GREECE: Centre-right Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Tuesday that he was calling a May 21 general election.

This comes as his party’s longstanding lead in opinion polls has declined in the aftermath of the country’s worst train disaster.

A February 28 collision between a passenger train and a freight train in northern Greece left 57 people dead. The disaster stirred public anger, cutting the conservative New Democracy party’s support by a half-point to 4 points over its left-wing main rival, Syriza, according to opinion polls.

PAKISTAN: Pakistan announced on Tuesday it will not participate in this week’s United States-led Summit for Democracy.

The Biden administration invited 120 global leaders to the summit being held in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday. It will be co-hosted by the governments of Costa Rica, the Netherlands, South Korea and Zambia.

Pakistan was also not part of the first and only other summit held in December 2021.

SIX COUNTIES: MI5 raised the terrorism threat level in the six counties on Tuesday to “severe” amid an increase in activity by dissident Irish republican militants.

Severe is the second-highest level, meaning that an attack is considered highly likely. The threat had stood one notch lower at “substantial” for the past year.

LESOTHO: Parliament was set tpday to discuss a motion on the reclamation of some parts of South Africa.

Opposition MPs want lawmakers to “declare the whole of the Free State, parts of the Northern Cape, parts of the Eastern Cape, parts of Mpumalanga and parts of KwaZulu-Natal as part of Lesotho’s territory.”