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US President Donald Trump has signed a memo calling for curbs on Chinese investments in strategic sectors like technology and critical infrastructure, a move Beijing slammed on Saturday as "discriminatory."

The move, including an expanded role for a foreign investment review panel, comes at a time of growing trade tensions and strategic competition between the world's two biggest economies.

It is aimed at promoting foreign investment in the United States, while protecting US national security interests "particularly from threats posed by foreign adversaries" like China, the White House said.

The memo signed Friday singles out China for "increasingly exploiting United States capital to develop and modernize its military, intelligence, and other security apparatuses."

China's commerce ministry spokesperson on Saturday said the "US approach unduly broadens the concept of national security, and is discriminatory."

It will "seriously hurt the confidence of Chinese enterprises willing to invest in the United States," the spokesperson said in a statement.

"China will closely follow the moves of the US and take necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests," the spokesperson added.

The memo called for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to be used to restrict Chinese investments in key US sectors such as technology, critical infrastructure, health care and energy.

CFIUS is a panel that weighs the national security implications of foreign investments in the United States.

"President Trump is keeping his promise to prevent foreign adversaries from taking advantage of the United States," the White House said.

Trump early this month imposed additional customs duties of 10 percent on all products imported from China, over the country's alleged role in the deadly fentanyl trade.

Beijing has pushed back against the accusation.

But on Wednesday, the US president suggested that a trade deal with China was "possible."

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US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia's Vladimir Putin will have to "get together" to end the war between Moscow and Kyiv.

"I think that President Putin and President Zelensky are going to have to get together. Because you know what? We want to stop killing millions of people," Trump told reporters at the White House.

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An American-Lebanese man was found guilty by a jury Friday of attempting to kill novelist Salman Rushdie when storming a stage and repeatedly plunging a knife into the "Satanic Verses" author.

Hadi Matar now faces up to 25 years in prison, and will be sentenced on April 23, a court official said in a statement confirming the conviction on attempted murder and assault charges.

Matar's legal team had sought to prevent witnesses from characterizing Rushdie as a victim of persecution following Iran's 1989 fatwa calling for his murder over supposed blasphemy in "The Satanic Verses."

Rushdie had told jurors at the trial that Matar "was stabbing and slashing" at him during the event in August 2022 at an upscale cultural center in rural New York.

"It was a stab wound in my eye, intensely painful, after that I was screaming because of the pain," Rushdie said, adding that he was left in a "lake of blood."

He said it "occurred to me I was dying" before he was helicoptered to a trauma hospital.

Jurors heard closing arguments from both prosecutors and defense lawyers before retiring to consider their verdict Friday.

Matar was rapidly found guilty of stabbing Rushdie about 10 times with a six-inch blade that was shown to witnesses and the court.

He repeatedly used the trial to grandstand, shouting pro-Palestinian slogans on several occasions.

- Free speech debate -

Matar previously told media he had only read two pages of "The Satanic Verses" but believed the author had "attacked Islam."

Rushdie lived in seclusion in London for a decade after the 1989 fatwa, but for the past 20 years -- until the attack -- he lived relatively normally in New York.

He became the center of a fierce tug-of-war between free speech advocates and those who insisted that insulting religion, particularly Islam, was unacceptable in any circumstances.

Last year, he published a memoir called "Knife" in which he recounted the near-death experience.

The optical nerve of Rushdie's right eye was severed, and he told the court that "it was decided the eye would be stitched shut to allow it to moisturize. It was quite a painful operation -- which I don't recommend."

Asked to describe the intensity of the pain over the attack, he said it was "a 10" out of 10.

His Adam's apple was also partially lacerated, and his liver and small bowel penetrated.

"The first thing I said on regaining the ability of speech was 'I can speak'," he said to stifled laughter from jurors.

"How do you squeeze toothpaste onto a toothbrush with only one hand?" he explained when asked about injuries to his hand received as he tried to defend himself.

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Indian-American Kash Patel, confirmed by the US Senate to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), traces his roots to Bhadran village in Gujarat's Anand district, from where his family migrated to Uganda 70 to 80 years ago, members of the community he belongs to said on Friday.

New York-born Patel (44), who belongs to the Patidar community, has become the first Indian-American to lead the premier law enforcement agency of the United States.

Leaders of the Patidar community said all close family members of Mr Patel are settled in foreign countries. They sold their ancestral houses in Bhadran once they shifted to Africa.

Chh Gam Patidar Mandal, an organisation of the community based in Anand, maintains a `vanshavali' (family tree) of its members.

"In the 'vanshavali' we have names of Kash Patel's father Pramod Patel and also his brothers and grandfather," said secretary of the organisation and Anand district BJP present Rajesh Patel.

Rajesh Patel told PTI that though Kash Patel's name was yet to be added to the family tree, the entry of 18 generations of his family is there in the 'vanshavali' and it is stored in their office along with those of all members of their community.

"As per our records, the family used to live in Moti Khadki area of Bhadran village and they migrated to Uganda some 70 to 80 years ago," he informed.

"The family sold their ancestral house and land and all of his relatives are settled in foreign countries, especially in the USA. Now, when a family member of Kash Patek comes back to India we will seek their permission to record their next generation's names, including his own name, in the 'vanshavali'," Rajesh Patel informed.

"We have not met Kash Patel as the family has not visited Anand in recent years. But many in our community know them as the Patidar community is a close-knit one," he said.

Rajesh Patel said, as far as he knows, that the family had returned for a brief time to India after their expulsion from the African country in the 1970.

"Those Indians who were expelled from Uganda had come to India for a brief stay as they had applied for asylum in the UK, US or Canada. Kash Patel's family had also come here for a brief stopover and then moved to Canada once their applications were accepted," he said.

From Canada, they shifted to the US, where Kash Patel was born in 1980, Rajesh Patel maintained.

Indians who migrated to Uganda were expelled from the African country by dictator Idi Amin who seized power in a military coup in 1971. In 1972, he ordered the Indian community to leave his country in 90 days.

Chh Gam Patidar Mandal is an organization of the Patidar community from six villages/towns of Anand district -- Dharmaj, Nadiad, Sojitra, Bhadran, Vaso and Karamsad. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first home minister of the country, hailed from Karamsad.

The new FBI chief served as the former Chief of Staff to Acting Secretary of Defence Christopher Miller. He was responsible for leading the Secretary's mission at the Department, including his executive staff and providing counsel to him on all matters concerning its operations, the US Department of Defence's short biography on Kash Patel said.

A native of New York, Kash Patel completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Richmond before returning to New York to earn his law degree, along with a Certificate in International Law from University College London Faculty of Laws in the United Kingdom, it said.

Kash Patel, a trained lawyer, is an ice-hockey fan and has been playing the sport since he was six, it said.

"We are Gujarati,” he had told PTI in an earlier interview in the United States. 

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One of the doctors treating Pope Francis said on Friday the 88-year-old, who has pneumonia, was "not out of danger" and would likely stay in hospital "at least all next week".

Professor Sergio Alfieri said the pontiff's condition was "slightly better", made clear he was not hooked up to any machine -- and said Francis was cracking jokes.

"The question is, is the pope out of danger? No, the pope is not out of danger," he told a press conference at Rome's Gemelli hospital, where Francis was admitted on February 14 with breathing difficulties.

What began as bronchitis developed into double pneumonia, causing widespread alarm.

"If we send him to Santa Marta (his home at the Vatican), he'll start working again as before," Alfieri continued.

"So we're keeping him here. Right now, he's in the hospital, at least for all next week.

"We're keeping him here so that when he goes back to Santa Marta, it'll be harder for him to overdo it."

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An Israeli soldier, held captive by Hamas since October 7, 2023, has sent a message for his family through recently released hostages, his father has confirmed.

"I am okay," Nimrod Cohen conveyed via former fellow captives, his father Yehuda told Israeli news outlet N12. "Don't worry about me. I love you," Mr Cohen told the people released by Hamas as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Gaza.

Mr Cohen, 20, a gunner in an Israeli tank unit, was captured during the Hamas-led attack on the Nahal Oz army base. His three crewmates - Cpt Omer Neutra, Sgt Shaked Dahan, and Sgt Oz Daniel - were killed. He remains one of the last Israeli hostages held in Gaza, excluded from the first phase of the hostage release deal.

Yehuda Cohen, currently in Washington, DC, is on his fifth mission to advocate for his son's release.

"There is no doubt - he will return. He will come back alive and well," Yehuda Cohen said.

He has been outspoken in his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the hostage situation. He accused Netanyahu of sabotaging negotiations and claimed that US President Donald Trump and investor Steven Witkoff have stepped in as mediators "against our own government-a government that has betrayed us."

He also questioned Netanyahu's decision to appoint Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer to lead hostage talks, alleging that Dermer had dismissed the possibility of any hostages being alive just three months ago.

As discussions continue on the second phase of the Gaza hostage-ceasefire deal, Yehuda Cohen, along with other hostage families - including Einav Zangauker, mother of captive Matan Zangauker - has petitioned Israel's High Court of Justice to force the government to disclose full details of the ceasefire agreement.

"Our goal is to make sure Netanyahu does not torpedo the second phase of the deal," Yehuda Cohen said, referring to the phase in which his son is expected to be included.

Back home in Rehovot, the Cohen family is fully committed to securing Nimrod's return. Yehuda Cohen and his eldest son, Yotam, regularly attend protests on Tel Aviv's Begin Road, while Viki, Nimrod's mother, and his twin sister, Romi, participate in silent demonstrations at Hostages Square.

Beyond Israel, Yehuda Cohen has taken his fight to the international stage, meeting with US lawmakers, ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, and European officials to push for diplomatic and legal action against Netanyahu if negotiations stall.

Yehuda Cohen is convinced that Hamas is determined to keep the hostages alive - possibly even more so than the Israeli government, The Times Of Israel reported. 

He acknowledges that the process is long and methodical. "To get to Nimrod, there's a list, and it has to progress," he said. He recalled how in November 2023, Israel claimed Hamas provided the wrong list, leading to the collapse of a ceasefire. "Bibi looks for the spot where he can torpedo it all," he alleged, criticising the Israeli Prime Minister's handling of negotiations.

Watching the weekly return of freed hostages has felt surreal for Nimrod's brother, Yotam Cohen. "It's like watching a reality TV show," he said. "We all watch it and deserve to be a part of it after everything that so many Israelis have gone through in this struggle, but I'm jealous of them."

He also grieved for the hostages, who never returned. Among them was Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a friend from his army service, killed in captivity in late August alongside five others. "They could have been at home," he said. "They could have come back to their families. It's the crime of the government that they're not coming back."

Israel has confirmed ongoing discussions for the next phase of the Gaza hostage-ceasefire deal. The ceasefire, which began on January 19, aims to end the war. So far, 19 hostages have been freed, with 14 more expected soon. Around 73 hostages - alive and dead - are still in Gaza. Hamas took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people in its October 7 attack.

In response, Israel's 15-month military offensive in the narrow strip killed almost 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry.

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Elon Musk's aggressive cost-cutting measures in the US government will put "millions" at risk, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has warned. If aid funding from the world's largest economy continues to dwindle, lives will be on the line, the philanthropist added.

He hopes some of the measures introduced by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will be reversed.

"I'm hopeful that some significant portion of that can be reversed and preserved," the billionaire said in a PBS interview. "Elon, of all the elimination he's done, 99 per cent of it is these employees at USAID who work overseas in very tough circumstances. They allow the US, in addition to our military power, to get out there and help with famine relief and HIV medicines."

Earlier this month, Mr Gates said Trump seemed open to discussions on continuing USAID support. But with Musk and Trump now halting USAID's work - placing staff on leave, freezing spending, and reducing the agency's workforce from thousands to just 300 - those discussions are nowhere in the picture.

"I know a lot of those workers, I know that work," Mr Gates said. "A very, very high percentage of it is stuff every taxpayer would be proud of."

He specifically spoke of the importance of PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) which has saved over 26 million lives through HIV and AIDS prevention with $110 billion in funding since its inception two decades ago.

Mr Gates claimed Musk acknowledged potential missteps in DOGE's approach. Last week, when asked about a $50 million aid payment for condoms in Gaza that was allegedly blocked by mistake, Musk admitted to errors. The payment was reportedly intended for HIV prevention in Mozambique's Gaza region, not the conflict zone in Palestine.

Asked how many lives were at risk if these health programmes weren't reinstated, Mr Gates said the number was "definitely in the millions."

He said that PEPFAR has kept over 20 million alive with HIV drugs. "It was started by President Bush and continued on a bipartisan basis literally up to the day Elon decided it wasn't a good organisation," he said.

"Keeping people alive from HIV - the US has done a great job. Even if we have to reduce that sum, an abrupt withdrawal is a terrible thing."

When the White House announced its 90-day pause on foreign aid, it highlighted that the US spends around $40 billion a year on such funding. But this is a small fraction of total government spending - just 1.6 per cent of the $2.44 trillion spent since October.

Among the aid programs scrapped by DOGE was a $21 million USAID grant to boost voter turnout in India. Trump defended DOGE's budget cuts, saying the agency had already saved over $55 billion by eliminating what he called wasteful government spending.

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Investigators are probing the causes of an unusual plane crash at Canada's largest airport on Monday, when a regional jet flipped upside down upon landing during windy weather, sending 21 of the 80 people on board to hospital.

Video shows the Delta Air Lines plane belly up and missing its right wing at Toronto's Pearson Airport, and of the crash that involved no fatalities, circulated widely on social media.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said on Tuesday that parts of the plane -- a Bombardier-made CRJ900 -- separated after impact and the fuselage came to rest slightly off the right side of the runway, upside down, facing the other direction.

The TSB said it is too early to know what happened and why. Here is what we know about this accident and similar crashes.

HOW DOES A PLANE LAND UPSIDE DOWN?

U.S. aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse said aircraft are normally designed to land first on the two main landing gear, and then the nose gear. While the cause of the accident is unclear, the type of impact on the runway likely damaged the landing gear, leaving the plane imbalanced.

Brickhouse said that the plane ending up pointing in the opposite direction speaks to the amount of force and speed that led it to change direction.

"With all the forces and everything going on, if that wing is not there to support the aircraft it's going to go over," Brickhouse said. "It's not something that we see regularly, but when structures start failing they can't do their job and the aircraft is going to react to the different forces on it."

HOW DID EVERYONE SURVIVE?

Passengers say they were hanging upside down in their seats after the crash.

"All of the passengers were wearing the safety belts. This prevented more serious injuries from occurring," said Mitchell Fox, director of the Asia Pacific Centre for Aviation Safety.

Airplane seats are designed to withstand the force of 16 times the normal pull of gravity, or 16Gs, in a crash, whereas wings and fuselage are designed to handle 3-5Gs.

"In an impact-survivable crash, it's more important for the seats to hold up, giving passengers the best chance of survival," said Raj Ladani, a program manager for aerospace engineering at Australia's RMIT University.

Good evacuation is key to air accident survivability, as witnessed last year when all 379 people escaped a burning Japan Airlines plane after a runway collision.

"The crew did a remarkable job of evacuating all of the passengers expeditiously," Fox said of the Delta crash.

HAS THIS HAPPENED BEFORE?

While rare, there have been cases of large jets flipping over on landing, including three accidents involving McDonnell Douglas' MD-11 model.

In 2009, a FedEx freighter turned over on landing in windy conditions on the runway at Tokyo's Narita airport, killing both pilots. The left wing was broken and separated from the fuselage attaching point and the airplane caught fire.

In 1999, a China Airlines flight inverted at Hong Kong while landing during a typhoon. The plane touched down hard, flipped over and caught fire, killing three of 315 occupants.

In 1997, another FedEx freighter flipped over at Newark in the United States, with no fatalities.

Brickhouse said it is too early to draw any conclusions from these earlier cases, especially as the MD-11 is a three-engine aircraft and the CRJ900 has two engines mounted toward the back of the aircraft, producing different flight dynamics.

HOW WILL THE INVESTIGATION PROCEED?

Unlike other investigations in which parts of the plane have gone missing, and there are mass fatalities, investigators will be able to interview all 76 passengers and four crew.

Investigators have access to the fuselage and wing, which are on the runway, and the black boxes -- the flight data and cockpit voice recorders -- have been sent for analysis.

"This is going to be a textbook investigation," Brickhouse said. "Some accidents, a lot of the pieces of the puzzle are missing. But right now looking at this accident, all the puzzle pieces are there. It's just you piecing them back together at this point."

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Egypt's antiquities authority says it has found the ancient tomb of King Thutmose II, the first royal burial to be located since the famed discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922.

The tomb, discovered near the Valley of the Kings in Luxor in southern Egypt, belonged to King Thutmose II of the 18th dynasty, who lived nearly 3,500 years ago.

Thutmose II was an ancestor to Tutankhamun himself, and his half-sister and queen consort was Pharaoh Hatshepsut.

Her giant mortuary temple stands on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor a few kilometres (miles) from where the tomb of Thutmose II was found.

Although preliminary studies suggest its contents were moved in ancient times -- leaving the tomb without the iconic mummy or gilded splendour of the Tutankhamun find -- the antiquities ministry on Tuesday called the discovery "one of the most significant archaeological breakthroughs in recent years".

It has been excavated by a joint Egyptian-British mission, led by the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the New Kingdom Research Foundation.

The tomb's entrance was first located in 2022 in the Luxor mountains west of the Valley of the Kings, but was believed at the time to lead to the tomb of a royal wife.

But the team then found "fragments of alabaster jars inscribed with the name of Pharaoh Thutmose II, identified as the 'deceased king', alongside inscriptions bearing the name of his chief royal consort, Queen Hatshepsut", confirming whose tomb it was, the ministry said.

Shortly after the king's burial, water flooded the burial chamber, damaging the interior and leaving fragments of plaster that bore parts of the Book of Amduat, an ancient mortuary text on the underworld.

Some funerary furniture belonging to Thutmose II has also been recovered from the tomb in "the first-ever find" of its kind, according to the ministry.

It quoted mission chief Dr Piers Litherland as saying the team will continue its work in the area, hoping to find the tomb's original contents.

There has been a surge of major archaeological discoveries in recent years, as Egypt seeks to boost its tourism industry as a key source of foreign currency revenue.

Last year, Egypt hosted 15.7 million tourists and aims to attract 18 million visitors in 2025.

The crown jewel of the government's strategy is the long-delayed inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum at the foot of the pyramids in Giza, which Egypt has said will finally open this year.

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Pope Francis on Tuesday said he had accepted the resignation of a Canadian bishop who has been named in a class-action lawsuit against the church that alleges sexual assault.

The pope did not give a reason for replacing Jean-Pierre Blais, the 75-year-old bishop of Baie-Comeau in the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec.

But in a statement, he noted that any bishop who turns 75 is automatically requested to offer his resignation. The pope makes a decision on whether to accept the offer "after he has examined all the circumstances", the statement said.

Blais is mentioned in a list of sexual predators filed as part of a victims' class action against the Archdiocese of Quebec. He has denied any wrongdoing.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Diocese of Baie-Comeau were not immediately available to comment on the pope's decision.

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US envoy Keith Kellogg on Monday said that he would not tell Ukraine to accept whatever deal is negotiated by President Donald Trump to end Russia's war, ahead of a visit to Kyiv.

Kellogg is set to arrive in Ukraine on Wednesday for three days of talks that will include a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

His visit to Kyiv will come after top US officials meet Russian negotiators in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for the first time since Trump blindsided allies by agreeing to launch peace efforts with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Kellogg said US officials were engaged in parallel efforts to bring Moscow and Kyiv to the negotiating table -- with him spearheading the outreach to Ukraine.

Trump's envoy insisted that it would ultimately be up to Zelensky to decide if Ukraine accepts any deal that the US leader brokers.

"The decision by Ukrainians is a Ukrainian decision," Kellogg told journalists after talks with US allies at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

"Zelensky is the elected leader of a sovereign nation and those decisions are his and nobody will impose those on an elected leader of a sovereign nation," Kellogg said.

He insisted that his job was to "facilitate" a deal that would "ensure that there are solid security guarantees that Ukraine is a sovereign nation".

European leaders on Monday met in Paris to try to come up with a strategy as fears swirl that they will be left on the sidelines of any talks.

Kellogg reiterated earlier suggestions that Europeans would not directly participate, but insisted they would have an "input".

"I don't think it's reasonable or feasible to have everybody sitting at the table," he said.

Kellogg said that "everything remains on the table" in the negotiations after US defence secretary Pete Hegseth poured cold water on Ukraine's goals of joining NATO or regaining all its territory.

He did not rule out that broader issues of European and global security would be brought up in negotiations between Washington and Moscow.

"I think what is brought into those discussions are unknowns," he said.

"I wouldn't be surprised if global issues are brought up," he added, pointing to potential efforts to break up Russia's ties with Iran, North Korea and China.

The US envoy said that after nearly three years of all-out war he believed that both Russia and Ukraine were ready to call a halt as neither can score a decisive victory on the battlefield.

"You get the feeling right now that both sides kind of want to tap out," he said.

"When you think about it, this is really unsustainable."

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Taiwan is exploring buying arms worth billions of dollars from the United States, sources briefed on the matter said, hoping to win support from the new Trump administration as China continues to apply military pressure on the island.

Three sources familiar with the situation, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation, told Reuters that Taiwan is in talks with Washington.

The package is meant to demonstrate to the United States that Taiwan is committed to its defense, one of the sources said.

A second source said the package would include coastal defense cruise missiles and HIMARS rockets.

"I would be very surprised if it was less than $8 billion. Somewhere between $7 billion to $10 billion," the source added.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, US national security adviser Mike Waltz has said he wants to speed delivery of weapons to Taiwan.

Taiwan's defense ministry declined to comment on specific purchases but said it is focused on building its defenses.

"Any weaponry and equipment that can achieve those goals for building the military are listed as targets for tender," it said.

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan strongly objects to China's sovereignty claims and says only the island's people can decide their future.

TRUMP-TAIWAN RELATIONS

US President Donald Trump unnerved chip powerhouse Taiwan on the election campaign trail by saying the island stole American semiconductor business. This month, he threatened tariffs on chip imports.

But his administration maintained diplomatic support for the Chinese-claimed island.

Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba issued a joint statement on February 7 opposing any attempt to change the current situation in the Taiwan Strait through force or coercion. The U.S. State Department also removed language on its website that it does not support Taiwan independence, a move praised by the island's government. China has urged the US to "correct its mistakes".

Taiwan plans to propose a special defense budget that prioritizes precision ammunition, air-defense upgrades, command and control systems, equipment for the reserve forces and anti-drone technology, a third source familiar with the matter said.

During his 2017-2021 term, Trump established regular arms sales to Taiwan, including multi-billion dollar deals for F-16 fighter jets. The Biden administration continued these sales, though often with smaller price tags.

Taiwanese officials see encouraging signs from Trump's administration even as tariff threats weigh on that optimism.

Taiwan does not believe Trump is looking to make a "grand bargain" with Chinese President Xi Jinping to sell out Taiwan's interests, one of the sources said. Trump is more concerned with putting tariffs on semiconductors, the source said.

In another sign of US commitment to Taiwan, the top US diplomat in Taiwan, Raymond Greene, will retain his post, three sources told Reuters, even as other US diplomatic postings undergo major reshuffles.

The US State Department did not immediately respond to a question about Greene's job status.

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President Donald Trump's decision to suspend US overseas funding could result in millions more deaths from AIDS, the head of the UN's programme for the illness warned Sunday. The United States is the world's largest provider of official development assistance, with most funds directed through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Trump ordered the bulk of US foreign assistance to be frozen for three months on returning to office in January, leaving global humanitarians scrambling to deal with the fallout.

"It's dramatic in many countries," UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima told AFP.

"I need to sound the alarm so that it's very clear that this is a big part (of AIDS relief funding). If it goes away, people are going to die."

The US move included a 90-day suspension of all work by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), although his administration later issued waivers for medication under the programme.

'Tenfold' death increase

That programme supports more than 20 million HIV patients and 270,000 health workers, according to an analysis from the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).

"We could see additional deaths increasing by tenfold" to 6.3 million in five years, Byanyima said, citing UNAIDS estimates.

"Or we could see new infections increase up to 8.7 million" in the same period, she said.

The United States has said that "life-saving treatments" would be exempt from the freeze -- although front-line workers in Africa say facilities have already closed.

Speaking on the sidelines of the African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, Byanyima said she had discussed the issue with leaders, urging them to transition from foreign funding towards using domestic revenue.

But she noted many African nations were saddled with huge debts -- some at "more than 50 percent of their entire revenue collections" -- which crippled their ability to even begin to plug the potential shortfall.

"Part of the answer is in pushing very hard for an immediate and comprehensive debt restructuring," she said.

"For many of them, debt is crowding out what could be spent on health and education."

Founded in 1961, USAID has an annual budget of more than $40 billion, used to support development, health and humanitarian programmes around the world, especially in poor countries.

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