PARIS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- French European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau on Tuesday announced she quit office to head President Emmanuel Macron's party list for the European elections in May.

"I send my resignation to the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic... It will take effect after the cabinet meeting tomorrow when I will take part for the last time," Loiseau said while she started the European campaign.

"A number of populist forces are going up in Europe and we are going to fight them," she warned.

UNITED NATIONS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese UN envoy said Tuesday China wishes to stress once again that a two-state solution is the fundamental solution to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and any new initiative should contribute to the realization of the two-state solution.

At present, the international consensus on taking forward the Middle East peace process is faced with challenges, while the efforts to facilitate Palestinian-Israeli peace talks have shown no sign of progress, said Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations.

26 Mar 2019; DW: Algerian army chief of staff Ahmed Gaid Salah on Tuesday called for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to be removed from office by using articles of the constitution.

The North African country has been rocked by more than a month of protests calling for Bouteflika to step down in order to pave the way for a democratic overhaul of Algeria's political system.

Ahmedabad, Mar 26; PTI/GANASHAKTI: A special CBI court Tuesday allowed the CBI to file its reply on applications moved by former police officers D G Vanzara and N K Amin to drop proceedings against them in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case.

The applications were moved by the two retired police officials on Tuesday.

The court of special CBI judge J K Pandya allowed CBI lawyer R C Kodekar to seek the view of the "higher authority" in the investigating agency, as requested by Pandya, and submit its reply on April 3 on the applications.

27 Mar 2019; DW: A Boeing 737 MAX was forced to make an emergency landing in Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday after it experienced an engine problem shortly after takeoff, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.

The Southwest Airlines aircraft made a safe landing at Orlando International Airport some 10 minutes after taking off from the same airport. No passengers were on board.

Islamabad, Mar 26; PTI/GANASHAKTI: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said Indo-Pak relations would remain tense till the general elections in India are over.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after the February 14 attack by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed in Pulwama.

New Delhi, March 26; GANASHAKTI: Air India has decided to withdraw the boarding passes featuring the pictures of PM Narendra Modi and Gujarat CM, Vijay Rupani, after former Punjab DGP Shashi Kant's tweet sparked a controversy.

The outrage started as the pictures violate the Model Code of Conduct.

Separately, Railways also had to withdraw its tickets recently, featuring the PM after TMC's complained to the Election Commission. 

MOSCOW, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Russian astronauts will carry out an experiment on controlling a propeller-driven drone on board the International Space Station (ISS), local media reported Wednesday.

"The experiment was introduced into the program. During experiments with the propeller-driven drone, it is first planned to work out the design of its body and propulsion system," Sputnik news agency quoted Alexander Bloshenko, advisor to the head of the Roscosmos state corporation, as saying.

KABUL, March 26 (Xinhua) -- As part of its annual program to exhibit various domestic products, Afghanistan has held its 22nd agriculture and handicrafts exhibition in capital Kabul.

The exhibition, which was held from March 22-26 at the Badam Bagh agriculture park, a garden in northern outskirts of Kabul city, was visited by thousands of people from around the country.

LOS ANGELES, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Citadel Outlets, the only outlet mall in the western U.S. city of Los Angeles and a destination for more than 100,000 Chinese visitors last year, announced Tuesday the opening of the city's only California Welcome Center at the shopping center to enhance and enrich tourists' visit in Southern California.

Jammu, March 26 (PTI) BSP state general secretary A S Mottan and 16 others, including retired officers, sarpanches and social activists, joined the Congress here Tuesday in the presence of Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief and former tourism minister Gulam Ahmed Mir.

Mottan was accompanied by his supporters, who joined the Congress too at an event at the party's headquarters in Shahidi Chowk.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Boeing President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg said Tuesday his company was "humbled" and "learning" from an Ethiopian airlines crash that killed 157 people more than two weeks ago.

In a statement published Tuesday, Muilenburg said Boeing is resorting to all the resources it has to cooperate "tirelessly" with the Ethiopians to "understand what happened and do everything possible to ensure it doesn't happen again."