News in Short

• The United States slammed China for the recent disqualification of four Hong Kong opposition lawmakers and said that sanctions will continue to be imposed.
• Earlier, four Hong Kong opposition lawmakers were disqualified with immediate effect after the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) passed the resolution.
• Following this, all Hong Kong’s opposition lawmakers resigned collectively within the protest of China’s high legislative physique’s decision, which supplies native authorities energy to unseat politicians without having to undergo town’s courts.

• In a major setback to insurgency in the north-east, a deputy commander-in-chief of ULFA (I) surrendered along with his four bodyguards. He was a close confidant of ULFA-I chief Paresh Baruah.
• Drishti who was promoted by Baruah as deputy commander-in-chief, headed the outfit’s dreaded ‘109th battalion’ and Drishti was in-charge of the southern part of Assam from westernmost district of Goalpara.
• Before Drishti, the last field commander who left Baruah and the outfit was commander of ‘709th battalion’, Hira Sarania alias Naba Kumar Sarania, who is now an independent MP in Lok Sabha.

• Myanmar's ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) claimed that it had won a parliamentary majority in election and would retain power to secure a parliamentary majority on its own.
• Although official results have yet to be announced,  NLD party had confirmed it won more than 322 seats – a majority in the house with 642 seats.
• In 2015, the NLD won around 80 percent of contested seats in the Upper and Lower Houses in Myanmar. The USDP opposition, Myanmar's next biggest party, was still collecting information and did not comment.

• President-elect Joe Biden has chosen his longtime adviser Ron Klain to reprise his role as his chief of staff.
• Klain face the challenge of working with a divided Congress that could include a Republican-led Senate. Klain served as the coordinator to the Ebola response during the 2014 outbreak.
• Klain served as chief of staff for Biden during Barack Obama’s first term, was chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore in the mid-1990s.
• He was a key adviser on the Biden campaign, guiding Biden’s debate preparations and coronavirus response. He’s known and worked with Biden since the Democrat’s 1987 presidential campaign.

• Bahrain’s Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, one of the world’s longest-serving prime ministers who led his island nation’s government for decades, has died. He was 84.
• Prince Khalifa was a controversial figure during his long time in office and deeply unpopular with the Sunni-ruled kingdom's Shiite population.
• Prince Khalifa was a shrewd administrator who maintained deep ties within his own Sunni Muslim elite, as well as the Shiite majority that has long complained of mistreatment. His backers also credit him with helping to turn Bahrain into a regional financial center, though it was later eclipsed by richer neighbors.