Briefly

AUSTRALIA

Treaty offers Tuvalu citizens climate refuge

Citizens of climate-threatened Tuvalu will have the right to live in Australia under a landmark pact unveiled on Friday — an offer of refuge as their Pacific homeland is lost beneath the seas. Tuvalu's Prime Minister Kausea Natano and Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese inked a treaty to help Tuvalu's 11,000 residents tackle climate change, and to take up sanctuary should the worst fears materialize. Tuvalu is among the world's most vulnerable nations due to rising sea levels and climate scientists fear the entire archipelago will be uninhabitable within the next 80 years.

PORTUGAL

President calls snap elections in March

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on Thursday announced snap parliamentary elections for March 10, 2024, following Tuesday's resignation of Prime Minister Antonio Costa who is under investigation for corruption. In a televised national address after a meeting with the Council of State, Rebelo de Sousa said the call for early elections comes from the need for "clarity and direction to overcome an unexpected void that surprised the Portuguese".

INDIA

Delhi gets breather as rain brings smog respite

Overnight rain in New Delhi and its suburbs brought some relief to the Indian capital on Friday morning, with authorities mulling seeding clouds to improve the toxic air gripping the city. The city, which was the most polluted in the world till Thursday, saw its air quality index improve to 127 early on Friday — a welcome change from the "hazardous" 400-500 level seen during the past week, according to Swiss group IQAir. About 38 percent of the pollution in the capital has been caused by stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, the government said.

Agencies - Xinhua