutical manufacturers have been forced to slash their production as patients suffer in hospitals. As per media reports, the operation theatres are left with less than the two-week stock of anaesthetics needed for sensitive surgeries.

The drug makers have blamed the financial systemfor the crisis by claiming that commercial banks are not issuing new Letters of Credit for their imports. Pakistan’s medicine manufacturing is import-dependent with almost 95% of the drugs requiring raw materials from other nations, including India and China. For most of the drug manufacturers, the imported materials have been held up due to a shortage of dollars.

Drug retailers in Pakistan’s Punjab said the shortage of some common but important drugs is impacting the customers. These medicines include Panadol, Insulin, Brufen, Disprin, Calpol, Tegral, Nimesulide, Hepamerz, Buscopan and Rivotril, etc.

PAK SAYS 4 NATIONALS MISSING IN ITALY SHIPWRECK; TOLL 62

The death toll rose to 62 in the migrant tragedy off Italy’s southern coast after rescue crews recovered three more bodies Monday, driving home once again the desperate and dangerous boat crossings of people seeking to reach Europe. Dozens more were believed to be missing. At least seven of the dead were children who perished after a wooden boat broke up in stormy seas on the shoals off the Calabrian coast Sunday. Another 80 people survived, but more were feared dead given survivor reports that the boat, which set off from Turkiye, had carried about 170 people.

Pakistan’s foreign office, meanwhile, said on Monday that four Pakistani citizenswere missing and 16 had survived in the disaster. Pakistan’s foreign office said its diplomats in Italy had met with 16 survivors who said 20 Pakistanis in total were on the ship and four remained missing. Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif had said on Monday that reports suggested over two dozen Pakistanis had drowned.

Rescuers and UN agencies said many Afghans had also been travelling on the boat. Afghanistan’s foreign office and refugee ministry spokespeople didn’t comment. The UN refugee agency said last year people travelling from Turkiye made up about 15% of arrivals to Italy by sea and that nearly half of those using the route were from Afghanistan.

POLICE ARREST EX-ARMY GENERAL IN PAKISTAN FOR ‘INCITING’ EMPLOYEES

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani police arrested on Monday a retired Army general and prominent supporter of former PM Imran Khan on charges of inciting the public and government employees against national institutions, officials said. The charge against Gen. Amjad Shoaib (retd) came after he appeared on BOL news channel.

NO PEACEFUL RESOLUTION AT THE MOMENT: KREMLIN ON CHINA’S PROPOSAL ON UKRAINE

The Kremlin on Monday acknowledged China’s proposal for a political solution in Ukraine but said the conditions for a peaceful resolution of the conflict were not in place “at the moment”.

“We paid a lot of attention to our Chinese friends’ plan,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, adding that: “for now, we don’t see any of the conditions that are needed to bring this whole story towards peace.”

China has sought to position itself as a neutral party in the conflict while maintaining close ties with strategic ally Russia.

Beijing last week called for peace talks as it released a 12-point paper to end the war in Ukraine, which included the respect of all countries’ territorial sovereignty.

PUTIN AWARDS ACTOR SEAGAL FOR ‘HUMANITARIAN WORK’

Russian President Putin has bestowed a top state award on Hollywood actor Steven Seagal to reward him for his international humanitarian and cultural work, astate decree published on Monday showed. The decree said the 70-year-old star of action films such as “Under Siege” had been given Russia’s Order of Friendship. There was no comment from Seagal. The decree mentioned Seagal’s work as a special representative of Russia’s foreign ministry for humanitarian ties with the US and Japan. The actor has long admired Putin, from whom he received a Russian passport in 2016. Seagal visited a Russian-controlled part of eastern Ukraine last summer.