Israeli and Emirates leaders meet in Egypt

Today's headlines: No survivors in China plane crash; Japan asks citizens to reduce energy consumption; in the Philippines, Duterte's party officially endorses Marcos; Sri Lanka deploys the army to gas stations.

EMIRATES - ISRAEL - EGYPT

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi yesterday hosted Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed. Al-Sisi stressed Egypt's commitment to the security of the Gulf region and "the rejection of any practice that seeks to destabilise it".  It is rumoured the three men talked about the Iranian nuclear agreement, which is now almost concluded but opposed by Israel.

CHINA

None of the 132 passengers  on a China Eastern Airlines plane would appear to have survived a lethal crash. The Boeing 737 crashed yesterday near the city of Wuzhou in the Guangxi region, while flying from Kunming to Guangzhou. Nasa satellite images captured the fire that broke out immediately after the crash.

JAPAN

The Japanese government has asked its citizens to reduce energy consumption, warning that gas and electricity supplies could be disrupted after last week's 7.4 magnitude earthquake damaged and forced the closure of six thermal power plants in the country's northeast.

SRI LANKA

After sporadic protests caused by rising oil prices, Colombo decided to deploy some army troops at gas stations. The island nation is facing its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948, with continuous blackouts and shortages of basic necessities.

PHILIPPINES

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's party, the PDP-Laban, said it was backing the candidacy of Ferdinand Marcos junior, who still holds an overwhelming lead in the polls for the presidential election scheduled for May. The son and namesake of the country's former dictator is being helped by a massive propaganda campaign on social media.

INDONESIA

In Bali, a Russian artist and the Ukrainian owner of a villa complex collaborated to send a message of peace: on the roofs of nine buildings, Pokras Lampas created a mural that reads "United World" in six different languages. The work took three weeks to complete.

RUSSIA

The newspaper Kommersant wrote about a plan to cancel several local elections in Russian regions scheduled for this year, in order to save funds and avoid negative reactions from the local population to price increases and empty shop shelves. The Kremlin denies this hypothesis, but other government sources confirm it, talking about appointments and renewals chosen directly by Moscow.

TAJIKISTAN

In Tajikistan, polls and comments on social media reveal a split in the country between those against and those in favour of Russian military operations in Ukraine. Many fear that the Ukrainian scenario will spread to all former Soviet countries, and the party of those who support the need to submit to Moscow's political and economic tutelage is also strong.

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