Helsinki, May 22 (IANS) The US Department of State has cancelled a Fulbright scholarship awarded…

Beirut, May 22 (IANS) Lebanese President Joseph Aoun met here with his visiting Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas, discussing bilateral relations, regional developments, and international issues of mutual concern.

According to a statement issued on Wednesday following the talks, the two leaders highlighted the “brotherly” relationship between their two countries, stressing shared commitment to deepening cooperation on various levels.Addressing the ongoing Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip, both sides condemned what they described as “the continued Israeli aggression” that has resulted in “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” urging the international community to take immediate action to halt the violence and ensure full protection for civilians, Xinhua news agency reported.The two leaders also denounced repeated Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty and called on international actors — especially the US and France — to pressure Israel into implementing a ceasefire agreement reached under their mediation in November 2024.The statement also announced the formation of a joint Lebanese-Palestinian committee tasked with monitoring living conditions in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.They pledged to enhance coordination to maintain stability within and around the camps, jointly preventing them from becoming “safe havens for radical groups”.On top of that, both sides reaffirmed the principle of exclusive state control over arms in Lebanon and shared the belief that “the era of weapons out of state control in Lebanon” is over.The announcement came at the start of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ three-day visit to Lebanon.Abbas and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun affirmed their “commitment to the principle of exclusive possession of weapons by the Lebanese state and to ending any manifestations that fall outside the framework of the Lebanese state”.Abbas arrived at Beirut airport at about 1 p.m. and immediately headed to the presidential headquarters.A presidential source said the talks focused on the issue of “Palestinian weapons in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, the extension of full Lebanese state authority over these camps and the implementation framework for the plan”.On the issue of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, both leaders stressed the importance of “continued support for UN agency UNRWA, the continuation of its services to refugees and increasing its financial resources to enable it to fulfill its obligations”.They also agreed to form a joint Lebanese-Palestinian committee to monitor the situation in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon and work to improve the living conditions of refugees, “while respecting Lebanese sovereignty and adhering to Lebanese laws.”–IANSint/khz

Jerusalem, May 22 (IANS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reaffirmed his government’s intention to fully reoccupy besieged Gaza, dismissed any agreement to end the war, and brushed aside any speculations of a rift with US President Donald Trump.

“There are certainly 20 hostages still alive in Gaza and up to 38 others believed to have been killed,” he said on Wednesday during a press conference at his office in West Jerusalem.The Palestinian group Hamas has repeatedly expressed its readiness to release Israeli captives in a single exchange in return for an end to the war, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the release of Palestinian prisoners.Netanyahu has rejected those terms, instead demanding the disarmament of Palestinian resistance factions and insisting on the full reoccupation of Gaza.He also laid out his conditions for ending the war: the return of all Israeli hostages, the removal of the Hamas leadership from Gaza, and the complete disarmament of the group.Netanyahu claimed that once these goals are achieved, Israel would move to implement the so-called Trump Plan — widely interpreted as a framework for the relocation of Palestinians from Gaza.Netanyahu also dismissed speculation of a falling out with the US administration following a visit to the Gulf by Trump that left out Israel.Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates hauled in a series of big-ticket business deals, but fuelled widespread media commentary pointing out that Israel, Washington’s closest ally in the region, had not been included.The visit followed Trump’s decision to end a US bombing campaign against the Houthis in Yemen.Netanyahu, who had previously made no public comment on the issue, told reporters at a news conference that he told him: “‘Bibi, I want you to know, I have a complete commitment to you and I have a complete commitment to the state of Israel.'”Amid growing international pressure on Israel, Trump has urged a quick end to the war in Gaza and spoken of the suffering of civilians in the besieged enclave, where an 11-week Israeli aid blockade has created a deep humanitarian crisis.In a separate conversation a few days ago, Netanyahu said US Vice President J.D. Vance had told him: “‘Don’t pay attention to all these fake news stories about this rupture between us'”.–IANSkhz/

Jerusalem/Beirut, May 22 (IANS) The Israeli military have said it launched a drone strike in southern Lebanon, killing a commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force.

The military issued a statement on Wednesday, saying that the strike was carried out in the Yater area, without specifying the commander’s name.Meanwhile, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA), citing Khalil Kourani, head of Yater Municipality, said the dead was a citizen identified as Ali Hassan Abdel Latif Sweidan, who was targetted when he was clearing the rubble from his home using his excavator.Earlier in the day, the Israeli military claimed to have killed Hussein Nazih Barji, a Hezbollah operative involved in the group’s weapons development program, during an Israeli drone strike in the Tyre area in southern Lebanon, Xinhua news agency reported.The NNA confirmed the attack, but did not say if the dead was a member of Hezbollah.The incidents were the latest in a series of Israeli attacks despite a ceasefire reached in November 2024 that ended 14 months of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.Israel’s military said it carried out a drone strike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, killing a Hezbollah operative involved in the group’s weapons development programme.The man, identified as Hussein Nazih Barji, was struck while travelling in a vehicle in the Tyre area, according to a military statement accompanied by surveillance footage.Barji was described as “a central figure” in a directorate of Hezbollah that oversees the development, manufacture, and maintenance of weapons, including precision missiles, and works to expand the group’s supply capabilities, Xinhua news agency reported.The military said Barji was “a veteran engineer responsible for building infrastructure for the production of precision surface-to-surface missiles”.His killing was intended to “disrupt Hezbollah’s recovery efforts,” it added.Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on social media platform X that “Barji’s activities represented a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon. The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) will continue to act to eliminate any threat to the State of Israel.”The Lebanese Health Ministry confirmed the attack, saying that a “hostile” drone targetted a car on the Housh-Ain Baal road in the Tyre district, killing one person from the town of Ramadiyah.Meanwhile, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported another death from an Israeli drone strike on Wednesday on the village of Yater.On Monday, a Hezbollah member was killed and three civilians injured in a spate of Israeli air and ground strikes targetting various areas in southern Lebanon.The official National News Agency (NNA) reported that an Israeli airstrike had targetted the outskirts of the village of Houla. A Lebanese security source confirmed that a Hezbollah member, named Issa Qutaish and originally from Houla, was killed in the strike.The NNA had said that in two additional incidents, two people were injured when an Israeli drone hit a motorcycle in the Wadi Sarbin area, while another individual was wounded in the shoulder as Israeli forces opened fire on him at the entrance of Kafr Kila village.The incidents were the latest in a series of Israeli attacks despite a ceasefire reached in November 2024 that ended 14 months of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.–IANSint/khz

Ottawa, May 22 (IANS) Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand has said that she is summoning the Israeli ambassador over Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF)’s warning shots near a diplomatic tour in the West Bank.
Anand confirmed on Wednesday that four of Canada’s personnel were part of the delegation when Israel Defense Forces fired shots, Xinhua news agency reported.She wrote on her social media account that she spoke with Canada’s Head of Mission in Ramallah earlier on Wednesday and that she was relieved to know Canada’s team is safe.”I have asked my officials to summon Israel’s Ambassador to convey Canada’s serious concerns. We expect a full investigation and accountability,” Anand wrote.Israel Defense Forces said that the tour group deviated from its approved route and soldiers fired warning shots with no one injured in the incident.Earlier this week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement threatening to impose targeted sanctions on Israel in response to its renewed military offensive in Gaza.Prime Minister Mark Carney has said that it’s “totally unacceptable” that members of the Israeli army fired shots near a diplomatic delegation, which included Canadians, in the West Bank on Wednesday.The federal government confirmed on Wednesday that four Canadian personnel were part of a tour in the city of Jenin when members of the IDF fired in their vicinity. Two were Canadians and two were local staff, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s office said.”We expect a full investigation and we expect an immediate explanation of what happened. It’s totally unacceptable, it’s some of many things that are totally unacceptable that’s going on in the region,” Carney said during a news conference in Ottawa.In a statement the IDF said the tour group, which also included representatives from other countries, “deviated” from the approved route and soldiers fired warning shots to get the delegation to move.The IDF said it “regrets the inconvenience caused”.Anand joins other Foreign Ministers condemning the incident.The Western leaders’ letter followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying his country would control Gaza despite mounting international pressure to lift a blockade on aid supplies that left the enclave on the brink of famine.Netanyahu condemned the joint statement in a social media post and called it “a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7,” referring to Hamas’s attack against Israel in 2023 which ignited the war in GazaConservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also took aim at Carney’s joint statement.”The Hamas terrorists have just thanked Mark Carney for his recent statement on Israel,” he posted online on Tuesday.”Threatening Israel with sanctions and ‘further concrete actions’ while a terrorist group on their borders holds their citizens hostage and refuses to stop attacking Israel is wrong.”Carney said during his Wednesday news conference that he informed US Vice President J.D. Vance of the statement when the two met in Rome over the weekend.When asked for more details on what Canada is preparing to do if Netanyahu’s government doesn’t change course, Carney offered little detail, saying that the intention of his statement with the UK and France was “clear”.In a dire warning this week, the United Nations said 14,000 babies are at risk of acute malnutrition if food stationed at the border is not allowed to reach them in Gaza.According to aid groups, Israel began allowing dozens of humanitarian trucks into Gaza on Wednesday, but workers have not been able to bring food and supplies to distribution points and to Palestinians in need.–IANSint/khz

Caracas, May 22 (IANS) Another 90 Venezuelan migrants deported by the US arrived in the capital Caracas, the Interior Ministry said.

The migrants, including 77 men, six women and seven children, flew from the US southern state of Texas to the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, which serves the capital Caracas area, Xinhua news agency reported.”Venezuelan government agencies and institutions are guaranteeing the different protocols regarding health and legal security for the arrival of those who were deported by the US government,” the Ministry said on Wednesday in a press statement.Returning migrants were met by representatives of different agencies, such as the Ministry of Health, the National Children’s Institute, the Bolivarian National Police and the intelligence services.Since February, repatriation flights from the US have increased.According to Venezuelan authorities, more than 4,000 migrants have been repatriated from the US and Mexico since the beginning of the year.A two-year-old Venezuelan girl, who had been held by the US government after it deported her mother, returned to Venezuela, where she was received by authorities of the South American country.Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal was taken from her mother’s arms just before she was deported, in an incident that Venezuelan officials described as a “kidnapping”.The toddler returned to Venezuela on Wednesday by a US-registered plane that landed at the the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, which serves the capital Caracas, along with 226 Venezuelan migrants deported from the US, including seven minors and 37 women.Venezuelan First Lady Cilia Flores thanked the people for their solidarity with the minor, noting that the government “remained firm” in demanding her return.The girl’s mother, Yorelys Bernal, who was deported to Venezuela in April, was not at the airport to receive her, but officials said the two would soon be reunited.The separation of Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal from her parents had caused an outcry in the South American nation.Several demonstrations were held in Caracas to denounce her “abduction” by US authorities.President Nicolas Maduro thanked his US counterpart and arch-foe, Donald Trump, for returning the child to Venezuela.Striking an unusually conciliatory tone, he said that “there have been, and will be differences” with the Trump administration but called the return of the toddler a “profoundly humane act of justice”.The little girl is one of several children caught up in Trump’s crackdown on illegal migration.The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the girl was placed in foster care to protect her from her parents, who it claimed were members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua criminal gang.Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said her return was “a great victory,” adding she “should never have been separated from her parents,” and the US government should “recognise the mistakes it has made”.Since February, flights repatriating Venezuelan migrants deported from the US have increased.The toddler’s mother said she and her husband were separated from their daughter when they handed themselves over to US authorities after arriving in the country illegally in May 2024.Her father is believed to have been among a group of Venezuelans sent by the US to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison.The Trump administration said that the Venezuelans it sent to El Salvador were members of Tren de Aragua, but has provided scant evidence to back that claim.The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Maikelys’ father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona, was a Tren de Aragua “lieutenant” who oversaw “homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, sex trafficking and operates a torture house”.It said the girl’s mother oversaw the recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution.The mother, Bernal, 20, claimed they were detained because they had tattoos, which US authorities have linked to gang activity.Since February, more than 4,000 migrants have been sent home to Venezuela, some deported from the US and others from Mexico, where they had gathered in the hope of crossing into the US.–IANSint/khz

Washington, May 21 (IANS) US President Donald Trump on Wednesday grilled visiting President of South Africa, Cyril Cyril Ramaphosa, on the persecution of white farmers in his country with a video representation and news articles in a joint media interface at the White House.
At one point, Trump asked staff to dim the lights in the Oval Office and play a video that showed a man calling for killing white farmers and snatching their lands.One clip apparently showed cars carrying bodies of killed farmers.This public White House grilling of a visiting foreign leader at the White House was similar to the clash between President Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance on the one side and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in February. The two sides had called off the rest of the scheduled meetings for the day.However, the South Africans stayed and went on to go through the rest of their meetings.President Ramaphosa, who had sought the meeting, pushed back on the allegations levelled by President Trump, to which the latter said, “But why wouldn’t you arrest that man? That man said, Kill the white farmers. Kill the white farmers. And then he danced, and he’s dancing, dancing.””I’m not sure, but I think if somebody got up in Parliament and started saying, kill a certain group of people that he would be in, he would be arrested very quickly,” President Trump said.”That man is going all over South Africa, and that’s not a small party in a stadium that holds 100,000 people, and I hardly saw an empty seat. That’s a lot of people, that’s a lot of representation.”The South African President had sought to explain away the man in the video as a minor Opposition party figure and that these were fringe elements in South Africa.”Those crosses,” President Trump said of the clip showing cars with bodies and crosses, “we have dead white people, dead white farmers, mostly. And you take a look at Australia, they’re being inundated, and we’re being inundated with people that want to get out, and their farm is valueless… And this is a very serious situation.”Trump has suspended foreign aid to South Africa and has ordered speedy processing of refugee status for white South Africans.–IANSyrj/khz

Washington, May 21 (IANS) President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed once again that he ended India-Pakistan hostilities, holding out to the two countries the lure of trading with the US.“I think I settled it through trade,” Trump said in a media interview in the White House with visiting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, referring to the India-Pakistan hostilities. “We’re doing a big deal with India. We’re doing a big deal with Pakistan …What are you guys doing? You know, somebody had to be the last one to shoot. But the shooting was getting worse and worse, bigger and bigger, deeper and deeper into the countries.”Trump went on to say, “We spoke to them, and we, I think we, you know, I hate to say we got it settled, and then two days later, something happens, and they say it’s Trump’s fault. Pakistan has got some excellent people and some really good… great leaders, and India has my friend (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi. He’s a great guy.”President Trump and his administration have repeatedly claimed to end the hostilities between the two South Asian countries following the killing of tourists in Pahalgam by terrorists linked to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.The US has been in touch with both sides, as have many other countries, which had called for both India and Pakistan to end the conflict.India has said the conflict ended after a phone call from the Pakistani military.But President Trump became the first to announce the end of fighting, saying the “ceasefire” had been mediated by the US. Secretary of State Marco Rubio went further and said the two sides have agreed “to start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site”.India has historically opposed third-party involvement in settling any of its disputes, insisting on dealing with them bilaterally. President Trump, however, has insisted on offering mediation to settle India’s issues with both Pakistan and China, to which India has both firmly and repeatedly turned down politely.–IANSyrj/uk

Dhaka, May 21 (IANS) Bangladesh’s National Security Advisor Khalilur Rahman on Wednesday ruled out any possibility of allowing a corridor through Bangladesh for Myanmar, saying the government led by Muhammad Yunus has neither discussed nor intends to discuss such a proposal with any party.”There has been no discussion with anyone regarding giving a corridor to Myanmar through Bangladesh and we will not even discuss it,” Rahman said during a media briefing organised at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka.According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, Rahman underscored the importance of protecting Bangladesh’s national interests and clarified that current discussions with the United Nations (UN) are solely focused on facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid, such as food and medicine, through some channels to Myanmar’s Rakhine State, which is facing a serious humanitarian crisis.He emphasised that any future decisions in this regard will be made in consultation with all the relevant stakeholders.Rahman stated that Bangladesh will only consider allowing aid to Rakhine State through its land, if the Arakan Army shows that it does not favour of ethnic cleansing.In response to another question, the National Security Advisor firmly stated that Bangladesh is not under “any external pressure” to provide such a corridor.”We are not under pressure from any country, not even from the United States,” he said.On security risks in the provision of humanitarian aid, Rahman said giving aid in a conflicting situation might pose safety and security risks for the aid providers and recipients with presence of land mines and IEDs adding threat to safety and security.Meanwhile, Yunus also took to social media through the Chief Advisor’s handle, emphasising that there has been no provision of aid to Rakhine yet, as it would require consent of all relevant parties and satisfaction of “a number of prerequisites” for aid provision which are common in other cases of humanitarian support around the world.Yunus stated that Bangladesh has been shouldering the burden of sheltering over 1.2 million forcibly displaced Rohingyas from Myanmar and cannot simply afford another wave of refugees.”Given the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Rakhine State, the UN and Bangladesh began consideration of providing humanitarian support. Since all other avenues are unviable due to conflict, Bangladesh turned out to be the only feasible option. It was thought that the UN will organise distribution of aid through its channels within Rakhine State and Bangladesh would provide logistics support to transfer aid across Bangladesh-Myanmar border,” read one of the several explanations on the matter posted onHe remarked that Bangladesh considered that aid to Rakhine State would help stabilise the State and pave the way for creating enabling conditions for the return of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.Yunus also noted that the Bangladesh government realised the need for keeping contact with the Arakan Army when they took control of the Myanmar side of the border. For this reason, Bangladesh decided to “informally contact” the Arakan Army to protect its border and keep it peaceful.–IANSint/scor/as

Kigali, May 21 (IANS) Parvathaneni Harish, the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations…