G20 TALKS END WITHOUT CONSENSUS ON UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR

A meeting of top diplomats of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations ended Thursday in New Delhi without a consensus on the Ukraine war, India’s foreign minister said.

The meeting, held under India's presidency, adopted a Chair's Summary and Outcome Document listing various key priorities for the grouping.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said there were differences over the Ukraine conflict because of which the meeting could not agree on the joint communique. "If we had perfect meetings of minds on all issues and captured it fully, it would have been a collective statement but there were issues on which there were divergences," he said replying to a question.

Several diplomats said there were deep divisions between the US-led West and the Russia-China combine over the Ukraine conflict.

The Chair's Summary and Outcome Document mentioned two paragraphs on the Ukraine conflict but the footnote said all countries agreed to them except Russia and China. The two paragraphs were taken from G20's Bali declaration.

"It is essential to uphold international law and the multilateral system that safeguards peace and stability. This includes defending all the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and adhering to international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians and infrastructure in armed conflicts," according to one of the two paragraphs.

It said the "use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible. The peaceful resolution of conflicts, efforts to address crises, as well as diplomacy and dialogue, are vital. Today's era must not be of war."

Jaishankar said the G20 foreign ministers' meeting unequivocally condemned terrorism.

The Chair's Summary and Outcome Document said the meeting was deeply concerned by the challenges to global food security exacerbated by current conflicts and tensions.

In a video message at the start of the meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for building consensus on pressing global challenges and not allowing differences on geopolitical tensions to affect overall cooperation in the grouping. "As you meet in the land of Gandhi and the Buddha, I pray that you will draw inspiration from India's civilisational ethos -- to focus not on what divides us, but on what unites us," Modi said.

In their remarks, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell criticised Russia for its invasion of Ukraine while China's Qin Gang referred to the 12-point Chinese peace plan to resolve the conflict.

US SELLING TAIWAN $619M WORTH OF F-16 MUNITIONS

Washington : The US has approved the sale to Taiwan of $619 million in munitions for F-16 fighter jets, the Pentagon announced Wednesday, in a move China said “seriously damages” relations between Washington and Beijing. The sale will boost Taiwan’s “capability to provide for the defence of its airspace, regional security, and interoperability with the US,” the Pentagon said. The package will include anti-radar missiles, advanced air-to-air missiles, launchers and dummy missiles to be used for training, it said. The US and China have increasingly sparred over Taiwan since a high-level US visit to the self-ruled island last year.

RUSSIA CLAIMS UKRAINE CARRIED OUT CROSS-BORDER RAID

Russian officials accused Ukrainian saboteurs on Thursday of crossing into western Russia and attacking local villages, an accusation that Ukraine denied and alleged it would be used by Moscow to step up attacks.

The exact circumstances of the incident reported in the Bryansk region were unclear, including what the strategic purpose of such an attack would be.

If confirmed, it would be another indication following drone attacks earlier this week that Kyiv could be stepping up pressure against Moscow by exposing Russian defensive weaknesses, embarrassing the Kremlin and sowing unease among Russian civilians. Ukraine described the Russian reports as “a classic deliberate provocation.”

Meanwhile, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday that Germany and its allies were in talks with Kyiv over future security guarantees in preparation of a sustainable peace for Ukraine.

PAK CURRENCY DROPS BY 7% AGAINST USD

Islamabad : Pakistan said on Thursday it would strike a staff-level agreement (SLA) with the IMF next week as negotiations with the global lender about the release of $1. 2 billion tranche were about to conclude. The statement, issued by finance minister Ishaq Dar, came after the value of the local currency dropped to an all-time low of Rs 285. 09 against the US dollar, tumbling by Rs 19, a decline of about 7%, as trading closed on Thursday. Experts blamed the stalled IMF deal for the declining economy.

Pakistan has been negotiating with the IMF and is hoping to sign the SLA, which will pave the way for more inflows from other multilateral lenders and friendly countries.

In a series of tweets, the finance minister rubbished rumours regarding Pakistan defaulting. “Anti-Pakistan elements are spreading malicious rumours that Pakistan may default. This is not only completely false but also belies the facts,” he said. Dar said the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) forex reserves had been increasing and were almost near $1 billion, “higher than four weeks ago despite making all external due payments on time”. “Foreign commercial banks have started extending facilities to Pakistan. Our negotiations with IMF are about to conclude and we expect to sign a staff-level agreement with IMF by next week. All economic indicators are slowly moving in the right direction,” he added.

OUTRAGE IN GREECE AS TRAIN CRASH TOLL TOPS 57, GOVT ADMITS FAILURES

Larissa (Greece) : The Greek government on Thursday acknowledged failures in state management of its rail system, following a train collision that killed 57 and has triggered angry protests. Greece’s police department said the death toll had risen to 57, with at least another 56 people missing. “It’s possible someone could have been on the train without being declared as missing by relatives,” a police spokesperson said.

The Larissa station manager arrested after the collision was charged Thursday with multiple counts of manslaughter and causing serious physical harm through negligence, as a judicial inquiry tries to establish how the two trains could be travelling in opposite directions on the same track for more than 10 minutes without anyone raising the alarm. An investigation would examine the “chronic delays in implementing railway works, delays caused by chronic public sector malaise and decades of failure”, said government spokesman Yiannis Economou. Officials determined “human error” was involved in the collision in which two carriages were demolished and a restaurant car caught fire, trapping many victims inside. “I believe the responsibility, the negligence, the error has been confessed by the station master,” Economou said.

Afire department spokeswoman said that rescue crews had worked all night in search for survivors, but chances of finding more were dwindling. “Time is not on our side,” she said. After visiting the site Wednesday, PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, “Everything shows that the drama was, sadly,mainly due to a tragic human error. ”

23% IN GERMANY ARE IMMIGRANTS, CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS, AS OF 2021

BERLIN: As of 2021, some 18.9 million people, or 23% of Germany’s population, either immigrated to the country since 1950 or are the children of immigrants, Germany’s Federal Statistics Office said on Thursday. It’s the first time the statistics office has analysed the country’s population based on migration figures.

SPACEX LAUNCHES U.S., RUSSIA, UAE ASTRONAUTS TO SPACE STATION

CAPE CANAVERAL: SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Thursday, including the first person from the Arab world going up for an extended months-long stay. The Falcon rocket bolted from Kennedy Space Center shortly after midnight, illuminating the night sky as it headed up the East Coast.

2 INDIANS AMONG 5 HELD FOR ILLEGALLY CROSSING INTO US

New York : Two Indian nationals were among five persons arrested by the US border authorities for illegally crossing into the country from Canada by boat. US Border Patrol agents from the Detroit sector arrested the five near Algonac in the US state of Michigan on February 20, a statement by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said on Wednesday. It said Border Patrol saw a vessel in the St Clair river cross the international border near a known smuggling route late in the night on surveillance camera and alerted the agents, who detained the five found nearby. Agents found two migrants — completely drenched and shivering — with them. All five persons were then taken into custody and during questioning, agents identified that two were from India, and the rest from Nigeria, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic, the CBP said. They are being processed for US immigration violations.

KEM SOKHA: CAMBODIA OPPOSITION LEADER GIVEN 27-YEAR SENTENCE FOR TREASON

Cambodia's most prominent opposition leader has been sentenced to 27 years under house arrest for treason.

Kem Sokha, the former leader of the now-dissolved Cambodian National Rescue Party, has also been barred from standing or voting in elections.

He was accused of conspiring with foreign powers to overthrow Prime Minister Hun Sen's government.

Hun Sen is one of the world's longest-serving autocrats, who has been in power since 1985.

Cambodia will hold a general election in July. Most expect he will run again, although some believe he is planning to hand over power to his eldest son, Hun Manet.

Kem Sokha, 69, was first arrested in 2017, based on a 2013 video where he said he had got support from US pro-democracy groups.

He and his lawyers have denied the charges and said the case against him was baseless.

W Patrick Murphy, the US ambassador to Cambodia, said on Friday that the case was a miscarriage of justice.

Kem Sokha's lawyer, Ang Udom, said his legal team would appeal against the verdict, Reuters news agency reported.

Human rights groups and Western governments have condemned the charges against him as unfounded and politically motivated.

‘OVER 50% OF WORLD POPN WILL BE OVERWEIGHT BY ’35’

London : More than half of the world’s population will be overweight or obese by 2035 without significant action, according to a new report. The World Obesity Federation's 2023 atlas predicts that 51% of the world, or more than 4 billion people, will be obese or overweight within the next 12 years.

Rates of obesity are rising particularly quickly among children and in lower income countries, the report found. Louise Baur, president of the World Obesity Federation, described the data as a “clear warning”. “It is worrying to seeobesity rates rising fastest among children and adolescents,” she said. “Governments and policymakers around the world need to do all they can to avoid passing health, social and economic costs on to the younger generation. ”

The report found that childhood obesity could more than double from 2020 levels, to 208 million boys and 175 million girls by 2035. The cost to society is significant as a result of the health conditions linked to being overweight, the federation said: more than $4 trillion annually by 2035, or 3% of globalGDP. But, the authors said they were not blaming individuals, but calling for a focus on the societal, environmental and biological factors involved in the conditions.

The report uses body mass index (BMI) for its assessments, a number calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by their height in metres squared. In line with the World Health Organization’s guidelines, a BMI score over 25 is overweight and over 30 is obese. In 2020, 2. 6 billion people fell into these categories, or 38% of the world’s population.

‘Havana syndrome’ not caused by foreign adversary, US intel finds

Washington : US intelligence agencies cannot link a foreign adversary to any of the incidents associated with socalled “Havana syndrome,” the hundreds of cases of brain injuries and other symptoms reported by American personnel around the world.

The findings released on Wednesday by US intelligence officials cast doubt on the longstanding suspicions by many people who reported cases that Russia or another country may have been running a global campaign to harass or attack Americans using some form of directed energy. Most of the cases investigated appear to have different causes, from environmental factors to undiagnosed illnesses, said the officials, who say they have not found a single explanation for most or all of the reports.

Instead, officials say, there is evidence that foreign countries were not involved. In some cases, the US detected among adversarial governments suspicions that Havana syndrome was an American plot. And investigators found “no credible evidence” that any adversary had obtained a weapon that could cause the reported symptoms or a listening device that might inadvertently injure people. The Biden administration has been under pressure to respond to Havanasyndrome cases. Affected people have reported headaches, dizziness and other symptoms often linked to traumatic brain injuries. Some US employees have left government due to the severity of their illnesses.

Mark Zaid, a lawyer for more than two dozen people who have reported injuries, said the new assessment lacked transparency and left key questions unanswered.

Investigators reviewed roughly 1,500 cases in 96 countries. Many of those cases, officials said, have been linked to other potential explanations aside from a foreign campaign: medical illnesses, malfunctioning air conditioning and ventilation systems, or electromagnetic waves coming from devices like a computer mouse. None of the cases was linked to an attack by an adversary, officials said.