News in Brief

Date: 26 October 2020 - 21:41

News ID: ۸۴۱۷۹

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -- India and the United States will sign a military agreement on sharing of satellite data during the current visit by U. S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, the Indian defense ministry said on Monday, deepening strategic ties. The Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement on Geospatial Cooperation (BECA) will allow India access to topographical, nautical and aeronautical data for better accuracy of weapons like missiles and drones. Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in New Delhi for a top-level security dialogue on Tuesday, seen as part of efforts to counter China’s growing assertiveness in the region. "The two ministers expressed satisfaction that agreement of BECA will be signed during the visit,” the Indian defense ministry said following Esper’s talks with Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The Kremlin said on Monday that U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s assessment of Russia as the biggest threat to U.S. national security was wrong and encouraged hatred of Russia. The comments come just over a week before Biden faces Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election. Biden is ahead in the polls. "We absolutely do not agree,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call, when asked to comment on Biden’s assessment. "We can only regret that absolute hatred of the Russian Federation is spread in this way.” Moscow’s ties with Washington have been at post-Cold War lows since 2014. Putin, who has praised Trump in the past for saying he wanted better ties with Moscow, has said Russia will work with any U.S. leader, while noting what he called Joe Biden’s "sharp anti-Russian rhetoric”.

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TUNIS (AFP) -- Dozens of Libyan delegates Monday opened a political dialogue via videoconference as a step towards holding elections after a landmark ceasefire agreement between warring factions in the North African country. The UN mission in Libya said the political talks, which it is brokering, would pave the way for a "direct, in person meeting” of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) on November 9 in the Tunisian capital.
The goal of the LPDF would be to "generate consensus on a unified governance framework and arrangements that will lead to holding national elections”, it said. On Friday, Libya’s rival administrations signed a "complete and permanent ceasefire agreement with immediate effect” after five days of talks in Geneva. Libya has been wracked by conflict for nearly a decade, since the overthrow and killing of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011. It has since been dominated by armed groups and divided between two bitterly-opposed administrations: a UN-recognized Government of National Accord based in the capital Tripoli and another in the east backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.

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BANGKOK (Reuters) -- Describing themselves as "human beings, not dust”, thousands of Thai protesters demanding reforms of the monarchy marched to the German embassy in Bangkok on Monday to put pressure on King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who spends much of his time in Germany.
Germany has said it would be unacceptable for King Maha Vajiralongkorn, 68, to conduct politics there and Foreign Minister Heiko Mass said the European country continued to look into his behavior during long sojourns in Bavaria. Months of student-led protests that began by demanding the removal of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, 66, a former military ruler, have become the biggest challenge in decades to a monarchy that the Thai constitution says must be revered. A statement read at the German embassy from "the People” accused the king of interfering in Thai politics and said that having failed to get "the royal puppet” to listen - a reference to Prayuth - they had come to "the puppet owner”.

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BAMAKO (Reuters) -- Mali’s interim prime minister said on Monday he was open to talks with takfiri militants whose insurgency has made vast swathes of the country ungovernable, but former colonial power France signaled opposition to the idea. Ousted former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said earlier this year that his government was prepared to negotiate with Al-Qaeda-linked militants. National talks in the aftermath of the August coup that overthrew Keita endorsed that policy. "The conclusions of the inclusive national talks ... very clearly indicated the necessity of an offer of dialogue with these armed groups,” Ouane said at a news conference in Bamako with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian who is on a two-day visit.

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LAGOS (Reuters) -- The judicial panel investigating police brutality and the shooting of protesters in Lagos convened on Monday, promising neutrality and justice. Independent investigations into police abuses were a core demand of the protesters who demonstrated nationwide for more than two weeks. Peaceful protests turned violent on Oct. 20, when witnesses and groups such as Amnesty International said soldiers opened fire at protesters, killing some. The army denied its troops were there. Chair Justice Doris Okuwobi said the panel was independent from government and would ensure justice for victims of police brutality and "for those affected by the unfortunate incident of the shootings by the military.”  Protest leaders and others have told Reuters many are afraid of government retribution if they speak about the shootings.