Briefly

SOUTH ASIA

Millions flee storm in India, Bangladesh

A strong cyclone was moving toward India and Bangladesh on Tuesday as authorities tried to evacuate millions of people while maintaining social distancing. Amphan is expected to make landfall on Wednesday morning, and forecasters warned of extensive damage from high winds, heavy rainfall, tidal waves and some flooding in crowded cities like Kolkata. The cyclone had winds of 230 kilometers per hour and is forecast to weaken before landfall around India's West Bengal state and Bangladesh. It is the second super cyclone on record that has formed over the Bay of Bengal, said Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, India's meteorological chief. The first of that classification was the devastating 1999 cyclone in Odisha state that left nearly 10,000 dead.

UNITED KINGDOM

Simplified tariffs to replace EU's system

The government announced a new post-Brexit tariff regime on Tuesday to replace the European Union's external tariff, maintaining a 10 percent tariff on cars but cutting levies on tens of billions of dollars of supply chain imports. After decades outsourcing its trade policy to the EU, Britain is seeking free-trade agreements with countries around the world and aims to have deals in place covering 80 percent of British trade by 2022.The new tariff regime－in place from January 2021－marks a departure from what some UK officials call an overly complex EU system, setting out Britain's stance as it negotiates trade deals with the United States and the Brussels-based bloc.

IRAQ

Rocket hits near US embassy in Baghdad

A rocket hit near the US embassy in Baghdad early on Tuesday morning, security sources said, the first to land in the high-security zone in weeks. The blast could be heard across the Iraqi capital and triggered security sirens at the US embassy compound but did not cause casualties, the sources confirmed. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. It followed more than two dozen similar attacks against US interests in Iraq since October that the US has blamed on Iran-backed factions among Iraq's security forces. Tensions reached boiling point in January when the US killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike on Baghdad. But the US and Iraq have sought to reset the relationship since Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi took the helm earlier this month, with bilateral talks planned for June.

UNITED STATES

Saudi attacker had ties with al-Qaida group

The Saudi military student who killed three US citizens at a US naval base in December had longstanding ties to al-Qaida and planned an attack before he arrived in the United States, US justice officials said on Monday. The Dec 6 attack by Mohammed Alshamrani, a Royal Saudi Air Force flight student at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida, "was actually the culmination of years of planning and preparation", said FBI Director Christopher Wray. Evidence discovered on an encrypted cell phone shows he was radicalized at least as far back as 2015, and had since been associating with "dangerous "operatives from the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, Wray added.

Agencies Via Xinhua