POLITICS

Thirteen nominees will be grilled before 11 committees, and while many will sail through, others face controversies ranging from alleged sexual assault and heavy drinking to their relationships with dictators and vaccine skepticism.

New Lebanese President Joseph Aoun began parliamentary consultations Monday to designate a prime minister tasked with forming a government desperately needed to tackle major challenges in the crisis-hit country.

Crowds wearing white shirts and carrying banners calling for unity flocked to Manila's Quirino Grandstand for the "national rally for peace", organized by the conservative Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ).

The outspoken Milanovic won more than 49 percent of the vote in the first round of the election in late December, narrowly missing an outright victory in the contest by less than one percent.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who came out of hiding to lead a demonstration in Caracas Thursday, was briefly detained after the rally according to her team -- reigniting international condemnation of Maduro's alleged vote steal and cowing of critics.

Security forces barred supporters from going to Maputo's international airport to meet Venancio Mondlane as he landed, with at least one person shot and wounded at one of the barricades, an AFP photographer said.

They have already been deployed to violently put down demonstrations that erupted after Maduro's declaration of re-election victory last July -- a claim not recognized by much of the world.

The former star prosecutor has refused questioning three times after his bungled December 3 martial law decree plunged South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades.

Citing three anonymous sources knowledgeable of internal party matters, the Globe said Trudeau's announcement could come as early as Monday.

Concerns about China's stuttering economy, the outlook for US interest rates and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East were causing a sense of uncertainty ahead of Trump's return to the White House on January 20.

Gonzalez Urrutia has been recognized by the United States, Italy and several Latin American nations as Venezuela's president-elect, despite Maduro being declared the official winner of the July 28 vote.

Sarkozy's career has been shadowed by legal troubles since he lost the 2012 presidential election but he is an influential figure and also known to regularly meet President Emmanuel Macron.

Gonzalez Urrutia, who insists he beat Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro at the polls in July, was expected in Buenos Aires in the coming hours, a presidential source there told AFP.

Having seized the gavel in a palace coup in 2023, the Louisiana conservative is vying for reelection as speaker of the House of Representatives and has President-elect Donald Trump's backing as the deeply divided Congress opens for the new term.

Antony Vo, 32, was sentenced to nine months behind bars and ordered to report to a federal prison on June 14, 2024, but instead he fled to Canada.

Musk -- a key supporter of US President-elect Donald Trump, and his incoming "efficiency czar" -- posted on his social media platform X this month that "only the AfD can save Germany".

Those in the rural hamlet -- centered around a few old storefronts in the shadow of several massive agricultural silos and buildings -- said the centenarian's death was sad, but in the same breath they recounted fond memories of time spent with the former US leader and global humanitarian.

Yoon briefly suspended civilian rule this month, plunging South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades.

The unrest in Mozambique has affected regional trade, with South Africa temporarily closing the Lebombo border post due to protests and vehicle fires. Although the border has been partially reopened for cargo, the situation still disrupts trade and travel.

Immigration was a major issue at the ballot box at the UK's July general election which saw the Conservatives ousted after 14 years in power.

Han Duck-soo took over as acting president from President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was suspended following a parliamentary vote over his move to impose martial law on December 3.

South Korea fell in a political crisis when President Yoon Suk Yeol, currently suspended, declared martial law on December 3.

Quelimane's Mayor Manuel Lopes de Araujo warned that if peace is not restored in Mozambique, it could have serious consequences for South Africa's economy. He pointed out that the Maputo port is crucial for South Africa, as it is the closest port to Johannesburg, where minerals are exported.

Macron named former prime minister Elisabeth Borne, 63, education minister in a new cabinet under centrist Bayrou.

With Musk named to a new position in the incoming US administration of Donald Trump, there are fears the world's richest man could seek to influence London's future ties with Washington.

On Monday, the billionaire sued pollster Ann Selzer, the Des Moines Register newspaper and its parent company Gannett over a pre-election poll that -- wrongly, come Election Day -- saw him behind in the state.

The Myanmar military seized power in 2021, making unsubstantiated claims of massive electoral fraud in 2020 polls won resoundingly by the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).

Following charges that Moscow interfered in recent elections in Moldova, Georgia and Romania, authorities in Berlin fear that the February 23 vote will also be a ripe target for pro-Russian propaganda.

Pressure has been growing on Nobel Peace Prize winner Yunus -- appointed the country's "chief adviser" after the student-led uprising that toppled ex-premier Sheikh Hasina in August -- to set a date.