The government of South Sudan is intending to close some of its embassies overseas due to inability to finance them all, the East African newspaper in Nairobi, Kenya, reported, according to the Borkena.com website.
A spokesman for South Sudan’s Foreign Ministry is quoted by The Dawn newspaper in the capital city Juba as saying “We thought of closing a number of embassies so that we can manage the remaining ones well,”
Another official in the ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity reportedly told The East African that South Sudan is yet to decide on
the number of embassies that it is going to close.
At present South Sudan maintains 23 embassies and several permanent missions abroad.
Festivalen OverOslo på Grefsenkollen i Oslo byr på unike musikkopplevelser og panoramautsikt over hovedstaden. I år står blant andre Sondre Justad, Toto, og Lissi, på programmet, skriver Se og Hør.
Hungary has opened a new diplomatic mission in Luxembourg City, capital of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. This will be the Luxembourg office of the Hungarian embassy in Brussels.
Hungary used to have an embassy in Luxembourg, but that was closed 10 years ago. The mission will also handle consular matters, and will be open to Luxembourg’s 2,000-strong Hungarian community, as well as providing consular services to Hungarians living in nearby parts of Belgium and Germany.
The new embassy office was officially opened by Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó and his Luxembourg counterpart Jean Asselborn.
Jam-minareten i Ghor-provinsen, Afghanistan. Foto: Wikipedia
18 personer er drept i et Taliban-angrep mot den historiske Jam-minareten vest i Afghanistan, opplyser myndighetene. Angrepet startet mandag og skjer en uke etter at minareten, som står på FN-organisasjonen UNESCOs prestisjetunge verdensarvliste – World Heritage List; ble truet av flom, melder NRK.
Den 65 meter høye minareten, som er fra slutten av 1100-tallet, ligger i det svært utilgjengelige Shahrak-distriktet i Ghor-provinsen, ved elven Hari Rud.
The president of South Korea, Moon Jae-in and First Lady Kim Jung-sook will pay a two-day state visit to Norway starting June 12, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry reported.
The visit marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Norway and the Republic of Korea, and is the first ever Korean state visit to Norway.
The South Korean presidential couple has been invited by Their Majesties King Harald V and Queen Sonja, who will receive and host their Korean guests at the Royal Palace in Oslo.
Republikken, som består av 340 øyer og store havarealer, har innført en ed der turister og andre besøkende må love å være ansvarlig for å beskytte natur- og kulturarven i landet.
American citizens who need help in Austria can now head to their nearest branch of McDonald’s, because of an agreement signed by the fast-food chain and the US embassy in Vienna, the BBC News reported.
The embassy says any US citizen “in distress” or whose passport has been lost or stolen can get assistance from one of Austria’s 194 McDonald’s outlets.
Restaurant staff have been given the task of helping US citizens get in touch with the US embassy.
A 24-hour hotline to the embassy is part of the arrangement.
The embassy said it was ensuring that American citizens had every option available to get in touch when in need – “the #1 duty of every embassy around the world”.
McDonald’s said it saw itself as a type of support and telephone exchange and had agreed to the idea on the request of US ambassador Trevor Traina.
A spokesman told the BBC it would also “help anyone who finds themselves in need of assistance, for example, by calling the police or emergency services”.
The Ambassador signed an agreement with the company’s managing director in Austria, Isabelle Kuster, last week.
The company said its branches would continue to be Austrian territory and would offer help to anyone in need, not just Americans.
Not everyone was impressed by the announcement on social media:
One Facebook user wondered if the idea was “because apparently we are too incompetent to look up the US embassy online”
Another joked: “One McPassport to go please”
Another asked: “Is this in lieu of a staffed embassy?”
To which the embassy responded “certainly not”, adding that the embassy was fully staffed and the partnership was “only one extra way for Americans to connect to the Embassy when they are in an emergency situation”.
Trevor Traina, a former technology entrepreneur, was nominated for the Vienna ambassadorial post by President Donald Trump last year.
President Trump is himself widely known for his taste for burgers and fries.
The Federal Republic of Nigeria will close three of it’s diplomatic missions, due to lack of budget funds, Nigerian authorities says.
The embassies in Prague in the Czech Republic, Belgrade in Serbia, and the High Commission in Colombo, Sri Lanka, will ble closed down, while the embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, will be downsized.
At present, Nigeria maintains 119 embassies, high commissions, permanent missions, and career consulates, around the world.
