Briefly

UNITED STATES

Second power official exits after blackouts

Texas' power grid manager Bill Magness was fired amid growing calls for his ouster following February's deadly blackouts in the state, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday. Magness, chief executive of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, is the second senior official to depart in the wake of one of the worst blackouts in US history, the report said. A mid-February storm temporarily knocked out up to half the state's generating plants, triggering outages that killed dozens.

MIDDLE EAST

First talks between US, Houthis claimed

Senior US officials have held a first direct meeting with officials from the Houthi movement that controls Yemen's capital, two sources familiar with the matter said, as the new US administration pushes to end a six-year war. The discussions, which have not been officially made public by either side, took place in the Oman's capital Muscat on Feb 26 between Timothy Lenderking, US' Yemen envoy, and the Houthis' Chief Negotiator Mohammed Abdusalam, the sources said.

NETHERLANDS

Alleged Israeli crimes in Palestine probed

Fatou Bensouda, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, on Wednesday launched an investigation into alleged crimes in the Palestinian territories, turning the tribunal's focus toward Israeli military actions and settlement construction on lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war. The decision of the court, in The Hague, dealt an embarrassing blow to the Israeli government, which had conducted an aggressive public relations to block the investigation. It also raised the possibility of arrest warrants being issued against Israeli officials suspected of war crimes.

EUROPEAN UNION

Talk of Sputnik jab use dampened

The European Commission said on Thursday that there were no talks under way about buying Russia's Sputnik V vaccine. Currently "no talks" are ongoing to integrate the vaccine, a spokesman said. Earlier on Thursday, European Medicines Agency said it had started a "rolling review" of the vaccine, a key step toward approval for use across the bloc. At the same time, Russia also expects countries in the bloc to approve the vaccine and Moscow could provide jabs for 50 million Europeans from June if the shot wins approval, Russia's RDIF fund said.

Agencies Via Xinhua