NEW DELHI, 05 January 2022, (TON): Union Minister Kiren Rijiju tweeted “the Indian Army hoisted the national flag in eastern Ladakh's Galwan valley during the New Year.”

The tweet comes a day after Chinese troops in a state media tweet showed them with their flag at Galwan valley.

Army sources have told media that the video from the official Chinese media Twitter handle does not violate the demilitarised zone between the two countries in the area.

After the violent faceoff in Galwan valley in June 2020, several rounds of military and diplomatic talks have been held but largely they have ended in a stalemate.

Disengagement at some border points did take place but by and large, there is an impasse on complete disengagement. Disengagement at Depsang and Hot Springs remains a key sticky point. There is still a huge build-up of forces on each side of eastern Ladakh even during the harsh winter.

Satellite images from July last year confirmed the disengagement of Indian and Chinese soldiers from the Galwan clash site by 2 km on either side. This took place after special representative-level talks between National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

DHAKA, 05 January 2022, (TON): Bangladesh has called for early, voluntary, safe and sustained repatriation of the Myanmar nationals temporarily sheltered in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has expressed its willingness to work together to further the relationship with Myanmar alongside ensuring early repatriation of the Rohingyas to their place of origin in Rakhine state.

The ministry of foreign affairs said in a message of felicitation on the occasion of the Independence Day of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar “as an immediate and friendly neighbour, the people of Bangladesh have been persistent in developing mutually beneficial relations with the people of Myanmar and will work together to further the relationship.”

On the occasion, the people of Bangladesh expressed greetings and felicitations to the people of Myanmar and wished them peace and prosperity.

DHAKA, 05 January 2022, (TON): Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has said “the government wants to find out the reasons if there is any dissatisfaction of some countries towards Bangladesh, stressing that they will try to address those issues.”

He said “our aim is to maintain good relations with all countries. Some countries may apparently be unsatisfied for certain reasons. We’ll find out the reasons and will try to address that.”

Momen said that the government will try to maintain the basic principle - “Friendship to all and malice towards none” - in terms of its relations with foreign countries.

He said “we’ll try our best to maintain the policy of neutrality.”

He also said “his party, the Awami League, believes in democracy and very few gave blood for democracy.”

He added “we’ll promote democracy. No democracy is perfect. It’s an evolutionary process. Nothing is perfect as such. We’ll want perfection and our efforts will be there to strengthen the process.”

MADRID, 04 December 2022, (TON): A migrant rights group said “over 4,000 migrants died or disappeared trying to reach Spain by sea in 2021, twice as many as in the previous year.”

Migrant arrivals in Spain’s Canary Islands in the Atlantic have increased since late 2019 after increased patrols along Europe’s southern coast dramatically reduced crossings to the continent via the Mediterranean.

This route is fraught with dangers due to strong currents and the greater distances involved.

A total of 4,404 migrants perished or vanished in attempts to reach Spain last year, up from 2,170 in 2020, according to Spanish nongovernmental organization Caminando Fronteras, which tracks data from boats in distress.

That is the highest yearly number since the group started keeping records in 2015.

The bodies of the vast majority of migrants, 94 percent, were never found so they are counted as missing.

KABUL, 04 December 2022, (TON): The interim Taliban government has said that the process to form Afghanistan’s new regular army consisting of nearly 100,000 troops is near completion.

Enayatullah Khwarazmi, a spokesperson for the country’s defenсe ministry, said the ranks of the new Afghan army had been filled by 80%, reported Sputnik News.

He added “a 20-men committee is doing the vetting.”

Qari Fasihuddin, the Taliban's chief of staff of the armed forces, told media in November that the group was planning to recruit 150,000 fighters to join their ranks.

The Afghan military and Western-backed government led by Ashraf Ghani collapsed on Aug 15 following the withdrawal of foreign troops were withdrawing after a 20-year presence.

In September, the Taliban appointed an interim government.

RIYADH, 04 December 2022, (TON): Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad praised the historical relations that unite his country and Saudi Arabia during a meeting with the Speaker of the Saudi Shoura Council, Sheikh Abdullah Al-Asheikh.

The Saudi official arrived in Manama, as part of an official visit at the invitation of Fawzia Zainal, speaker of the Bahraini Council of Representatives, to strengthen joint parliamentary work between the two countries.

Al-Asheikh thanked the Bahraini crown prince for his interest and keenness to consolidate joint cooperation between the two countries at all levels, and praised the efforts made by the Saudi-Bahraini Coordination Council, headed by Prince Salman and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Press Agency reported.

During his visit, he also held talks with Zainal, where she praised the steady growth and progress in bilateral relations and said the two countries are a model of cohesion and solidarity in the face of various circumstances and challenges.

OTTAWA, 04 December 2022, (TON): A Canadian court has awarded C$107m (£62m; $84m), plus interest, to the families of six people who died when a plane was downed near Tehran in 2020.

The family members awarded compensation by Ontario's Superior Court of Justice lost spouses, siblings, children, nieces and nephews.

Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 was hit by two missiles after taking off.

Iran has said “it mistook the aircraft for a US missile.”

All 176 people on board died.

They included 55 Canadians and 35 permanent residents of Canada. The relatives had filed a civil lawsuit against Iran and other officials who they say were to blame for the incident.

RIYADH, 04 December 2022, (TON): The secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation has called on member states to increase their financial backing for a humanitarian aid fund.

Hissein Brahim Taha, said that the OIC’s Islamic Solidarity Fund had provided vital support for Muslims around the world but that more money was required to fund projects in areas such as helping refugees and victims of natural disasters.

The organization’s leader made his appeal during a speech at the 65th session of the fund’s permanent council, that was held virtually on Monday. He described the fund as one of the most important Islamic charities and called for efforts to expand its reach through increased voluntary donations from OIC member countries.

MOSCOW, 04 December 2022, (TON): Russia hopes a pledge it signed Monday with four other global nuclear powers to prevent atomic weapons spreading will reduce world tensions, while saying a summit of permanent Security Council members remains necessary.

Moscow’s foreign ministry said in a statement “we hope that, in the current difficult conditions of international security, the approval of such a political statement will help reduce the level of international tensions.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the RIA Novosti news agency that Moscow still considered a summit between the world’s major nuclear powers to be “necessary.”

The rare joint statement was signed by China, France, Russia, the UK and the United States. It pledged to ensure a nuclear war is never fought.

RIYADH, 04 December 2022, (TON): The Arab coalition said “Saudi Arabia's defenses on Monday thwarted a number of Houthi attempts to target the Kingdom.”

The Kingdom’s defenses intercepted and destroyed five drones that the coalition said “it had been monitoring and were launched from the Yemeni capital Sanaa.”

The coalition said “operational options are on the table in response to the threat and to deter the hostile behavior of the Houthi militia.”

Earlier on Monday, the Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense said air defenses intercepted and destroyed a “hostile aerial target” launched toward the city of Taif.

The ministry said “the aerial threat was launched by the Houthi militia from inside Yemen.”

It added “we are taking deterrent operational measures to neutralize the threat and protect civilians.”