BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyz and Tajik border guards exchanged fire in three separate incidents on Wednesday after a dispute over the border between the two Central Asian nations, officials on both sides said. The clashes, which come on the eve of a regional security body meeting and against the background of fighting between Russia and Ukraine as well as Azerbaijan and Armenia, started after Kyrgyz border guards accused the Tajiks of taking positions at a part of the border that has not been demarcated.
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NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has conveyed its concern to the United States over Washington’s decision to provide a sustenance package for Pakistan’s fleet of F-16 fighter aircraft, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said on Wednesday. “We discussed growing convergence of strategic interests and enhanced defense & security cooperation,” Singh said on Twitter, after speaking to U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin over the telephone.
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NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday started his first foreign trip since the outbreak of the pandemic with a stop in Kazakhstan ahead of a summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and other leaders of a Central Asian security group.
Wearing a blue suit and a face mask, Xi was met on the airport tarmac by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and an honor guard, all of whom wore masks. Xi’s trip underlines the importance Beijing places on asserting its role as a regional leader amid tension with Washington, Japan and India.
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SANTIAGO (AFP) - Higher temperatures and rainfall that weaken ice walls caused part of a hanging glacier to break off at a national park in Chile’s Patagonia region in an event captured on video by tourists. In a video that went viral Monday, a glacier that sits atop a mountain about 200 meters high rumbled and broke off at Queulat National Park, located more than 1,200 kilometers south of Chile’s capital.
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JOHANNESBURG (AP) - Africa is losing 5 percent to 15 percent of its per capita economic growth due the effects of climate change and is facing a gaping climate finance shortfall, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).Africa has been hit disproportionately hard by the fallout from climate change, which has aggravated droughts, flooding and cyclones across the continent in recent years. African nations received around $18.3 billion in climate finance between 2016 and 2019, Kevin Urama, the AfDB’s acting chief economist, said in a statement released on Tuesday. But they are staring down a nearly $1.3 trillion climate finance gap for the 2020 to 2030 period.