KABUL, 17 January 2022, (TON): Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu in a meeting with acting Minister of Interior Sarajudin Haqqani said that the US has been defeated in Afghanistan and now the country revenges the Afghan people by imposing economic sanctions on them.

The meeting was conducted in the Ministry of Interior Affairs.

The Chinese ambassador said that the US is using freedom of speech, human and women’s rights, inclusive government as a pretext to harshly hit the Afghan people.

Deputy spokesman of the Interior Ministry Engineer Izam in a video clip said that the Chinese ambassador pledged to provide humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people, not interfere in Afghanistan’s internal affairs, and support Afghanistan’s future government that will be established based on the traditional and Islamic principles of Afghanistan.

JEDDAH, 17 January 2022, (TON): The Saudi Ministry of Defense said on Sunday “the Royal Saudi Land Forces continued a joint exercise with the Egyptian Armed Forces in the Kingdom’s northwestern region.”

The ministry said “the Tabuk 5 exercise, which began on Jan. 6, is “an extension of the joint exercises between the two countries to raise the level of integration, unify the areas of military cooperation and enhance the capabilities of the forces participating in the maneuvers.”

During the past days, the joint forces conducted the preliminary stages of training, which included many activities, events and lectures to unify training concepts, coordinate efforts, and achieve integration between the participating forces.

The director of the fifth edition of the exercise, Maj. Gen. Khalid Mohammed Al-Khashrami, said everything is proceeding according to plan, adding the participants implemented a number of joint training tasks in regular and irregular operations, as well as training in planning and coordinating joint operations and modern warfare methods.

He said “they also carried out ambushes, raids, and reconnaissance using a drone, air incursions, combat in built-up areas, and implemented landing and pick-up exercises, tactical parachute jumping, and free jumping.”

MADRID, 17 January 2022, (TON): Police deactivated an unexploded bomb from the Spanish Civil War after a man remembered that Italian fascist bombers had dropped it on his town when he was a child more than 80 years ago.

Work on a building in Maella, near Zaragoza in northeastern Spain, was halted after the man said that when he was six-years-old the building was bombed but the device failed to explode.

Metal detectors were used to find the 50 kg bomb which was dropped by the Italian air force, which sided with the Nationalist forces of General Francisco Franco during the 1936-1939 war.

"A local resident alerted the owner of the premises that he had to be careful when carrying out works because during the civil war, when this person was six, the town was bombarded and one of the bombs did not explode, the Civil Guard said in a statement.

It added "later concrete was poured on the ground and the artefact was hidden from view.”

OUAGADOUGOU, 17 January 2022, (TON): Security sources said “at least 10 civilians have been killed in an attack blamed on jihadists in northern Burkina Faso, an area in the grip of a six-year insurgency.”

A security source told media “unidentified armed individuals carried out an attack on the village of Namssiguian in Bam province.”

It added that the provisional death toll was around 10 dead civilians.

A local resident put the provisional death toll at nine and said that significant damage had been caused to shops and businesses in the village, which had been torched.

He said “the terrorists stayed in the village for several hours, where they looted and destroyed.”

It added that the assaillants had sabotaged the telephone antennas beforehand, making all communication impossible.

The security source warned that the toll could still rise as “families are still awaiting news about family members.”

Burkina Faso has been struggling with jihadist attacks since 2015, when militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group began mounting cross-border raids from Mali.

More than 2,000 people have died, according to a toll compiled by AFP.

The national emergency aid agency says that 1.5 million people, nearly two-thirds of them children, were internally displaced as of November 30.

KABUL, 17 January 2022, (TON): Acting Foreign Minister Mawlavi Amir khan Muttaqi met his counterparts Mr. Rashid Murdadov Deputy foreign minister and other Turkmen officials in an official visits to Ashgabat capital of Turkmenistan.

The meeting focused on bilateral political, diplomatic, economic relations, security cooperation and early launch of TAPI, growth in trade and private sector activities, increased exports of marble, fresh and dried fruit and especially the completion of railway projects in Aqina-Turghandi and investment on Wind Power.

In the meeting both sides agreed on establishing a transit route between Central and South Asia through Afghanistan and to transport liquefied natural gas, minerals, food and other commercial deal through this route.

Both countries’ official as well agreed that a technical team meeting’ would be held in Kabul on January 22 that will focus on electricity, TAPI project and extension of railway would be inaugurated and commenced in March 2022.

KABUL, 17 January 2022, (TON): Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers said that they hope to be able to open all schools for girls across the country after late March, their spokesman told The Associated Press on Saturday, offering the first timeline for addressing a key demand of the international community.

Since the Taliban takeover in mid-August, girls in most of Afghanistan have not been allowed back to school beyond grade 7.

The international community, reluctant to formally recognise a Taliban-run administration, is wary they could impose similar harsh measures as during their previous rule 20 years ago.

At the time, women were banned from education, work and public life.

Zabihullah Mujahid, who is also the Taliban’s deputy minister of culture and information, said their education departments are looking to open classrooms for all girls and women following the Afghan New Year, which starts on March 21.

Mujahid said in the interview “education for girls and women is a question of capacity.”

Girls and boys must be completely segregated in schools, he said, adding that the biggest obstacle so far has been finding or building enough dorms, or hostels, where girls could stay while going to school. In heavily populated areas, it is not enough to have separate classrooms for boys and girls — separate school buildings are needed, he said.

MOSCOW, 17 January 2022, (TON): state television channel reported “President Vladimir Putin will host his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi for talks in Moscow next week as Russia tries to help salvage a nuclear deal between world powers and Tehran.”

It did not disclose when precisely the meeting between the two leaders would take place, nor the issues they would discuss.

Russia is taking part in talks to revive a 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union that lifted some sanctions against Tehran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear programme.

Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the deal in 2018, a year after he became US president. Iran later breached many of the deal's nuclear restrictions and kept pushing beyond them.

RIYADH, 17 January 2022, (TON): Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan met European Commissioner for Budget and Administration Johannes Hahn at the ministry’s headquarters in Riyadh.

During the meeting, they discussed enhancing financial cooperation between Saudi Arabia and the European Commission and the EU’s economic recovery plans and available investment opportunities.

The meeting was attended by a number of senior officials from the Ministry of Finance and the European Commission.

DUBAI, 17 January 2022, (TON):  In his first visits as COP President, Alok Sharma has concluded a constructive visit to Egypt and will now travel to the United Arab Emirates, with the countries hosts of COP27 and COP28 respectively.

COP President Alok Sharma has concluded a constructive visit to Egypt and will now travel to the United Arab Emirates, with the countries hosting the next two UN Climate Summits.

These are Mr Sharma’s first visits following COP26 in Glasgow, underlining the importance of building strong partnerships with the COP27 and COP28 hosts. This will culminate in a meeting between Egypt, UAE and UK in Abu Dhabi, the first of a series of engagements between the countries ahead of COP27 and COP28.

Whilst in Cairo, Mr Sharma met a wide range of Government Ministers, including Prime Minister Madbouly and Egypt’s COP President-Designate, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. Together they issued a UK-Egypt Joint Statement which affirms their joint commitment to accelerating the fight against climate change during this critical decade.

WASHINGTON, 17 January 2022, (TON): Making his return to campaign-style rallies, former President Donald Trump told his large crowd to “get out and vote, and make sure it’s not a rigged vote, please.”

Trump told his Save America rally in Florence, Arizona, which lasted almost two hours “this crowd is a massive symbol of what took place because the people are hungry for the truth: They want their country back.”

“I want their country back between the open borders and the bad elections, and we were always thought of a beautiful country that had fair elections, and now we’re laughing stock all over the world for many reasons.”

At the end of his speech, he teased a return to the campaign trail in the 2024 presidential election.

“A great red wave is going to begin right here in Arizona, and it’s going to sweep across this country,” Trump said, pointing to the importance first of the 2022 midterms to bring Republicans back into the majority in the House and Senate.

“I do believe that 2024 will be even more important, [but] this is the year we are going to take back the House, we are going to take back the Senate, and we are going to take back America. This is so important.

“And, in 2024 we are going to take back the White House.”