AMMAN, 06 January 2022, (TON): Jordan’s King Abdullah has publicly hosted a senior Israeli official for the first time in more than four years.

Pictures released by the official Jordanian news agency Petra showed the monarch, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi, and the director of his office Jafar Hassan, with Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz.

The meeting took place less than 24 hours after Israel defused a tense situation in the occupied Palestinian territories leading to the end of a 141-day hunger strike by Hisham Abu Hawash who was protesting his administrative detention by the Israelis.

Petra said that during talks, the king reiterated the need to maintain calm in the Palestinian territories, and to take the necessary measures toward achieving a just and comprehensive peace, based on the two-state solution.

Tagreed Odeh, a Jordanian analyst focused on the Palestinian issue, told Arab News that the visit would help “improve diplomatic relations” with Israel after years of Amman being sidelined during the administrations of former US President Donald Trump and ex-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

WASHINGTON, 06 January 2022, (TON): Twelve people have been killed and several more have been injured after a fire broke out in an apartment building in the US city of Philadelphia.

An official from the Philadelphia Fire Department told reporters “eight children are among the dead.”

The blaze began at around 06:00 local time (11:00 GMT) in a public housing block in the north of the city.

Deputy Fire Commissioner Craig Murphy told reporters it was one of the worst fires he had ever seen.

He said "we plan on making sure that this tremendous loss of life did not happen in vain.”

He added that eight other residents had managed to escape the building.

It is believed there were 26 people in the three-storey block at the time of the fire.

ALMATY, 06 January 2022, (TON): Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev accepted the government's resignation on Wednesday, his office said, after a fuel price increase in the oil-rich Central Asian country triggered protests in which nearly 100 police were injured.

Police used tear gas and stun grenades late on Tuesday to drive hundreds of protesters out of the main square in Almaty, the former Soviet republic's biggest city, and clashes resumed.

The protests shook the former Soviet republic's image as a politically stable and tightly controlled country, which it has used to attract hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign investment in its oil and metals industries over three decades of independence.

Speaking to acting cabinet members, Tokayev ordered them and provincial governors to reinstate LPG price controls and broaden them to gasoline, diesel and other "socially important" consumer goods.

WASHINGTON, 06 January 2022, (TON): The United States Coast Guard has said it returned 119 Cuban migrants to their country in a dozen operations over the course of three days, as growing numbers of Cubans attempt to reach the US by water.

In a statement issued late, the Coast Guard said the migrants were swept up in the South Florida Straits from the Bahamas to the Florida Keys after their boats were found adrift offshore.

It said “in each instance, the Coast Guard helped secure the U.S. border and prevented these perilous sea voyages from ending in tragedy.”

Cuban state media said Tuesday’s repatriation was the largest in four years.

Footage from the docks on Cuba’s north shore showed masked health workers dressed in white receiving the migrants, who had been delivered by boat by the US authorities.

BRUSSELS, 06 January 2022, (TON): In light of the ongoing protests in Kazakhstan linked primarily to the recent doubling in price of liquefied petroleum gas, the European Union is following closely developments.

We call on all concerned to act with responsibility and restraint and to refrain from actions that could lead to further escalation of violence.

While recognising the right to peaceful demonstration, the European Union expects that they remain non-violent and avoid any incitement to violence.

The European Union also calls upon authorities to respect the fundamental right to peaceful protest and proportionality in the use of force when defending its legitimate security interests, and to uphold its international commitments.

LONDON, 06 January 2022, (TON): In startling revelations, former British defence secretary Geoff Hoon has claimed that he was told to burn a memo from the attorney general that cast doubt on the legality of the Iraq war, boosting a campaign to strip former prime minister Tony Blair of his knighthood.

According to Daily Mail, Hoon said that he was ordered by Downing Street to burn a secret memo that said the 2003 invasion of Iraq could be "illegal".

Hoon, who was in charge of defence when the war started, said that his principal private secretary was told 'in no uncertain terms by Jonathan Powell, Tony's chief of staff, that after reading the document he must 'burn it'.

Hoon wrote in his memoir, See How They Run, that he had been under pressure from Mike Boyce, the chief of defence staff, to provide him with clear legal direction that his forces could take action in Iraq, in lieu of a UN resolution authorising force, Daily Mail reported.

Hoon said “the advice was not an easy read and concluded that the Iraq invasion would be lawful only if the prime minister believed that it was in the UK’s national interest to do so.”

He wrote “it was not exactly the ringing endorsement that the chief of the defence staff was looking for, and in any event, I was not strictly allowed to show it to him or even discuss it with him.”

“Moreover, when my principal private secretary, Peter Watkins, called Jonathan Powell in Downing St and asked what he should now do with the document, he was told in no uncertain terms that he should ‘burn it’.”

An online petition asking that Blair’s newly announced knighthood be rescinded has also been signed by more than 700,000 people as of Wednesday.

The petition was created by Angus Scott at change.org as soon as the New Year Honours were announced last night.

KABUL, 06 January 2022, (TON): The commander of Al-Fath Corps in the north, Ataullah Omari, during a ceremony held in Samangan province urged all former military and civil leaders to return to Afghanistan.

In a ceremony held to observe the graduation of 300 military force members who received 40 days of military training in Samangan province, the commander said the issue of the Islamic Emirate’s recognition would be solved soon and the government is seeking to form a powerful army.

Omari said “I call on those to come and stay in your own country, stay beside your relatives and Muslim brothers. It is better to be a beggar in your own country than to be a king in a strange country.”

Three hundred forces were trained in various areas including the use of military tanks, weapons and other defensive skills.

Mawlawi Jalaluddin Hanafi, the commander of the military brigade in Samangan said “about one thousand forces are registered and 300 forces graduated today.”

WASHINGTON, 06 January 2022, (TON): The US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Syria said that they had foiled an attack in the Deir-Ezzour region in the northeast of the country, a day after the second anniversary of the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.

A coalition official said in a statement “after spotting “several launch sites of indirect fire rockets that posed an imminent threat,” coalition forces “conducted strikes to eliminate the threat.”

The rockets were aimed at a US base called “Green Village” in the Euphrates Valley where fighters from the Islamic State group are still active and where US forces continue to cooperate alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Added the official “indirect fire attacks pose a serious threat to innocent civilians because of their lack of discrimination” and the coalition “reserves the right to defend itself.”

Asked about who might be behind the attack, the third in less than 48 hours in the region after others targeting the Ain Al-Assad air base on Tuesday in western Iraq and Baghdad international airport on Monday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said he could not identify them.

BEIRUT, 06 January 2022, (TON): A UN official said “unknown perpetrators attacked a group of UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, vandalizing their vehicles and stealing official items from them.”

Such scuffles with UN peacekeepers are not uncommon in southern Lebanon since the peacekeeping force was expanded following the 2006 war between Israel and the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group.

Kandice Ardiel, a UNIFIL press official said “the UN force, known as UNIFIL, called on Lebanese authorities to “investigate quickly and thoroughly, and prosecute all those responsible for these crimes.”

She added that the attack occurred on Tuesday night.

Local media reported that residents of the southern town of Bint Jbeil scuffled with Irish peacekeepers who they said were taking photographs of residential homes. The reports added that the UN force was not accompanied by Lebanese troops.

WASHINGTON DC, 06 January 2022, (TON): Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman speaks, with Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani.

The Deputy Secretary reiterated our unwavering support for Georgia’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.

The Deputy Secretary noted the United States will continue to urge Russia to withdraw its forces to pre-war positions and comply with the 2008 ceasefire agreement.

Deputy Secretary Sherman and Foreign Minister Zalkaliani emphasized the need to uphold the right of sovereign nations to choose their own security arrangements and support Georgia and Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of continued Russian aggression, and discussed how to enhance peace and security in Europe.