THE ruler of Kuwait has fired two warring cabinet ministers at the centre of embezzlement allegations and directed the prime minister to form a new government.
Sheikh Sabah al Ahmad al Sabah issued the decree just days after Kuwait’s cabinet resigned amid another inquiry.
Al Sabah fired both defence minister Nasser al Sabah and interior minister Khaled al Sabah, who had issued statements against each other. The defence minister says he discovered a $790 million embezzlement in the office while the interior minister served as his predecessor.
The defence minister is seeking his predecessor’s prosecution along with five other top defence ministry officials over the alleged embezzlement.
The cabinet resigned last week after a minister stepped down following a grilling by parliament. The country’s parliamentary elections are expected in November 2020.
A UN envoy has urged the government of Bolivia’s self-proclaimed interim president and supporters of self-exiled leader Evo Morales to begin talks to resolve the country’s political crisis.
The negotiations proposed by envoy Jean Arnault would involve MPs from Morales’s political party, mobilised groups and representatives of interim leader Jeanine Anez and be mediated by the United Nations and the Roman Catholic Church.
At least 23 people have died since the crisis broke out, according to Bolivia’s Ombudsman’s office. Anez declared herself president after Morales resigned on November 10 after weeks of protests against him over disputed election results. She said her priorities are to pacify Bolivia and hold new elections within three months.
Morales’s supporters, who took to the streets after he quit under pressure from the military, are demanding the return of the leader, who was Bolivia’s first indigenous president.
A clash on Friday left nine pro-Morales coca growers dead and led to an ultimatum from protesters for Anez to step down and withdraw troops that have been blocking them from entering central Cochabamba from the nearby town of Sacaba.
FULL preliminary results from parliamentary elections in Belarus show the chamber will have no members of the opposition to challenge strongman President Alexander Lukashenko.
Results released by the national elections commission show all the parliament’s 110 seats won by former government functionaries, diplomats and members of pro-government parties.
The outgoing parliament in the former Soviet republic had two opposition deputies. But they and many other opposition candidates were blocked from running again.
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