ROME, 25 January, 2021 (TON): Giuseppe Conte, Italian Prime Minister hopes to form a new government with a broader majority and is looking to resign.

The media reported that Conte said on Monday, that the aim is to find an agreement that gives a clear political perspective to govern until the end of the legislation.

Conte could hand in his resignation to the head of state as early as Tuesday and then put together a fresh coalition that would draw on centrist and so-called “responsible” members of parliament, the report added.

No immediate comment was cited from the Prime Minister’s office.

Conte’s government shook when the Italia Viva party headed by the former premier Matteo Renzi was pulled out of the cabinet over its handling of the pandemic crisis earlier this month.

Last week, Conte survived a confidence vote in the parliament while failed to succeed absolute majority in the Senate, stating to face struggle while making on any policy agenda unless draws on new support.

The Prime Minister has made an appeal to the moderate and unaligned Senate lawmakers to join the government ranks however, few answered so far.

Unless a solution is found, the ruling parties said snap elections will be the only way out of the halt on the politics, thus building pressure on the lawmakers.

Conte wanted to get Renzi back on board and was looking to create a “government of national safety”, that would also have the backing of some moderate politicians.

LADAKH, 25 January, 2021, (TON): Injuries on both sides prevailed when Chinese and Indian troops re-confronted in a disputed border area. The incident took place in North Sikkim last Wednesday.

Tensions on the border are high as both sides claim large areas of territory.

In June, 2020, at least 20 Indian soldiers died in the conflict in the Ladakh area.

On January 2021, there was a minor face-off at Nathu La area of North Sikkim and was resolved by local commanders, the Indian Army stated.

A Chinese patrol tried to enter Indian Territory and was forced back.

At least 20 Indian soldiers died in a skirmish in the Ladakh area last June.

The Sikkim region is sandwiched between Bhutan and Nepal, about 2,500 km (1,500 miles) east of the Ladakh area.

The latest reports about skirmishes show that tensions are still running high.

There is a lot part on the border which is not defined. The line can shift bringing the soldiers come face to face at many points.

The two sides have held de-escalation talks since hand to and fighting, the latest ninth round of Corps Commander-level talks held on Sunday after a gap of over two-and-half months.

Since China is India’s biggest trading partners, both the countries can lose a lot.

The situation has worsened at the border as both countries have stepped up infrastructure construction along the border areas. In the history, both the countries have fought only one war in 1962 that India lost.

JAKARTA 25 January, 2021, (TON): Indonesian coast guard seized the Iranian-flagged MT Horse and the Panamanian-flagged MT Freya vessels over suspected illegal oil transfer in the country’s waters on Sunday.

Wisnu Pramandita, coast guard spokeman said, for further investigation the tankers seized in the waters of Kalimantan province have been sent to Batam Island in Riau Island Province.

“The tankers, first detected at 5:30 a.m. local time (2130 GMT on January 23, 2021) concealed their identity by not showing their national flags, turning off automatic identification systems and did not respond to a radio call,” Wisnu said in a statement on Sunday.

The ships were “caught red-handed” transferring oil from MT Horse to MT Freya when they were discovered by the authorities and there was an oil spill around the receiving tanker said Wisnu on Monday.

So far 61 crew members from both vessels have been arrested.

The supertankers are capable of carrying 2 million barrels of oil.

National Iranian Tanker Company owned MT Horse, Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) was almost fully loadedre Ship Management Co.’s VLCC MT Freya, was empty.

NITC was not immediately available for comment.

Iran, which has not commented on the seizure, has been accused of concealing the destination of its oil sales by disabling tracking systems on its tankers, making it difficult to assess how much crude Tehran exports as it seeks to counter U.S. sanctions.

LONDON, 25 January, 2021, (TON): The United Kingdom could become a failed state unless it is fundamentally reformed for many people have lost faith in the way country is being governed, says the former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.

“I believe the choice is now between a reformed state and a failed state,” Brown wrote in the Daily newspaper. “It is indeed Scotland where dissatisfaction is so deep that it threatens the end of the United Kingdom.”

According to Brown, who thought of London in that way where it is a common refrain, reflecting the frustration of people in outlying communities, feel they are the forgotten men and women, virtually invisible to Whitehall,”

Brown said Prime Minister Boris Johnson should reform the way the United Kingdom is governed.

“Battered by Covid-19, threatened by nationalism, and uncertain what the promise of a post-Brexit ‘Global Britain’ adds up to, the United Kingdom must urgently rediscover what holds it together and sort out what is driving us apart,” he said.

The five-year Brexit crisis plus the COVID-19 crisis have weakened the bonds that bind England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland into a $3 trillion economy.

TRIPOLI, 25 January, 2021 (TON): On ending nearly a decade of conflict, a candidacy process would open on Tuesday for key institutional appointments, said representatives from rival Libyan camps.

In order to facilitate collaboration with an interim executive body set to be elected next week in Geneva, the process aims to quickly fill several strategic posts until 2nd February, 2021.

The country has been spilt violently by the civil war since a NATO backed uprising forced out Moamer Kadafi in 2011.

The UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) is based in the capital, while a House of Representatives, which does not recognise the Tripoli administration, is in the east.

In October 2020, in Geneva, a fragile ceasefire between the two sides was agreed despite threats from eastern military strongman Khalifa Haftar to resume fighting.

The talks that opened Friday in Bouznika, south of the Moroccan capital Rabat, bring together representatives from the Tobruk-based House of Representatives and the Tripoli-based High Council of State, which advises the GNA.

The negotiations would focus on the appointments to the country's "sovereign" posts said GNA.

The joint statement said the positions included the heads of the central bank, electoral commission, anti-corruption commission, Supreme Court and administrative control authority as well as the attorney general.

The talks are the latest in several inter-Libyan dialogues held since September in the North African kingdom.

The talks are the latest in several inter-Libyan dialogues held since September in the North African kingdom.

For the candidacy process, the parties agreed to form working groups which have been points of contention between rival administrations.

Once finalized, the candidacies will be presented to representatives of the two sides.

MEXICO, 25 January, 2021 (TON): Mexican authorities have opened an investigation for the 19 charred bodies found in several vehicles in the town of Santa Anita, close to the U.S. border, said the Tamaulipas public prosecutor’s office.

Authorities are probing the deaths in Tamaulipas state where large swaths of land are controlled by the Gulf drug cartel. Mexico is experiencing a wave of violence linked to drug gangs fighting over routes to the US.

The victims are expected to be a native of Central America, allegedly taken from a safe house operated by the members of an organized crime group in Tamaulipas state, the media reported citing the witnesses.

According to a statement from the prosecutor’s office, two burned vehicles and the remains of people on rural road as alerted by a citizen that a van was on fire.

"In one of the vans there were two bodies in the front seats, another body on the side of the driver's door, one more on the side of the passenger door and 15 bodies in the back of the vehicle," the statement read.

"Initial investigations show that death was caused by firearm projectiles and then the victims were set on fire," it added.

Prosecutors stressed that no shell casings were found in the area, indicating that the victims could have been killed in a different location.

Citing witnesses, a group of gunmen from the Cartel del Noreste (CDN), an offshoot of the Zetas crime syndicate had entered the area on Friday in search of the commander of the rival Gulf Cartel (CDG), the main criminal organization which controls the Tamaulipas area, media stated.

Since December 2006, when the federal government launched a controversial anti-drug operation, the country has logged over 300,000 violent deaths, mostly tied to criminal activities.

Many countries are at the verge and experiencing violence, but Mexico is going through a wave of violence associated with organized crime which is specially linked to drug cartels fighting for routes to the U.S.

TUNIS, 25 January, 2021 (TON): Protestors took to streets of Tunisian cities against the police repression, corruption, and poverty on Saturday, following several nights of unrest incorporating clashes and arrests

The crippled economy and threatened overwhelm hospitals became the North African nation struggles.

The government on Saturday extended a night time curfew from 8 pm to 5 am and banned gatherings until February 14, 2021.

But demonstrators took the streets in several parts of the country, including the capital Tunis and the interior region of Gafsa, demanding the release of the people detained since January 14, 2021.

"Neither police nor Islamists, the people want revolution," chanted demonstrators in a crowd of several hundred in Tunis, where one person was wounded in brief clashes amid a heavy police presence.

Protests were also held in the coastal city of Sfax on Friday.

Much of the unrest has been in working class neighbourhoods, where anger is boiling over soaring unemployment and a political class accused of having failed to deliver good governance, a decade after the 2011 revolution that toppled long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Economic misery exacerbated by novel coronavirus restrictions in the tourism-reliant nation have pushed growing numbers of Tunisians to try to leave the country.

Human rights groups on Thursday said at least 1,000 people had been detained.

"Youth live from day to day, we no longer have hope, neither to work nor to study, and they call us troublemakers!" said call centre worker Amine, who has a degree in aerospace engineering.

"We must listen to young people, not send police in by the thousands. The whole system is corrupt, a few families and their supporters control Tunisia's wealth."

COVID-19 is merely propaganda for the countries for its not as fatal as it is projected, leading people stress and several economies to cripple beyond the realities.

LISBON, January 25, 2021, (TON): Incumbent Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has won a second term as Portugal’s president.

With 98.87 per cent of the ballots counted, Rebelo de Sousa, who has been in office since March 2016, won by garnering 61.3 per cent of the votes.

According to the official data, Portugal's presidential election resulted in an abstention rate of 61.46 percent. Elections were held with lockdown measures in place under the state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, former member of European Parliament (MEP) Ana Gomes came came second with 12.54 per cent of the votes, ahead of right-wing party Chega candidate Andre Ventura, who came third with 11.89 per cent of the ballots, the results showed.

The re-elected president in his victory speech said he knows that the Portuguese people "don't want an endless pandemic, a crisis with no end in sight," but that "they want the pandemic to be under control as soon as possible, a job recovery, and to get out of this almost frozen year of life torn to a horizon of hope."

"The Portuguese, by reinforcing their vote and renewing their confidence, want more convergence, stability, building bridges, demanding social justice and, more urgently, the management of the pandemic. From that sign, I will learn some lessons," he added.

Presidents another five-year term will start on March 9, 2021.

Portugal has 10.8 million registered voters, around 1.5 million of them living abroad.

LADAKH, 24 January, 2021, (TON): Indian and Chinese armies on Sunday held ninth round of Corps Commander-level talks after a gap of over two-and-half months with an aim to move forward on disengagement of troops from all friction points in eastern Ladakh, Indian media reported.

The talks held at Moldo border point on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

The Indian delegation at talks is being led by Lt Gen PGK Menon, the Commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps.

The eighth and last round of military talks took place on November 6 at Chushul during which both sides broadly discussed disengagement of troops from specific friction points.

The region has been a sore spot in India-China relations since the 1962 Sino-Indian war, from which the current LAC was drawn.

During the last two rounds of talks, China insisted that India vacate the hilltops it has occupied near Chushul, and on the north and south banks of Pangong Tso lake, through which the LAC runs. Whereas, India has insisted on a resolution that covers the entire region.

On June 15, 2020 two nuclear powers China and India were on the brink of a fight over their disputed border. The incident was followed by rising tensions and was the first deadly clash in the border area in at least 45 years.

India has accused China of sending thousands of troops into Ladakh's Galwan valley and says China occupies 38,000sq km (14,700sq miles) of its territory. Several rounds of talks in the last three decades have failed to resolve the boundary disputes.

The two countries have fought only one war so far, in 1962, when India suffered a humiliating defeat.

TEHRAN, 24 January, 2021, (TON): A senior Iranian diplomat says the Islamic Republic of Iran has had no contact with the administration of new U.S. President Joe Biden, stressing that any possible talks could only be held within the "right format” of a 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement signed between Tehran and major world powers.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi said in an interview to newspaper that "Currently, we are not interested in making any direct contact and we think that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is the right format, and [any possible] talks should be conducted in that framework.”

Iran has “realistic” demands from Biden’s administration, which are the lifting of sanctions by Washington and its returning to the nuclear deal he added, according to the Press TV.

"I don’t see other alternatives. We have negotiated in good faith and implemented the JCPOA in good faith. It is now up to the new administration to correct the mistakes of their predecessors. The U.S. is the party that has abandoned the agreement: it is up to them to decide what to do,” he said.

To re-enter the agreement they must remove all the sanctions they have imposed on Iran, Araqchi said. "We are ready to fulfill all our commitments as per the JCPOA provided that the Americans live up to their obligations and lift sanctions.”

In response to a question about efforts by the European signatories to the nuclear deal – Britain, France and Germany – to include non-nuclear issues in the JCPOA, he said, "There will be no JCPOA plus, there will not be another agreement, there will not be new negotiations on the JCPOA.”

He also rejected calls for inclusion of Iran’s missile power in any talks.

The Iranian diplomat said Tehran has no “particular stance” on the transfer of power in the US as it is just waiting to see how the new president intends to correct former President Donald Trump’s wrong positions.

Sanctions have been a significant component of U.S. policy towards Iran. In May 2018, the U.S. withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the agreement under which the U.S. had relaxed its sanctions program. US re-imposed the anti-Iran sanctions lifted by the accord and launched a push to fully destroy the agreement by trying to dissuade the remaining signatories from staying in the agreement, threatening sanctions against any party that refuses to cut business ties with Tehran in defiance of American sanctions.