NAYPYITAW, 08 November 2021, (TON): Crisis-hit Myanmar is preparing to open the doors to foreign tourists early next year, an eye-brow-raising development given the current state of play in the country.

Late last month Union Minister for Hotels and Tourism Htay Aung said “his country is finalising procedures for reopening its tourism sector to foreigners early next year and will initially target visitors from Southeast Asia, according to a report by Bloomberg.”

He said in an interview “we are preparing for necessary arrangements for travel bubbles with Thailand so that we will be ready when they reach out to us through an official channel.”

“We also aim at reopening to Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam in the first quarter of 2022.”

One target is to draw in tourists from Thailand so that Thais can safely visit popular tourist destinations in and around Kawthoung, Myeik, Dawei, Tachileik and Kyaington.

About 300,000 foreigners are expected in the first phase of the reopening, Htay Aung said. Although half of the country’s hotels and guest houses have suspended operations, some 90,000 rooms are still available, he said, according to the Bloomberg report.

NAYPYITAW, 08 November 2021, (TON): The head of the United Nations body investigating the most serious crimes in Myanmar has said that preliminary evidence collected since the military seized power on February 1 shows a widespread and systematic attack on civilians "amounting to crimes against humanity.”

Nicholas Koumjian told UN reporters that the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, which he heads, has received more than 200,000 communications since the army seizure and has collected more than 1.5 million items of evidence that are being analysed "so that one day those most responsible for the serious international crimes in Myanmar will be brought to account.”

In determining that the crimes against civilians appear to be widespread and systematic, he said “investigators saw patterns of violence, a measured response by security forces to demonstrations in the first six weeks or so after the military takeover followed by "an uptick in violence and much more violent methods used to suppress the demonstrators."

Koumjian said "this was happening in different places at the same time, indicating to us it would be logical to conclude this was from a central policy.”

DHAKA, 08 November 2021, (TON): A devastating fire at India’s Petrapole land port has burnt 12 trucks waiting in a parking lot to enter Bangladesh’s Benapole land port with imported cotton.

The fire broke out in the early hours of Sunday at Jayantipur Luxmi truck parking lot and quickly engulfed trucks parked there.

However, no casualties have been reported.

Kartik Chakraborty, general secretary of the Petrapole Port Staff Welfare Association of India, said “a truck with cotton waiting to be exported to Bangladesh caught fire in the Jayantipur Lakshi truck parking lot near Petrapole port this morning. Later, fire broke out in 11 other cotton trucks nearby and they were also burnt down.”

He said that the other cotton loaded trucks managed to move elsewhere.

On information, members of the fire service arrived from Banga and Gobradanga and doused the fire at around 5am after hours of effort.

DHAKA, 08 November 2021, (TON): Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the diplomats to blend diplomacy with trade and commerce, investment expansion, and Bangladesh's development.

She said “Now, no one can develop themselves alone.”

She further added that a comprehensive effort is needed.

The prime minister said “this while virtually inaugurating the extended chancery premises of Bangladesh High Commission (BHC) in London from her place of residence.”

Hasina also asked the authorities concerned to discuss and take measures to increase export and investment, and accelerate socio-economic development.

She added "every foreign mission has a big responsibility to highlight Bangladesh and its history and culture.”

She added that the traditional diplomacy no longer exists as it has turned into economic diplomacy.

She said “the government is working to this end following the foreign policy laid out by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.”

NAYPYITAW, 07 November 2021, (TON): Activist group Justice for Myanmar (JFM) announced “telecommunications provider Mytel lost nearly US$25m in profits and millions of customers in the three months that followed the February 1 coup.”

The losses were due to boycotts by both users and shops due to the company’s ties to the junta; Mytel is jointly owned by the Myanmar military and Viettel, under Vietnam’s defence ministry.

Boycotts launched after the coup by the public called for Mytel sim cards to be destroyed, a refusal to accept calls from those using Mytel mobile numbers, and a blacklisting of Mytel products by shops. Signboards and banners advertising Mytel were also removed and destroyed.

The company lost staff to mass resignations, too, according to JFM. Mytel’s sales representatives dropped by around 30 percent in six months from more than 54,400 in January to around 38,190 in July.

Citing leaked data, JFM said that some 80 percent of Mytel’s sales came from private mobile phone shops nationwide.

A mobile phone shop owner from Mawlamyaine in Mon State told Myanmar Now that they destroyed 700,000 kyat (nearly $390) worth of Mytel top-up cards and sim cards in the days immediately after the coup.

The shop owner said “we never used Mytel but we had to sell their products because we’re a phone shop,” the shop owner said.

“We’re not going to sell them again. We don’t even accept phone calls from Mytel numbers.”

RIYADH, 07 November 2021, (TON): Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent cables of condolences to the emir of Kuwait on the death of Sheikh Saud Abdullah Saud Al-Malik Al-Sabah.

The king sent his “deepest and sincerest condolences” to Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and to the family of the deceased.

Prince Mohammed sent cables of condolences to both the emir of Kuwait and his Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, praying that God have mercy on the deceased.

LONDON, 07 November 2021, (TON): The UK Ministry of Defence has settled 417 compensation claims related to the Iraq war, paying several million pounds to resolve accusations that Iraqis endured cruel and inhumane treatment, including arbitrary detention and assault, at the hands of UK troops.

The claims settled this year means that individual claims that have been settled since the invasion in 2003 run into the low tens of thousands.

The 417 settled this year came after High Court rulings found there were breaches of the Geneva Conventions and the Human Rights Act by British forces in Iraq.

Martyn Day, a senior partner with Leigh Day, the solicitors who brought the action, told The Guardian: “While we’ve had politicians like David Cameron and Theresa May criticising us for supposedly ambulance chasing, the MoD has been quietly settling claims. The settlements here cover a mix of cases, instances of false imprisonment, assault.

“What this shows is that when it comes to what amounts to policing in a foreign state, the military are simply not the right people to do it.”

One of the cases involved the death of a 13-year-old boy. Other court proceedings remain highly confidential.

SANAA, 07 November 2021, (TON): local sources and media reports said “Yemen government troops pushed back Houthi attacks and scored limited advances in contested areas south and west of the central province of Marib.”

Fighting broke out on Friday when the Houthis attacked troops on hilly terrain overlooking the Al-Amud area, south of Marib, and around a strategic road that links the central city of Marib with Juba district.

With the help of the Arab coalition, the troops and allied tribesmen repelled the assault and later attacked the retreating Houthi forces.

By Saturday afternoon, government troops announced the liberation of small locations and villages in Juba after killing and wounding dozens of Houthis.

Yemen’s Defense Ministry said coalition warplanes had carried out many airstrikes, targeting Houthi gatherings and military equipment.

In the west, heavy clashes also broke out when troops repelled Houthi attacks in Serwah district.

The current round of fighting started in February, when the Houthis resumed an offensive to seize control of the energy-rich city of Marib, the government’s remaining bastion in the northern half of the country.

KHARTOUM, 07 November 2021, (TON): Protest leaders in Sudan have called a two-day national strike beginning on Sunday amid new fears that the country’s fragile transition to democracy could descend into further chaos after last month’s military coup.

The democracy movement rejected proposals for a return to power-sharing with the army and demanded the establishment of a new civilian government to lead the democratic transition, while the leader of Sudan’s largest political party accused military leaders of negotiating in bad faith.

Army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan seized power on Oct. 25, dissolved the transitional administration and arrested dozens of government officials and politicians. The coup sparked an international outcry and massive protests in the streets of Khartoum and elsewhere.

It also halted the transition to democratic rule more than two years after a popular uprising forced the removal of dictator Omar Bashir and his Islamist government.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, which led the uprising against Bashir, said mediation initiatives that “seek a new settlement” between the military and civilian leaders would “reproduce and worsen” the country’s crisis.

The association vowed to continue protesting until a full civilian government is established to lead the transition, and called for strikes and civil disobedience on Sunday and Monday under the slogan “No negotiations, no compromise, no power-sharing.”

TEHRAN, 07 November 2021, (TON): Iran told Russia that Western governments should be “realistic” when nuclear talks resume later this month and not to exceed the bounds of a 2015 deal they are seeking to revive.

A telephone call between Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, which Moscow said was requested by Tehran, came just weeks before the talks reopen in Vienna on November 29 after a five-month gap.

“The rapid approach of the talks requires the European and American sides to adopt a constructive and realistic approach, avoiding excessive demands that go beyond the terms of the nuclear agreement” struck in 2015, the Iranian minister said, according to a ministry transcript.

The Russian foreign ministry said the two “sides spoke in favour of restoring the nuclear deal in its original, balanced configuration, approved by the UN Security Council”.

“They confirmed that this is the only correct way to ensure the rights and interests of all participants of the comprehensive agreements.”

The nuclear talks, which are being brokered by European Union mediators as Tehran refuses to deal with US negotiators directly, are aimed at bringing Washington back into a 2015 agreement with Iran that was abandoned by former US president Donald Trump.

The remaining parties to the agreement, Britain, China, France and Germany as well as Russia are also taking part.