Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $124 billion on Sunday for his new Silk Road plan to forge a path of peace, inclusiveness and free trade, and called for the abandonment of old models based on rivalry and diplomatic power games. China touted what it formally calls the Belt and Road initiative as a new way to boost global development since Xi unveiled the plan in 2013, aiming to expand links between Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond underpinned by billions of dollars in infrastructure investment. Xi said the world must create conditions that promote open development and encourage the building of systems of “fair, reasonable and transparent global trade and investment rules.” (Reuters http://reut.rs/2qGGUEW)
Worldwide hacking...An unprecedented global “ransomware” attack has hit at least 100,000 organizations in 150 countries, Europe’s police agency said Sunday — and predicted that more damage may be seen Monday as people return to work and switch on their computers. (AP http://apne.ws/2pzoS7t)
Top Stories
At least five people were wounded by gunfire on Sunday during protests in Ivory Coast’s second-biggest city, Bouake, against an army mutiny, according to a witness, as popular opposition to the three-day nationwide revolt over bonuses gathered momentum. (AP http://bit.ly/2qkahda)
Several thousand Tunisians marched through central Tunis to protest against a bill that would grant amnesty to businessmen accused of corruption when autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali was in power. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2qkenBX)
Worried that the men who committed some of Argentina’s most heinous human rights abuses could be freed from jail years early, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the country’s streets. (NY Times http://nyti.ms/2pzihde)
The International Court of Justice will on Monday hear an extremely rare case involving India and Pakistan, as tensions between the two neighbors rise over Islamabad’s conviction of an Indian citizen for espionage and renewed violence in the mountainous, Muslim-majority Kashmir region. (FT http://on.ft.com/2qH01yR)
CAR: Following intense fighting that broke out this morning in Bangassou, Doctors Without Borders is calling on all parties to agree to a ceasefire in order to access wounded people in urgent need of life-saving medical care. (MSF http://bit.ly/2qk9l8L)
Violence in the southeastern part of the Central African Republic, where five U.N. peacekeepers were killed this month, has made it tougher for HIV-positive residents in the remote, lawless region to get treatment. (VOA http://bit.ly/2pzgswE)
Rescuers saved 484 migrants from boats in the Mediterranean Sea Saturday and found the bodies of seven men who had died in the attempt to get to Europe, Italy’s coast guard said. (VOA http://bit.ly/2qjR3Ve)
Opinion/Blogs
Confirm Mark Green as USAID Administrator (Foreign Policy http://atfp.co/2pLI3XH)
Africa’s new slave trade: how migrants flee poverty to get sucked into a world of violent crime (Guardian http://bit.ly/2qk9BVh)
Zimbabwe’s opposition coalition: Avengers Assemble or Suicide Squad? (African Arguments http://bit.ly/2rfgBSF)
Why I Stopped Getting Mad At My Tough Love Mama (NPR Goats and Soda http://n.pr/2qgDdoq)
Briefing: Venezuela’s deepening crisis (CSM http://bit.ly/2r6KsjP)
‘It only takes one terrorist’: the Buddhist monk who reviles Myanmar’s Muslims (Guardian http://bit.ly/2qgCEe6)
Kashmir earthquake: What happened to 12 years and $6 billion? (IRIN http://bit.ly/2pzlUjb)
Bonn climate talks: world presses on despite US retreat (ODI http://bit.ly/2pzfalz)
Punishment for Human Rights Abusers Is Irrevocable Achievement for Argentine Society (Inter Press Service http://bit.ly/2qk4Evq)
Ebola Returns in Congo, a Test of ‘Next Time’ (Foreign Policy http://atfp.co/2pziInS)
