US Congress blocks $159 million aid to Palestinians

Here is a round-up of global news developments:

• The US Congress has reportedly blocked 159 million dollars in aid to the Palestinian authority. Palestinian ambassador to Washington Maen Erekat says the decision aims to put pressure on Palestinians to resume stalled talks with Israel. The Obama administration has allocated 440 million dollars in aid to Palestinians for 2015. 

• US Vice President Joe Biden has criticized Israeli settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. Biden says Israel’s systematic expansion of settlements, and seizing Palestinian land are eroding the prospects for peace. He also says Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies are against the settlement of the conflict with the Palestinians.

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  A new report says police officers in the US state of Maryland regularly used Tasers in non-threatening situations and disregarded safety guidelines. According to the report, Maryland police used Taser guns in nearly 3-thousand incidents during a three-year period. More than two-thirds of the victims were African-Americans.

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  US President Barack Obama has described his trip to Cuba as a historic historic opportunity to build new ties between Washington and Havana. Obama’s three-day trip is the first by a sitting US president in 88 years. He is scheduled to meet with his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro.

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  Syria’s president has called on the Muslim world to unite in the face of threats posed by terrorist groups and the West. Bashar al-Assad has warned that terrorism is spreading across the region and the world, and that the West is targeting the Arab and Islamic identity of regional countries.

• Thousands of Germans have marched on the streets of the capital Berlin in a show of solidarity with refugees. The demonstrators also condemned racism and Islamophobia in the country. Germany has witnessed a surge in attacks against refugee camps since last year.

• Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders says the main suspect of last year’s Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, may have been plotting more operations. He also said investigators are looking for other suspects believed to be linked with those who carried out the Paris attacks. 

• Kazakhstan’s ruling party is bracing for a landslide victory in Sunday’s snap parliamentary elections. Exit polls show President Nur-sultan Nazar-bayev’s Nur Otan party has garnered 82 percent of the vote. 234 candidates were vying for 107 seats in the lower house of parliament.

   

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