BERLIN, 26 December 2021, (TON): The previous government of Germany under Angela Merkel in 2021 approved contracts for the supply of weapons in the amount of € 9 billion, which was a record.

This was reported by the DPA agency on Saturday, citing data from the Ministry of Economy.

The amount exceeded the 2019 record by almost € 1 billion.

Egypt became the leader in terms of purchases. For this country, orders for € 4.34 billion have been ap-proved. Moreover, almost all of this amount consists of contracts concluded nine days before the resignation of Merkel’s cabinet.

The agency points out that the ministers at that time were acting and it was unlikely that they should have approved such large contracts in the last days of work.

RIYADH, 26 December 2021, (TON): An official report has revealed “Saudi authorities arrested more than 15,000 people in one week for breaching residency, work and border security regulations.”

From Dec. 16 to 22, a total of 7,777 people were arrested for violations of residency rules, while 5,375 were held over illegal border crossing attempts, and a further 1,924 for labor-related issues.

The report showed that among the 208 people arrested for trying to enter the Kingdom illegally, 64 percent were Yemeni and 28 percent were Ethiopian.

A further 34 people were caught trying to cross into neighboring countries, and 27 were held for involvement in transporting and harboring violators.

The authorities transferred 81,670 offenders to their respective diplomatic missions to obtain travel documents. A further 2,242 people were transferred to complete their travel reservations and 8,875 were deported.

The Saudi Ministry of Interior said that anyone found to be aiding illegal entry to the Kingdom, including transporting and providing shelter, could face imprisonment for a maximum of 15 years, a fine of up to SR1 million ($260,000), or confiscation of vehicles and property.

RABAT, 26 December 2021, (TON): Morocco said “it is ready to restore diplomatic cooperation with Germany, apparently thanks to a perceived shift in position toward the disputed Western Sahara.”

The announcement came as Morocco celebrates the anniversary of a landmark US move to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over the territory, in exchange for Morocco establishing formal relations with Israel.

Morocco annexed Western Sahara from Spain in 1975 and the Polisario Front independence movement fought Morocco for years before a 1991 UN-brokered ceasefire.

Morocco halted diplomatic cooperation with Germany earlier this year and recalled its ambassador over Germany’s stance on the Sahara question, notably in the aftermath of the US decision.

Morocco’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was ready to revive the fractured ties.

The ministry said “the kingdom appreciates the positive announcements and constructive positions recently made by the new federal government of Germany.”

“These announcements make it possible to envisage a revival of bilateral cooperation and a return to normalcy of the diplomatic representations of the two countries.”

MOSCOW, 26 December 2021, (TON): The Black Sea Fleet press service reported “a detachment of ships of the Black Sea Fleet (Black Sea Fleet) consisting of the Vsevolod Bobrov logistic support ship and the Georgy Kurbatov mine defense sh-ip passed the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea, making the first inter-fleet passage.”

The squadron has reportedly begun a planned inter-naval crossing from the Baltic to the Black Sea. The ships passed the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea.

The message says “for the crews, this is the first inter-fleet passage, during which they will have to overcome more than 5 thousand nautical miles, and conduct a number of ship exercises in accordance with their mission.”

After returning to the main base of the Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol, the crews of the ships will carry out their maintenance and begin to perform tasks as intended in accordance with the plan of activities of the troops of the fleet in the 2022 academic year.

LONDON, 26 December 2021, (TON): There was international condemnation on Saturday of the “horrific” Houthi attack on Saudi Arabia that killed two people, including a Saudi citizen and a Yemeni national.

The US embassy in Riyadh said “attacks by the militia were perpetuating the conflict, prolonging the suffering of Yemen people, and endangering the Saudi people alongside more than 70,000 US citizens residing in Saudi Arabia.

The Kingdom’s Civil Defense said that Friday’s projectile launched from Yemen landed in Samtah, a town in the southwestern Jazan region. It wounded seven people and destroyed shops and vehicles.

“We again call on the Houthis to end their reckless attacks on the people of Saudi Arabia and to engage under UN auspices to end this conflict and bring peace to the people of Yemen.”

The Arab Interior Ministers Council said the “cowardly” attack is considered a criminal act and constitutes a war crime, “whose perpetrators must be held accountable”

RIYADH, 26 December 2021, (TON): The Saudi-led coalition launched a "large-scale" assault on Yemen after a projectile killed two people in the kingdom, in the first such deaths in three years blamed on Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Yemeni medics said “a retaliatory coalition air strike on Yemen killed three people and wounded six others in Ajama, a town northwest of the Houthi held capital Sanaa.”

Yemen has been wracked by civil war since 2014 pitting the internationally recognised government supported by the Saudi-led military coalition against the Huthis who control much of the north.

Tens of thousands of people have since been killed, in what the UN has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Saudi's civil defence said that two people, one Saudi and the other Yemeni, were killed and seven others wounded in the projectile attack on Jazan, a southern region of the kingdom bordering Yemen.

It said in a statement "a military projectile fell on a commercial store on the main street, resulting in two deaths.”

It added that six Saudis and a Bangladeshi national were wounded.

The Saudi-led military coalition said shortly afterwards that it was "preparing for a large-scale military operation.”

MOSCOW, 26 December 2021, (TON): Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic held telephone talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. As the press service of the Serbian leader said, “during the conversation, Vucic thanked Putin for the supply of the Kornet ATGM system, and also raised the issue of supplying additional volumes of gas to Serbia.”

The conversation took place at the initiative of the Serbian side.

The statement said “President Vucic thanked President Putin for the delivery of the Kornet anti-tank missile systems (ATGM), noting that these Russian missiles are the best in the world and will become a serious boost for the Serbian army.”

President Vucic and President Putin reviewed the energy situation in Europe and the world, continuing the conversation. launched a month ago in Sochi. President Putin assured President Vucic that Russia will adhere to the agreements and that Serbia will have sufficient gas volumes this winter, the interlocutors also talked about an agreement that will provide [Serbia] with additional gas supplies.

Vucic and Putin noted the continued growth of economic ties. The presidents stressed that they expect the signing of an agreement on strategic economic cooperation soon and positively assessed the agreement signed between Gazprom and the Serbian petrochemical producer HIP Petrohemija.

The press service noted “in the conversation, the readiness of the countries for further close cooperation on the entire spectrum of relations was noted.”

NEW DELHI, 26 December 2021, (TON): The Indian rupee has been described as Asia’s worst-performing emerging market currency by the New York-based financial and media company, Bloomberg, with its recent report also suggesting that foreign funds are fleeing the country’s stocks.

The recent damning report that spurted social media trolling of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi across India, says currency declined 1.9 per cent this quarter as global funds pulled $4.2 billion of capital out of the country’s stock market, the most among regional markets where data is available.

Foreigners sold Indian stocks as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Nomura Holdings Inc. recently lowered their outlook for equities, citing lofty valuations, at a time when concerns about the omicron virus variant are roiling the global markets.

Record-high trade deficit and the central bank’s policy divergence with the Federal Reserve have also impinged on the rupee’s carry appeal.

The rupee is set to drop about 4 per cent this year in a fourth straight year of losses, the report said. “Bearish rupee calls are rising as India’s trade deficit widened to an all-time high of about $23 billion in November amid higher imports.

NAYPYITAW, 26 December 2021, (TON): According to both locals and an anti-junta armed resistance group based in the region “the remains of at least 35 charred bodies, including one belonging to a child, were found near a village in eastern Myanmar’s Karenni (Kayah) State early Christmas morning.”

The bodies were found on eight burned vehicles and five motorbikes near the village of Moso. The Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF) has accused the Myanmar military troops who were present in the area on Friday of committing the crime in question.

The commander of the KNDF’s Brigade 4, who did not want to be named, said that at around 11am on Friday, members of his group saw smoke billowing out of the parked vehicles, but they did not see the burned bodies, as the fire was still blazing. 

Due to fears that junta troops may still have been present in the area, the KNDF was only briefly  able to visit the area surrounding the trucks that day; it was not until the following morning, when they returned to the scene, that they witnessed the full extent of the massacre.

Among the charred remains were the fingers of a child who the KNDF commander estimated to be younger than five. He noted that KNDF members had previously seen a small vehicle carrying a woman and child pass down the road leading to that area before the fires had started.

KABUL, 26 December 2021, (TON): A spokesperson for the interim government said “the Taliban have dissolved Afghanistan's election commission, a panel that supervised polls during the previous Western-backed administration.”

Taliban government spokesperson Bilal Karimi said "there is no need for these commissions to exist and operate.” The referring to the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission.

"If we ever feel a need, the Islamic Emirate will revive these commissions."

The Taliban swept to power in August as a Western-backed government imploded in the final stages of a US military withdrawal.

According to the commission's website “established in 2006, the IEC was mandated to administer and supervise all types of elections, including presidential.”

Aurangzeb, who headed the panel up until the fall of the previous regime, told "they have taken this decision in a hurry and dissolving the commission would have huge consequences.”

Aurangzeb, who like many Afghans goes by only one name said "if this structure does not exist, I'm 100 per cent sure that Afghanistan's problems will never be solved as there won't be any elections.”