Briefly

MEXICO

US threats to close border condemned

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday dismissed as "demagogic" recent threats from some US politicians to close the Mexico-US border. Closing the border between the two countries would not resolve the immigration problem as these politicians suggest, Lopez Obrador said at his regular daily news conference. "With a modicum of intelligence, you couldn't think that this is a solution," he told reporters at the National Palace in Mexico City. US President Joe Biden remarked a few days ago that he would be willing to close the border with Mexico should the flow of migrants exceed the administration's capabilities. "The position 'we are going to close the borders' is very demagogic," Lopez Obrador said.

AFRICA

54 killed in clashes in disputed oil-rich region

Fifty-two civilians and two peace-keepers have been killed in intercommunal clashes in the oil-rich area of Abyei contested between Sudan and South Sudan, the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei said in a statement on Monday. The agency "is concerned about the continuing intercommunal clashes (in Abyei) that resulted in the death of another UN peace-keeper on Saturday," the statement said. The UN peacekeeping force was established in 2011 by the UN Security Council to monitor the contested Abyei area, with up to 5,326 troops stationed on the border between Sudan and South Sudan.

PAKISTAN

Court sentences ex-PM, ex-FM to 10 years in jail

A special court on Tuesday sentenced former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to 10 years in prison, respectively, for exposing official secrets. In an official statement, Khan's political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf confirmed the sentence, adding that they will challenge the decision in a higher court. The case, commonly known as the cipher case, had been heard in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi city where both Khan and Qureshi are facing imprisonment in other cases. While announcing the verdict, the judge said that both the accused made the classified document public during the rally, using it for their political gain.

Xinhua - Agencies