LUCKNOW: Those looking to make a profit will leave, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Tuesday as the party's chief whip in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly quit while voting was underway for 10 Rajya Sabha seats from the state.

Action will be taken against such MLAs, Yadav asserted. The jolt to the principal opposition party in the state came a day after eight MLAs skipped a meeting called by him, raising concerns about cross-voting by some SP legislators.

26 February 2024; AA: Thousands of Spanish farmers staged another massive protest in Madrid on Monday, this time coinciding with a key agriculture meeting in Brussels.

Government officials said at least 5,000 farmers and 100 tractors joined the march in the Spanish capital.

Unlike last week’s massive farmers’ protest in Madrid, this one was organized by the country's three main agricultural unions, which are in dialogue with the Spanish government.

23 February 2024; MEMO: Talks with Egypt to boost its International Monetary Fund loan programme are making excellent progress, the IMF said yesterday, saying that Egypt needs a “very comprehensive support package” to deal with economic challenges, including pressures from the war in Gaza, Reuters reports.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Police on Tuesday found the bodies of a couple allegedly shot dead by a jilted police officer lover.

Police on Tuesday discovered the bodies of former television reporter Jesse Baird, 26, and his flight attendant partner Luke Davies, 29, who were allegedly shot dead in Baird’s Sydney home on Monday last week.

23 February 2024; MEMO: Nestlé has seen “hesitancy among consumers and a preference for local brands” in the Middle East since the start of the Israeli devastating war on the besieged Gaza Strip, its CEO said in a call with journalists on Thursday, Reuters reports.

26 February 2024; MEMO: Israeli officials headed on Monday to Qatar, where the ruling Emir separately met the chief of Hamas, as the enemies in the Gaza war closed in on a ceasefire-and-hostage deal that Washington says is now within reach, Reuters reports.

21 February 2024; MEMO: Republican Representative Andy Ogles told activists who were calling for a ceasefire at Congress that “I think we should kill them all”, in reference to Palestinian children in Gaza.

The shocking response, experts have said, clearly indicates the extent of the United States’ responsibility for the crime of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

20 February 2024; MEMO: Israel’s economy shrank by almost 20 per cent in the last quarter of 2023, amid Israeli forces’ ongoing offensive and bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, preliminary figures showed that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by an annualised 19.4 per cent in the final three months of last year, which was almost double the market expectation of the decrease.

22 February 2024; MEMO: Palestinians have a right “to use force and resist foreign oppression” in order to establish an independent state as they are under occupation, China’s Foreign Ministry legal advisor Ma Xinmin told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) today.

26 February 2024; AA: US-based online travel platform Expedia said Monday that it plans to cut 1,500 jobs globally as it evaluates the appropriate allocation of its resources.

22 February 2024; MEMO: Israeli Minister of Settlement and National Missions, Orit Strook, on Thursday denied the existence of the Palestinian people, Anadolu Agency reports.

“There is no such thing as a Palestinian people,” Strook said in a video on her X account of her speech during a Knesset session.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Nikki Haley on Saturday questioned whether Donald Trump is mentally capable of serving as president again after he repeatedly seemed to confuse her with former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a campaign speech.

As she campaigned in Keene, New Hampshire, Haley referenced Trump’s speech the night before, in which he mistakenly asserted that Haley was in charge of Capitol security on January 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building seeking to stop the certification of his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.