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Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to undergo hernia surgery

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says the Israeli leader will undergo surgery on Sunday for a hernia.

Netanyahu’s office said the hernia was discovered during a routine checkup, and that the prime minister will be under full anesthesia and unconscious for the procedure.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a close confidant who also holds the title of deputy prime minister, will serve as acting prime minister during the operation, the office said.

Netanyahu, 74, has kept a full schedule throughout Israel’s nearly six-month-long war against Haqmas, and his doctors have said he is in good health.

Last year, however, doctors acknowledged he had concealed a long-known heart problem after they implanted a pacemaker.

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Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif bans red carpet at official events

Pakistan’s prime minister has imposed a ban on the use of red carpets at official events, a move intended as a further small step towards curtailing extravagant spending at government level.

The decision, taken by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, comes amidst severe economic challenges faced by the cash-strapped nuclear power of South Asia, local media reported on Saturday.

The government issued a notification specifying that red carpet usage would be limited solely to protocol purposes at diplomatic events.

Earlier, Sharif and his cabinet voluntarily decided to forego their salaries and perks.

President Asif Ali Zardari has opted not to take a salary to demonstrate solidarity in the face of the nation’s economic challenges.

Weeks after assuming office, Sharif announced austerity measures to cut government spending.

The measures include a ban on purchase of luxury vehicles, a requirement that ministers travel economy class and pay their own utility bills and the requirement that they do not stay in five-star hotels.

Pakistan has been struggling with rising prices and a faltering economy in recent years. Sky-high inflation, fuelled by the ever-increasing prices of electricity and petroleum products, is among the challenges the government seeks to resolve.

Pakistan has sought International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailouts several times but the conditions attached to the agency’s assistance are always unpopular.

Last year, the IMF pulled Pakistan’s economy back from the brink amid fears of default with short-term $3-billion bailout package.

As the program nears its end, the newly-elected government plans to seek another loan of at least $6 billion from the IMF.

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France to deliver hundreds of armored vehicles to Ukraine, defense minister says

PARIS (AP) — French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said France is to deliver “hundreds” of armored vehicles by the beginning of next year to Ukraine as part of a new package of military aid for the country that just entered its third year since the Russian invasion.

In an interview with the French newspaper La Tribune’s Sunday edition, Lecornu said that “to hold such an extensive front line, the Ukrainian army needs, for example, our armored personnel carriers. It’s absolutely key for troop mobility.”

The French military is currently replacing its old VAB armored personnel carriers that started being used in 1979 by a new generation of armored vehicles. “This old equipment, still operational, is going directly to Ukraine in large quantities. We’re talking about hundreds (of vehicles) in 2024 and early 2025,” Lecornu said.

Lecornu also said France will provide Ukraine with more anti-aircraft missiles.

The move comes as France’s government is pushing its military industry to boost its production to meet Kyiv’s urgent needs for ammunition.

Lecornu on Tuesday said France will soon be able to deliver 78 Caesar howitzers to Ukraine and will increase its supply of shells.

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Find more of AP’s coverage of Russia and Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Thousands attend a rally in India’s capital to challenge Prime Minister Modi ahead of elections

NEW DELHI (AP) — Thousands of people on Sunday attended a rally by an alliance of India’s opposition parties that criticized the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of stifling opponents and undermining democratic institutions ahead of a national election next month.

The “Save Democracy” rally was the first major public demonstration by the opposition bloc INDIA against the arrest of New Delhi’s top elected official and opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal on March 21.

Kejriwal was arrested by the federal Enforcement Directorate, which is controlled by Modi’s government, on charges that his party and state ministers had accepted 1 billion rupees ($12 million) in bribes from liquor contractors nearly two years ago. The Aam Aadmi Party, or Common Man’s Party, denied the accusations and has said Kejriwal would remain as New Delhi’s chief minister while the court decides on the next step.

“This battle is to safeguard the nation, democracy, constitution, future of the nation, youth, farmers and women. This battle is for justice and truth,” Deepender Singh Hooda, a lawmaker of the opposition Congress party, told reporters at the rally.

Kejriwal’s arrest is seen as a setback for the opposition bloc that is the main challenger to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, in the elections to be held over six weeks starting April 19.

Opposition leaders have criticized Kejriwal’s arrest as undemocratic and accused the BJP of using the federal agency to undermine them, pointing to a series of arrests and corruption investigations against key opposition figures.

The BJP denies targeting the opposition and says law enforcement agencies act independently.

“Narendra Modi wants to strangle democracy and take away the option from the people to choose the government of their choice,” opposition leader Rahul Gandhi from the Congress party, who took part in Sunday’s rally, wrote on X.

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Portugal’s New Premier Picks Sarmento as Finance Minister

(Bloomberg) — Portugal’s incoming prime minister picked Joaquim Miranda Sarmento as finance minister, putting him in charge of fiscal policy for a government without a majority that can ensure approval of budgets.

Ukrainian foreign minister tells India not to rely on Russia

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on India to reconsider its traditionally close relationship with Russia during a visit to New Delhi.

“The co-operation between India and Russia is largely based on the Soviet legacy,” Kuleba told Britain’s Financial Times newspaper in comments from the Indian capital on Friday. “But this is not the legacy that will be kept for centuries; it is a legacy that is evaporating.”

New Delhi has taken a neutral stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, does not support Western sanctions against Moscow and repeatedly promotes conflict resolution through dialogue. The world’s most populous country with 1.4 billion inhabitants maintains good relations with Western nations and Russia.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, India has increased its imports of cheap oil from Russia – and is one of its largest customers. The country has also been purchasing a large proportion of its military equipment from Russia for a long time. However, India is increasingly trying to reduce its dependency in this respect, importing more from other countries or producing domestically.

Kuleba also told the Financial Times that India should be concerned about the closer relations between Russia and China. India has had extremely strained relations with neighbouring China since a deadly clash on their shared and heavily militarized border in the Himalayan mountains in 2020.

Kuleba also expressed interest in more trade between Ukraine and India. His country was looking to import heavy machinery from India, for example, he said.

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German interior minister warns of Russian election meddling

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned of the growing dangers posed by Russia’s hybrid warfare of traditional and cyber spying and accused the Kremlin of encouraging migrants to move to Western Europe.

The Social Democratic (SPD) politician, in a story in Monday’s Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, said: “We are actually experiencing a new dimension of threats from Russian aggression.

“But espionage is also at least as active,” said Faeser. She also accused the Kremlin of deliberately promoting refugee movements to Western Europe: “Russia also wants to destabilize the West with migration.”

With an eye toward the European Parliament elections in June and German state elections in September, Faeser said the German government will gear up more strongly to defend itself against cyber espionage

“We must ensure that there are no hacker attacks on electoral authorities or on the transmission of election results”.

Faeser is focusing on the increased use of artificial intelligence to protect against disinformation campaigns and spoke out against cuts to her budget for 2025.

The interior minister also accused the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party of being close to Putin, which AfD leader Alice Weidel denied in a dpa interview.

“The AfD worships Putin and despises modern Germany,” Faeser said. The party had “radicalized itself in large parts from an anti-euro party to an anti-constitutional party.”

Faeser did not rule out the possibility of banning the AfD,a move which has been debated recently in Germany.

“If a party wants to aggressively undermine the basic democratic order, it can be banned by the Federal Constitutional Court. If the radicalization of the AfD continues, this is an option provided for in our constitution,” Faeser said.

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Protests against arrest of one of top rivals of Indian Prime Minister Modi continue for second day

NEW DELHI (AP) — Hundreds of protesters in India’s capital took to the streets for a second day Saturday, demanding the immediate release of one of the top rivals of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as the country gears up for a national election next month.

Arvind Kejriwal, New Delhi’s top elected official and one of the country’s most consequential politicians of the past decade, was arrested by the federal Enforcement Directorate Thursday night. The agency, controlled by Modi’s government, accused his party and ministers of accepting 1 billion rupees ($12 million) in bribes from liquor contractors nearly two years ago.

His Aam Aadmi Party, or Common Man’s Party, denied the accusations and said Friday Kejriwal would remain Delhi’s chief minister as it took the matter to court.

Kejriwal was taken into custody for seven days following a court order on Friday.

Kejriwal’s wife, Sunita, had a message Saturday she said was from her detained husband. Posted on the AAP party X account, the message relayed Kerijwal as saying he wasn’t surprised by the arrest for he has “struggled a lot” and warning against “several forces within and outside India that are weakening the country.”

Chanting: “Kejriwal is Modi’s doom” and “Dictatorship won’t be tolerated,” protesters accused Modi on Saturday of governing the country under a state of emergency — a claim the opposition has long professed — and using federal law enforcement agencies to stifle opposition parties before the election.

APP leader and chief minister of neighboring Punjab state, Bhagwant Mann, joined the protest alongside some cabinet ministers.

“(Kejriwal’a arrest) is a murder of democracy,” Balbir Singh, Punjab’s health minister told The Associated Press. “For opposition leaders, jail is the rule and bail is the exception,” he added. Singh also accused Modi’s ruling party to “have turned the rule of law upside down.”

Lily Tiga, a protester said when “a person who does good, fights for truth, fights for the downtrodden and poor is arrested, it’s not only unfortunate, it is a time to mourn for this country.”

Some demonstrators tried to move the protest to the main street in central Delhi. But police, some in riot gear, blocked them and detained at least three dozen protesters.

On Friday, hundreds of AAP supporters and some senior party leaders clashed with the police, who whisked a number of them away in buses.

In the lead-up to the general election , starting April 19, India’s opposition parties have accused the government of misusing its power to harass and weaken its political opponents, pointing to a spree of raids, arrests and corruption investigations against key opposition figures. Meanwhile, some probes against erstwhile opposition leaders who later defected to Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have been dropped.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, denies targeting the opposition and says law enforcement agencies act independently.

Kejriwal’s AAP is part of a broad alliance of opposition parties called INDIA, the main challenger to Modi’s BJP in the coming election.

His arrest is another setback for the bloc, and came after the country’s main opposition Congress party accused the government Thursday of freezing its bank accounts in a tax dispute to cripple it. This has led to a rare show of strength by the opposition figures who slammed the move as undemocratic and accused Modi’s party of misusing the agency to undermine them.

In 2023, the agency arrested Kejriwal’s deputy, Manish Sisodia, and AAP lawmaker Sanjay Singh as part of the same case. Both remain in jail.

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German interior minister believes IS responsible for Moscow attack

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser says she believes the terrorist militia Islamic State is responsible for the horrific attack on a Moscow concert hall that has claimed the lives of at least 133 people.

“According to everything that is known so far, it can be assumed that the terrorist group Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) is responsible for the murderous terrorist attack near Moscow,” she told the online edition of Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper on Saturday.

ISKP is a regional Islamic State branch based in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Faeser also said that this group currently poses the greatest Islamist threat in Germany. “The danger from Islamist terrorism remains acute,” she said.

Only last Tuesday, German authorities arrested two suspected members of the Islamic State offshoot in the eastern state of Thuringia. They are suspected of having planned an attack on the Swedish parliament.

The ISKP has been waging an armed conflict with the militant Islamist Taliban in Afghanistan for several years.

Recently, there have been several arrests in Germany in connection with the ISKP. The group was linked to a possible plot to attack Cologne Cathedral around the turn of the year.

Faeser condemned the attack in Moscow. “We mourn with the families of the many innocent victims of this cowardly and brutal terrorist attack,” she said.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack in the Russian capital, but Russian authorities have so far not commented on that, instead suggesting Ukraine might have been involved, accusations Kiev swiftly denied.

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Pakistan’s ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan spends night at high-security prison after court sentencing

ATTOCK, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan spent the night at a high-security prison after a court handed him a three-year jail sentence for corruption, a development that could end his future in politics.

The court ruled Saturday that Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022 but remains the country’s leading opposition figure, had concealed assets after selling state gifts.

The prison sentence could bar him from politics under a law that prohibits people with a criminal conviction from holding or running for public office. He could also lose the chairmanship of the party he founded, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI.

It’s the second time this year that Khan has been detained, joining other former Pakistani prime ministers who had been arrested and seen military interventions throughout the country’s political history.

But his current residence at the Attock prison is a far cry from his custodial conditions in May when he was taken to a well-appointed guesthouse on a police compound in Islamabad under a Supreme Court order. He was then allowed visitors and meetings with party colleagues.

Attock prison, in eastern Punjab province, is notorious for its harsh conditions and its inmates include convicted militants.

Authorities have further tightened security around the prison, which already has armed guards in watchtowers, by erecting barriers and blocking roads to keep people away. They have also instructed locals not to allow media onto their roofs to stop photographs and videos from leaking.

PTI lawyer Shoaib Shaheen told The Associated Press that police at the prison refused entry to a legal team who went to see Khan. He said the party will file an appeal as there are “plenty of loopholes in the verdict.”

Critics say efforts to put Khan behind bars are politically motivated and have intensified ahead of elections due to be held later this year.

They argue that Khan’s popularity and a large support base, combined with his ability to mobilize massive crowds, pose a threat to the ruling coalition and its backers in Pakistan’s powerful military that has been the final arbiter of the country’s politics since independence from Britain in 1947.

In May, Khan’s arrest on corruption charges caused a wave of violent protests that swept the country. Pakistan’s Supreme Court days later ordered his release, saying his arrest was illegal.

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