DAMASCUS, 14 November 2021, (TON): A monitor said Saturday “three Iraqi nationals, including a woman, were killed in violence inside the northeastern Syrian camp of Al-Hol that houses relatives of suspected jihadists.”

The overcrowded camp is under the control of the Kurdish administration running the region but violence, mostly perpetrated by the Islamic State group, is frequent. According to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a woman originally from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul died of bullet wounds on Saturday.

On Friday, two Iraqi refugees were killed by suspected IS gunmen inside a section of the camp where those who have received threats are usually sheltered, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told media.

Al-Hol is home to an estimated 62,000 people, half of whom are Iraqi nationals. Most of the camp’s residents are people who fled or surrendered during the dying days of IS’s self-proclaimed caliphate. Relatives of suspected foreign IS fighters are held in a separate high-security enclosure.

ANKARA, 14 November 2021, (TON): Turkey rebuffed French President Emmanuel Macron’s call on foreign powers to remove their forces from Libya as part of efforts turn on a page on a decade of strife.

The North African country has been mired in civil war since the overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a 2011 uprising.

The bloodshed has drawn in competing Libyan factions and Islamist groups as well as foreign powers.

Turkey sent troops as well as pro-Ankara militia units from Syria to shore up the UN-recognised government in Tripoli while Russia and other countries supported the eastern-based strongman KhalifaHaftar.

Macron told an international conference on Libya in Paris on Friday that “Russia and Turkey must withdraw their mercenaries without delay”.

But Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan’s top foreign policy adviser told AFP on Saturday that putting the emphasis on a quick troop withdrawal was “wrong”.

KHARTOUM, 14 November 2021, (TON): Sudanese security forces killed at least five demonstrators Saturday in a crackdown on anti-coup protests, medics said, after the military tightened its grip by forming a new ruling council.

The pro-democracy protests come nearly three weeks after top general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan ousted the government, detained the civilian leadership and declared a state of emergency.

The independent Central Committee for Sudanese doctors said five protesters were killed in Saturday’s rallies, two in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman and three in east Khartoum.

 Four were shot dead, while one died from “suffocation by tear gas”, the medics said.

they said “a large number of people were also wounded by live rounds “of the putschist military council.”

They added that security forces stormed one hospital in Omdurman and “detained several of the people wounded” there.

ANKARA, 14 November 2021, (TON): Turkey halted airline ticket sales to Iraqi, Syrian and Yemeni citizens wanting to travel to Belarus, which in recent months has become a key launching point for migrants and refugees trying to enter the European Union illegally.

The move, announced by Turkeys Civil Aviation Authority, follows EU pressure on airlines to stop bringing people from the Middle East to Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

Starting from there, thousands of asylum-seekers have managed to slip into EU member nations Poland, Lithuania and Latvia since the summer, though many others have also been kept from entering or pushed back.

The crisis involving a large number of migrants stuck at the EUs border threatens to become a humanitarian crisis as winter approaches. It is also creating another point of tension between the West and Belarus authoritarian regime.

On Friday, Russia sent paratroopers to the Grodno region in Belarus, which borders Poland, in a show of support for its ally. That follows Russia’s sending nuclear-capable strategic bombers to patrol over Belarus for two straight days this week.

LONDON, 14 November 2021, (TON): Britain's most senior military officer said “there is a greater risk of an accidental war breaking out between the West and Russia than at any time since the Cold War, with many of the traditional diplomatic tools no longer available.”

General Nick Carter, chief of the defence staff, said that there was a greater risk of tensions in the new era of a "multipolar world", where governments compete for different objectives and different agendas.

He said in an interview to be broadcast "I think we have to be careful that people don't end up allowing the bellicose nature of some of our politics to end up in a position where escalation leads to miscalculation.”

Tensions have been mounting in eastern Europe in recent weeks after the European Union accused Belarus of flying in thousands of migrants to engineer a humanitarian crisis on its border with EU-member state Poland, a dispute that threatens to draw in Russia and NATO.

President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that unscheduled NATO drills in the Black Sea posed a serious challenge for Moscow and that Russia had nothing to do with the crisis on close ally Belarus's border with the bloc.

Carter said “authoritarian rivals were willing to use any tool at their disposal, such as migrants, surging gas prices, proxy forces or cyber attacks. "The character of warfare has changed.”

Following the bi-polar world of the Cold War, and the unipolar world of US dominance, diplomats now face a more complex multi-polar world, he said, adding that "traditional diplomatic tools and mechanisms" of the Cold War were no longer available.

ISLAMABAD, 14 November 2021, (TON): The military said “three soldiers of the Pakistan Army embraced martyrdom during two separate terrorist activities in Balochistan.”

According to an Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement, security forces conducted an operation in the Hoshab area of the province based on the intelligence about the presence of "externally supported terrorists" in the surroundings of Turbat.

It added "on being surrounded by the security forces, an engagement ensued, in which terrorists suffered heavy losses.”

During the engagement, the ISPR said “two soldiers, Sepoy Ramzan from district Sargodha and Lance Naik Liaqat Iqbal from district Swabi, sacrificed their lives while fighting valiantly.”

In another related incident, the official communiqué said, Sepoy lnamullah, a resident of district Lakki Marwat, embraced martyrdom while clearing an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by terrorists along a route frequented by civilians.

The ISPR further said that Pakistan's security forces remained determined to defeat acts of cowardly terrorists, aimed at disrupting the peace, stability and progress of Balochistan.

A local police official said “earlier in the day, at least two police personnel were martyred in an explosion in Bajaur's Khar Tehsil.”

Last month, A soldier was martyred when terrorists fired at a military post in Hangu's Thall area.

ISLAMABAD, 14 November 2021, (TON): Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi informed the National Assembly that foreign fishing vessels were not being allowed to fish in Pakistan’s exclusive economic zone to protect the interests of local fishermen.

Responding to questions during the Question Hour, the minister said that the deep sea fishing policy had been announced after consultations with the stakeholders.

He said “the bottom trawling had been banned in Balochistan as it damaged the marine life and ecosystem.”

Read Pakistan’s fishery exports negligible

In response to another question, Zaidi said that the maritime ministry proposed amendments in consultation with the stakeholders as a major concern of local fishermen was regarding the issuance of deep-sea fishing licences to foreign entities and foreign joint ventures.

ISLAMABAD, 14 November 2021, (TON): Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed the Planning Commission to prepare another special development package for the development of northern Balochistan as was done for southern districts of the province.

He issued these instructions during a meeting with Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo in Islamabad.

Informed sources said that the prime minister during his meeting with Mr Bizenjo discussed various issues, including the development and financial needs of the province, and reviewed the pace of work and implementation of the federal government-funded development projects, including Rs 600 billion development package for nine southern districts of the province, which had been announced by the prime minister after his visit to Turbat.

The sources quoted the prime minister as saying that bringing Balochistan on a par with other development areas of the country and removing the sense of deprivation of the people of Balochistan was the priority of the PTI government.

He expressed his anger over Wapda and National Highway Authority for causing delay in connecting Makran with the national grid and implementation of the federal government development projects in Balochistan.

He directed the planning commission, Wapda and NHA to accelerate the pace of work on these projects.

NEW DELHI, 14 November 2021, (TON): New Delhi authorities announced on Saturday a one-week closure of schools and said they would consider a “pollution lockdown” to protect citizens from toxic smog.

Delhi's chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, told reporters “schools will be shut so that children don't have to breathe polluted air.”

Delhi is ranked one of the world's most polluted cities, with a hazardous melange of factory and vehicle emissions, and smoke from agricultural fires, settling in the skies over its 20 million people each winter.

On Saturday, the Supreme Court suggested imposing a lockdown on Delhi to combat the air quality crisis.

Chief Justice NV Ramana said “how will we live otherwise?.”

Kejriwal said his government would consider the court's suggestion after consulting with stakeholders.

He said “pollution lockdown has never happened before. It will be an extreme step.”

Kejriwal said that construction activity would be halted for four days to cut down dust from vast, open sites.

DHAKA, 14 November 2021, (TON): Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday left Paris for Dhaka, wrapping up her two-week official visit to Glasgow, London and Paris.

Prime Minister's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told media "a VVIP flight (BG-2109) of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the prime minister and her entourage departed the Charles de Gaulle airport at 4.20pm.”

Bangladesh ambassador to France Khandker Mohammad Talha and a high-level delegation from the France government saw the prime minister off at the airport.

Earlier, Sheikh Hasina was given static guard of honour by 21 guards while walking the red carpet before boarding the plane.

The flight is scheduled to reach Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on Sunday morning.

Earlier on October 31, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina arrived in Glasgow on a two-week visit to the United Kingdom and France. She joined the World Leaders' Summit at COP26 and other events there.

During her stay in Glasgow, on November 1 morning, the prime minister attended a side event titled "CVF-Commonwealth High level Panel Discussion on Climate Prosperity Partnership" at the Commonwealth pavilion in Scottish Event Campus (SEC).

Following a meeting with Commonwealth General Secretary Patricia Scotland QC, she attended the inaugural ceremony of the COP26 and addressed the event at the same venue.