29 Mar 2019; DW: Jordanian King Abdullah II received the "Lamp of Peace of Saint Francis" at a ceremony in the Italian city of Assisi on Friday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as last year's recipient, presented the monarch with the award. 

Abdullah has been given the Catholic award for promoting human rights, interfaith dialogue and Middle East peace, and for taking in Syrian refugees fleeing the conflict in their country.

Promoting interfaith harmony

Gorakhpur/Lucknow, Mar 29 (PTI) In a jolt to the SP-BSP-RLD 'Mahagathbandhan' in Uttar Pradesh, the Nishad Party Friday parted ways with the fledgling anti-BJP alliance and said it could "look for other options".

"The Nishad Party is no more in alliance with the Samajwadi Party," Nikky Nishad alias Riteash Nishad, media in-charge, Nishad Party, told PTI in Gorakhpur.

"There was conflict between the two parties on Maharajganj seat as Nishad Party wanted to contest with its own party symbol where as Samajwadi Party was not ready for it," he added.

29 Mar 2019; AFP: A Maori lament echoed across Christchurch Friday as a survivor of the New Zealand mosque attacks told a national remembrance service he had forgiven the gunman responsible for the racist massacre that took his wife, and shocked the world.

"I am choosing peace and I have forgiven," wheelchair-bound Farid Ahmed told tens of thousands gathered in the grieving southern city, drawing sustained applause as he implored New Zealanders of all faiths to also reject hate.

MOSCOW, March 28; GANASHAKTI:  Russian military experts will remain in Venezuela as long as the republic’s government needs it, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at Thursday’s briefing.

"How long? As long as they need it, and as long as the Venezuelan government needs them. It all is being done based on bilateral agreements," the diplomat said in response to a question. "There are international and bilateral legal frameworks for it."

28 Mar 2019; DW: Austrian Identitarian Movement leader Martin Sellner said on Thursday that his US travel permit had been cancelled by authorities.

Sellner is currently under investigation and his home was raided this week for alleged ties to the suspected gunman of the New Zealand attack.

Authorities discovered that the alleged Christchurch gunman sent a €1,500 ($1,700) donation to Sellner by last year.

Banned UK entry

Washington, Mar 28; PTI/GANASHAKTI: Prominent American experts have said that India has a long way to go when it comes to ensuring space security after it successfully test-fired an anti-satellite missile by shooting down a live satellite.

The test made India the fourth country in the world after the US, Russia and China to acquire the strategic capability to shoot down enemy satellites.

28 Mar 2019; DW: In a video posted online dated March 16 and shot in Cologne, Otto Gebauer criticizes the government of acting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, discusses the details of a recent conversation with Marian Schuegraf, the German Foreign Ministry's commissioner for Latin America and the Caribbean, and emphasizes the urgency of working with the industrial manufacturer Siemens to reduce power outages back in Venezuela.

CARACAS, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido will be barred from holding public office for 15 years following an investigation which showed irregularities in his financial records, Venezuela's Comptroller General Elvis Amoroso said on Thursday.

"Disqualify from holding any public office the citizen Juan Gerardo Antonio Guaido Marquez," Amoroso said, following the investigation into his declaration of assets.

28 Mar 2019; DW: Germany has extended its current ban on arms exports to Saudi Arabia for six more months, ending on September 30, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Thursday.

During that period, no new contracts will be approved, Seibert said. The decision came after Merkel met with members of her cabinet to review the policy.

WASHINGTON, March 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on the Russia investigation is more than 300 pages long, media reported Thursday, citing a Department of Justice official.

The official described the confidential report as more than 300 pages. A second official told CNN that it was between 300 and 400 pages, not including exhibits.

Mueller wrapped up his nearly two-year investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by submitting a report to Attorney General William Barr Friday.

PHNOM PENH, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said Friday that the negotiations on hiring a Turkey's power ship to tackle the ongoing electricity shortage have reached an agreement.

"Due to electricity shortage this year, we need to bring a power ship, which is installed with about 200-megawatt power plant, to Phnom Penh," he said in a speech during a government-private sector forum here.

29 Mar 2019; AFP: Top negotiators from China and the United States began a fresh round of trade talks in Beijing on Friday to settle a bruising dispute that has threatened to blight the global economy.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were greeted by Vice Premier Liu He at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse as they seek to resolve the months-long trade war between the world's top two economies.