PRESIDENT Nicolas Maduro has called for military unity in Venezuela following clashes between opposition supporters and pro-government forces.
Maduro was speaking on national television yesterday, two days after security forces failed to respond to opposition leader Juan Guaido’s call for an uprising.
Flanked by soldiers, Maduro said the military must be prepared to combat “traitors” and that the opposition had sought to provoke bloodshed in Caracas.
Guaido, backed by a small contingent of security forces, called for the military to turn against Maduro on Tuesday, but police dispersed the crowds in clashes that raged for hours. Thousands turned out at protests the next day.
ELSEWHERE, more than 800,000 people have been evacuated along India’s eastern coast as authorities braced for a cyclone moving through the Bay of Bengal that is forecast to bring “extremely severe” wind and rain.
Cyclone Fani was forecast to make landfall today with gale-force winds of up to 200 kilometres per hour (124mph) expected to start last night.
The Meteorological Department projected the “total destruction” of thatched-roof huts, flooding of farmland and orchards, and the bending and uprooting of telephone poles.
More than 800 shelters were opened and around 100,000 dry food packets are ready to be airdropped.
MEANWHILE, An Afghan grand council agreed on several recommendations for peace talks with the Taliban after four days of meetings in Kabul.
President Ashraf Ghani had convened the council of more than 3200 participants, known as Loya Jirga, earlier in the week, though there have been a number of boycotts.
The gathering is consultative and its recommendations are not binding, but underscored his government’s effort to project a unified stance.
The Taliban have thus far refused to talk to the government, considering it a US puppet, though they have held several rounds of talks with US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad.
AND finally, the wettest winter in a generation has revived Iraq’s famous rivers and filled its lakes, bringing welcome relief to a country facing severe water challenges in the era of climate change.
After years of meagre rain and scorching summers, the water has restored freshwater marshes of southern Iraq and transformed parched land into fields of grain and cereal.
But the deluge has also raised questions about whether Iraq’s 20th-century infrastructure can adapt to an unpredictable 21st-century climate.
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