Foreign News
Mongolian PM loses confidence vote, resigns after four months in office
Mongolian Prime Minister Gombojav Zandanshatar has stepped down after only four months as leader of the country, after receiving a crushing vote of no confidence from politicians, the country’s parliament has announced.
Mongolia’s 126-seat national parliament, the State Great Khural, held the vote on Friday in which a reported 111 members of parliament cast their ballots, with 71 supporting Zandanshatar’s dismissal and 40 opposing, according to a parliamentary statement.
On October 10, more than 50 members of the legislature submitted a motion to have Zandanshatar dismissed from his post, citing constitutional violations and concerns about governance, according to reports, with the prime minister’s recent appointment of a new minister of justice and home affairs at the centre of the controversy.
The MPs said Zandanshatar’s appointment was carried out unilaterally, without consultation with parliament as required under the Mongolian constitution, and had undermined “the principle of the separation of state powers”.
“The appointment encroached on the powers of the President of Mongolia and the State Great Khural, violates the fundamental principles of the constitution, and violates the principle of the rule of law,” parliamentarians said in a statement at the time.
A second criticism of Zandanshatar concerned his public statements about an ongoing investigation, which allegedly undermined judicial independence and the right to the presumption of innocence, while a third alleged that changes he made to pricing mechanisms for major mineral exporters fostered unfair competition.
It was only four months ago that Mongolian lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in the 55-year-old, Russian-educated economist and former vice-director of one of the country’s largest commercial banks.
[Aljazeera]
Italian police have arrested nine people accused of raising around €7m (£6m) for Hamas over more than two years.
The money was ostensibly collected as humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians, a police statement said, but was instead sent to the militant group via a “complex fundraising system”.
Alongside the arrests, police say they have seized more than €8m (£7m) in assets as part of the investigation.
Police say the suspects are “specifically accused of carrying out financing operations believed to have contributed to terrorist activities”.
The arrests were made as part of a joint initiative between Italy’s counter-terror police and financial police.
The investigation began after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack in southern Israel.
Police say they analysed “a series of reports of suspicious financial transactions” involving some of the suspects in the lead up to the attack.
Investigators uncovered a “complex” system of fundraising, which was headquartered in Genoa with branches in Milan, the statement adds.
“The suspects collected donations intended for the civilian population of Gaza, however, it emerged that over 71% of these funds were diverted to Hamas’s coffers to finance its military wing and support the families of suicide bombers or those detained for terrorism,” the police statement says.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the most well-known of the arrested suspects was Mohammad Hannoun, the president of the Palestinian Association in Italy.
Mr Hannoun has previously described allegations he is a financier of Hamas as a “lie”.
Piantedosi thanked police for their work in a post on X, but also noted that “the presumption of innocence… must always be recognised at this stage”.
[BBC]
Thailand and Cambodia said they have signed a ceasefire agreement to end weeks of fierce fighting along their border that has killed more than 100 people and displaced more than half a million civilians in both countries.
“Both sides agree to an immediate ceasefire after the time of signature of this Joint Statement,” the Thai and Cambodian defence ministers said in a statement on Saturday.
“Both sides agree to maintain current troop deployments without further movement,” the ministers said.
The ceasefire took effect at noon local time (05:00 GMT) on Saturday [27] and extends to “all types of weapons” and “attacks on civilians, civilian objects and infrastructures, and military objectives of either side, in all cases and all areas”.
Al Jazeera’s Assed Baig, reporting from the Cambodian border city of Poipet, said the “guns seem to have fallen silent” as both sides adhered to the truce.
“But I must tell you, right up until the point of that ceasefire being implemented, there was some intense firing going on… really, really intense – right up until that moment. And it kind of gives you the idea of how fragile this actually is,” Baig said.
“That doesn’t instil a great deal of confidence in people here who want to return home and will be watching if this ceasefire will hold,” he said.
[Aljazeera]
United States President Donald Trump has issued a new warning to Nicolas Maduro, saying “it would be smart” for the Venezuelan leader to step down, as Washington escalates a pressure campaign that has drawn sharp rebukes from Russia and China.
Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday, flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Trump suggested he was prepared to further ratchet up the tensions after four months of mounting pressure on Caracas.
When asked if the goal was to force Maduro from power, Trump told reporters: “Well, I think it probably would… That’s up to him what he wants to do. I think it’d be smart for him to do that. But again, we’re gonna find out.”
“If he wants to do something, if he plays tough, it’ll be the last time he’s ever able to play tough,” the US leader added.
Trump levied his latest threat as the US Coast Guard continued for a second day to chase a third oil tanker that it described as part of a “dark fleet” that Venezuela uses to evade US sanctions.
“It’s moving along, and we’ll end up getting it,” Trump said.
The US president also promised to keep the two ships two ships and the nearly 4 million barrels of Venezuelan oil the coastguard has seized so far.
“Maybe we’ll sell it. Maybe we’ll keep it. Maybe we will use it in the strategic reserves,” he said. “We’re keeping it. We’re keeping the ships also.”
[Aljazeera]
Environmentalists warn Sri Lanka’s ecological safeguards are failing
IGP warns cops against presenting hampers or gifts to superiors
Ravi K urges slash of politicians’ perks to fund national relief and reconstruction
Kandy District Secretariat targeted a second time with a bomb threat
Cardinal warns sex education reforms threaten family values
Met. Dept warns of heavy rain across several provinces from tomorrow
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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