International observers on Monday welcomed progress in Kazakhstan's parliamentary elections but said more democratic reforms were needed as the country hopes to turn the page after a brutal crackdown.. "But further changes to the legal framework are needed to provide a sufficient basis for conducting democratic elections," the OSCE observers said.
Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha dissolved the country's parliament on Monday, setting up a general election in May as the former coup leader seeks to extend army-backed rule.. Once the Election Commission has finalised the results, parliament is expected to appoint a prime minister sometime in July.
Kenyan riot police were out in force Monday for a day of action called by the opposition to protest the country's cost of living crisis, despite a ban on the demonstrations.. Odinga said he called the demonstrations to protest the "skyrocketing" cost of living and the "stolen" election in August last year.
The UN's migration agency should not get itself dragged into domestic policy debates, its chief Antonio Vitorino told AFP, as he seeks a second term leading the organisation.. Vitorino was elected to the IOM leadership by member states in 2018, becoming only the second non-American to lead the agency in seven decades.
South Africa braced for protests on Monday after a left-wing party called for a "national shut-down", sparking fears of a repeat of unrest that turned deadly two years ago.. "The EFF has every right to protest, but the party has no right to hold South Africa hostage in doing so," said DA leader, John Steenhuisen. ub/kjm/ser
European Union ministers on Monday will look to sign off on a 2-billion-euro plan to raid their stockpiles and jointly purchase desperately needed artillery shells for Ukraine. . The first part of the plan involves committing a further one billion euros ($1.06 billion) of shared funding to try to get EU states to tap their already stretched stocks for ammunition that can be sent quickly.
The EU on Monday will host a conference in Brussels aimed at ramping up funds from international donors to help the victims of the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria.. Aid organisation International Rescue Committee (IRC) urged donors to at least ensure the UN's emergency appeal for $1 billion for Turkey and $397 million for Syria are fully funded.
The United Nations was poised to release a capstone report Monday distilling nearly a decade of published science on the impacts and trajectory of global warming, and the tools available to prevent climate catastrophe.. Since the last IPCC synthesis report in 2014, science has determined that devastating impacts are happening more quickly and at lower levels of warming than previously understood.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Monday faces two motions of no confidence in the National Assembly lower house, after forcing through an unpopular pension reform last week without a vote.. The provision means that the bill automatically becomes law unless the government loses a no-confidence vote, with two motions since filed: one from a small centrist group, and the other from the far-right National Rally.
With half the world experiencing water scarcity for at least part of the year, the huge dams being built by some countries to boost their power supplies while their neighbours go parched are a growing source of potential conflict.. One of the two hydroelectricity plants that produce the most power in the world, alongside China's Three Gorges, had its energy shared out under a 1973 treaty.
