NEW YORK, 07 November 2021, (TON): UN human rights chief said that the military takeover in Sudan is “deeply disturbing” and that the civilian rule should urgently be restored.

Michelle Bachelet was speaking at a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on the implications of the ongoing situation in Sudan following the Oct. 25 coup in the northeastern African country.

This, she said, “recalled a somber page in the country’s history when freedom of expression was stifled, and human rights were comprehensively repressed.”

Bachelet said in Geneva “it betrays the courageous and inspiring revolution of 2019, and contravenes both international human rights law, as well as the country's own constitutional document and other foundational documents of the transition.”

The special request for the session was made by the UK, US, Norway, and Germany, and supported by more than 45 nations which noted the decision of the African Union Peace and Security Council to suspend Sudan from participation in all AU activities following the military takeover.

They are calling on the Sudanese military to engage in dialogue with civilian leaders to enable the immediate re-establishment of the transitional government of Sudan.

Nations such as China, Russia, and Venezuela opposed the holding of the session, saying it infringed on Sudan’s sovereignty.

BERLIN, 07 November 2021, (TON): A Russian diplomat was found dead in October outside the country’s embassy in Berlin.

The man, whose lifeless body was recovered on October 19 on the pavement by police, had apparently fallen to his death from the embassy complex, according to the Spiegel weekly which first reported the case.

A German foreign ministry spokesman said the case was “known to the ministry” but would not provide further details. Confirming the death, the Russian embassy called it a “tragic accident”. 

The embassy said in a statement “all the procedures related to repatriating the diplomat’s body back to the homeland were promptly settled with responsible German law-enforcement and medical authorities in accordance with current practices.”

Russia’s mission however said it “considers speculations which have appeared in a number of Western media” over the diplomat’s death “to be absolutely incorrect”. The diplomat was identified as a 35-year-old second secretary at the embassy by Spiegel.

WASHINGTON, 07 November 2021, (TON): Lawmakers were set to take key votes on giant twin bills at the center of Joe Biden’s $3 trillion blueprint to transform America’s crumbling transport network and expand the welfare safety net on the biggest day so far of his presidency.

Success on both fronts would be a huge boon to Biden, 10 months after he swept to the White House on the rallying cry of “build back better” before seeing his popularity plunge. His low approval ratings were blamed in part for a humiliating upset defeat this week in Virginia’s gubernatorial election.

The House of Representatives was expected to pass a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package for Biden to sign into law after taking a procedural vote to advance a social welfare bill, worth up to $1.85 trillion, to the Senate. 

Biden spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters amid a flurry of 11th-hour negotiations in Congress “Poll after poll shows us that the components of the bipartisan infrastructure deal and the Build Back Better framework are very popular.”

“American families want historic investments in infrastructure... in competitiveness, and addressing the climate crisis. This is something that they want to see happen.”

City beat United in derby, climb up to 2nd spot in Premier League

FREETOWN, 07 November 2021, (TON): The central morgue and local authorities said “ninety-one people were killed in the capital of Sierra Leone on Friday when a fuel tanker exploded following a collision.”

The government has not yet confirmed the death toll, but the manager of the central state morgue in Freetown said it had received 91 bodies following the explosion.

Victims included people who had flocked to collect fuel leaking from the ruptured vehicle, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, mayor of the port city, said in a post on Facebook.

Brima Bureh Sesay, head of the National Disaster Management Agency said “we've got so many casualties, burnt corpses,”

Images shared widely online showed several badly burned victims lying on the streets as fire blazed through shops and houses nearby. Media sources was not able to immediately verify the images.

TEHRAN, 07 November 2021, (TON): Iran’s atomic agency said that its stockpile of 20 per cent enriched uranium has reached over 210 kilograms (463 pounds), the latest defiant move ahead of upcoming nuclear talks with the West.

The figure, attributed to agency spokesman Behrouz Kamalvan, was carried in a report by the semi-official Tasnim and Fars news agencies.

Under the historic 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the World Powers, Iran was not meant to enrich uranium above 3.67pc. Enriched uranium above 90pc can be used for nuclear weapons.

After months of delays, the European Union, Iran and the US announced on Wednesday that indirect talks to resuscitate the deal would resume on Nov 29 in Vienna.

The nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, promises Iran economic incentives in exchange for limits on its nuclear programme, and is meant to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb. Tehran insists its programme is peaceful.

Kamalvandi also said that so far his agency has also produced 25 kilograms of 60pc enriched uranium, a level that only countries with nuclear weapons have the physical capabilities to produce.

NEW DELHI, 07 November 2021, (TON): India's National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval held talks with Emmanuel Bonne, Diplomatic Advisor to French President Emmanuel Macron as part of annual India-France Strategic Dialogue.

The Indian and French sides during the meet discussed number of issues including long term challenges in the Indo Pacific region, the situation in Afghanistan, Africa, Southeast Asia and West Asia and issues like terror and threats in maritime, cyber and space domains.

The 35th session of the Indo-French strategic dialogue come in the backdrop of the bilateral meet between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President on the sidelines of G20 summit in Rome.

The two sides reaffirmed the vision of expressed by the two countries that their strategic partnership has a vital role to play in advancing peace, stability and security in the Indo-Pacific region, based on democratic values and a common belief in strategic autonomy, rule of law, multipolarity and multilateralism.

According to release by Indian embassy in Paris “during the talks, France stressed its continuing commitment to the Indo Pacific region, as a resident power, and partnership with India as a major pillar of its Indo Pacific strategy.”

NAYPYITAW, 07 November 2021, (TON): The National Unity Government (NUG) has announced that they plan to end military rule within two years, at which point they will work to rebuild Myanmar with domestic and international businesses who paid taxes to them.

The Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), formed of elected parliamentarians ousted in the February coup, enacted a tax law on Thursday for a fiscal year starting in October and ending in September of next year.

He reported that they had already received US$150,000 in tax revenue.

“The people of Myanmar are trying to pay us taxes through all their struggles. Only a very small percentage of major businesses have started paying taxes,” Tin Tun Naing, the NUG’s Minister of Planning, Finance and Investment, said during an online conference on Thursday.

He added “the main taxpayers right now are the regular office staff and small businesses.”

He said that taxes could be paid to the NUG through a foreign bank account and that it would not be necessary to provide any information that could compromise the taxpayer’s identity.

NAYPYITAW, 07 November 2021, (TON): Battles between anti-junta resistance groups and the Myanmar army have been intensifying in Pekhon—a geographically strategic southern Shan State township bordering Kayah (Karenni) State—since late October.”

Local People’s Defence Force (PDF) members believe that a massive military operation is underway to quell growing armed resistance movements in the area because of Pekhon’s location next to Pinlaung Township, through which anti-junta forces can access the military’s capital of Naypyitaw.

On October 22, the PDF killed five junta personnel in an ambush on the base of Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 336 in downtown Pekhon, The attack triggered retaliation from junta forces and more clashes with the PDF.

The army’s Military Operations Command (MOC) No. 7 and troops from LIB 336 have set up bases on a hill in Pekhon that is surrounded by civilian communities.

Since October 27, they have increasingly been firing artillery shells into these civilian areas and sending reinforcements troops to Pekhon, resistance groups and locals said.

A spokesperson for the Pekhon PDF told media that the group had received intel suggesting that the military was planning a major operation in Pekhon.

DHAKA, 07 November 2021, (TON): Speakers at a meeting in the capital on Saturday placed six-point demands for the country’s Urdu speaking people, including quotas in higher education and government jobs.

They also demanded permanent rehabilitation of the Urdu-speaking people before eviction them.

Urdu Speaking People Youth and Student Movement organised the meeting, chaired by its president Imran Khan, at Shishu Kalyan Parishad Auditorium on Topkhana Road in Dhaka.

Sadaqat Khan Fakku, president of the Urdu Speaking Youth Rehabilitation Movement Bangladesh, said that the people were deprived of citizen rights after the Liberation War.

He also demanded quotas in higher education and government jobs considering the Urdu speaking people as backward people.

Senior lawyer and human rights activist Sadia Arman said that they heard few days ago that the prime minister had taken initiative to rehabilitate the Urdu-speaking people.

She added “we thought that Urdu speaking people’s prolonged sufferings would reduce but now we are hearing that a proceeding begins to send them to Pakistan.”

DHAKA, 07 November 2021, (TON): Bangladesh will buy five naval ships from the UK to modernise the armed forces as part of the Forces Goal 2030 as the country aspires to become a developed nation by 2041.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told "we have decided in principle to buy five naval ships. The objectives of this purchase is to monitor and protect our huge sea frontiers from others who enter our territories for fishing or other purposes."

The issue was discussed at a bilateral meeting between Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her UK counterpart Boris Johnson on the sidelines of COP26 in Glasgow.

Momen said “the British premier proposed selling other defence equipment, including aircraft.”

"The negotiation went on for a long time. This time, we agreed in principle to buy five naval ships. Three of those will be imported from the UK and the two others will be built in our dockyard in Chattogram."

The minister said the final deal on the procurement is yet to be signed. "Our Ministry of Defence will be working on it. We will surely buy the ships at a competitive price."