ISLAMABAD, 17 October 2021, (TON): Commerce Adviser Abdul Razak Dawood said “the government was fully focused on boosting trade and exports with Afghanistan.”

He said that peace in Afghanistan and strengthening of economic relationship between the two countries would help increase bilateral trade.

Talking to media on the occasion of first cargo handling from Islamabad airport to Afghanistan via road, the minister said it was a historic moment. The cargo reached the airport via a private air company WF Integral.

ISTANBUL, 17 October 2021, (TON): Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed continuity in Germany’s relations with Turkey that included both cooperation and criticism of Ankara as she paid her final visit to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Merkel and Erdogan developed complex but close relations over the German chancellor’s 16-year term that navigated the perils of Turkey’s tumultuous ties with the West.

Their personal bond was instrumental in helping Europe manage a refugee crisis in 2016 and calm simmering tensions in the east Mediterranean last year.

Merkel also helped iron out some of the difficulties that have crept into Erdogan’s relations with Washington and French President Emmanuel Macron.

The two leaders had lunch and private talks in a presidential villa overlooking the Bosphorus on the latest leg of Merkel’s parting foreign tour.

Merkel told reporters after the talks “I have always said that our collaboration was very good in the years that I worked with Mr. Erdogan.”

The 67-year-old German leader said her “advice” to Turkey today was to expect “the same thing for the coming government in Germany.

Shae said that the relationship between Turkey and Germany, with its negative and positive sides, will go on. It will be recognised by the next government.

Erdogan referred to Merkel as his “dear friend” twice during the closing media event.

But he also hinted at the difficulties Turkey might have in promoting its interests after Merkel formally gives way to a new coalition government taking shape in Berlin following elections last month.

KHARTOUM, 17 October 2021, (TON): Sudan’s prime minister has announced a series of steps for his country’s transition to democracy less than a month after a coup attempt rocked its leadership.

In a speech, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok called the coup attempt an “alarm bell” that should awaken people to the causes of the country’s political and economic challenges.

He said “the serious political crisis that we are living in right now, I would not be exaggerating to say, is the worst and most dangerous crisis that not only threatens the transition, but threatens our whole country.”

Authorities announced the coup attempt by a group of soldiers on Sept. 22, saying that it had failed. They blamed supporters of the country’s former autocrat Omar Bashir for planning the takeover.

It underscored the fragility of Sudan’s path to democracy, more than two years after the military’s overthrow of Bashir amid a massive public uprising against his three-decade rule. Sudan has since been ruled by an interim, joint civilian-military government.

Months after Bashir’s toppling, the ruling generals agreed to share power with civilians representing the protest movement.

RIYADH, 17 October 2021, (TON): The Arab coalition said that 160 Houthis had been killed and 11 military vehicles destroyed in operations in Abedia.

The coalition said “it had carried out 32 operations targeting Houthis in Marib’s Abedia district over the past 24 hours.”

Abedia is a district in Yemen’s Marib which has been under a Houthi siege since Sept. 23, hindering the movement of civilians and impeding humanitarian aid flows.

The coalition added that it continues to support the Yemeni army in its efforts to protect civilians from Houthi violations.

GENEVA, 17 October 2021, (TON): The UN Refugee Agency urged countries to facilitate and speed up family reunification procedures for Afghans whose families were left behind in Afghanistan or who have been displaced across the region.

UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo said "while recent political developments in Afghanistan have not led to large-scale cross-border displacement, many among pre-existing Afghan refugee and asylum seeker populations remain separated from their families owing to the inaccessibility of family reunification procedures.”

Speaking at a UN press briefing, she said “many Afghans were approaching UNHCR offices, desperately concerned for the safety and welfare of their family members who remain in Afghanistan or neighboring countries following the Taliban takeover earlier this year.”

The Taliban captured Kabul on Aug. 15, forcing the president and other top officials to leave. They have formed an interim government headed by Hasan Akhund.

In Geneva, Mantoo said "to ensure the preservation of family unity and to help protect lives on account of the exceptionally challenging situation in the country, UNHCR is urging states to prioritize and simplify family reunification admission procedures."

BRUSSELS, 17 October 2021, (TON): A senior EU official said “Iran is not ready to return to talks with world powers over its nuclear program yet and its new negotiating team wants to discuss the texts that will be put forward when it meets with the EU in Brussels in the next few weeks.”

EU political director Enrique Mora, the chief coordinator for the talks, was in Tehran to meet members of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team, four months after discussions broke off between Iran and world powers.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has so far refused to resume indirect talks with the US in Vienna on both sides returning to compliance with the deal, under which Iran curbed its nuclear program in return for economic sanctions relief.

Diplomats from France, Britain and Germany, who are party to the accord along with China and Russia, said ahead of Mora’s visit that it came at a critical time and things could not be deemed “business as usual” given escalating Iranian nuclear activities and the stalling of negotiations.

The US said time was running short. “They are not yet ready for engaging in Vienna,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity, adding that he believed Tehran was “absolutely decided to go back to Vienna and to end the negotiations.”

RIYADH, 17 October 2021, (TON): Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan met with US National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk, the director of Middle East and North Africa affairs at the US National Security Council, Ambassador Barbara Leaf, and the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Yale Lambert on the sidelines of his visit to Washington, DC.

During the meeting, they reviewed Saudi-US relations and opportunities to enhance them in all fields. Joint efforts to lay the foundations for peace, security and stability in the Middle East and the wider world were also discussed.

The Kingdom’s efforts and initiatives to reach a political solution in Yemen in a way that supports the development and stability of the Yemeni people was also discussed during the meeting, in addition to the most prominent developments regarding the Iranian nuclear agenda.

MOSCOW, 17 October 2021, (TON): Russia, the United States and Israel agreed to hold a meeting of the heads of the Security Councils (SC), where they will discuss Syria and the situation around Iran, an understanding of the date and place may appear after negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in Sochi on October 22, Israeli Ambassador to Russia Alexander told RIA Novosti Ben Zvi.

The ambassador said, answering the relevant question “so far there is only an idea, neither a date, nor a place has been set yet. We, for our part, are ready to host delegations, but this has not yet been decided.”

The ambassador specified “I hope that our prime minister will come now and will finally be able to decide. At this stage, there is only an agreement and understanding that this (meeting) will take place, but when exactly – this has not yet been agreed. Among the topics are Syria, Iran, other issues of the Middle East region.”

Earlier, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told RIA Novosti that Israel , Russia and the United States are considering the possibility of resuming trilateral consultations at the level of the heads of the security councils, the next meeting may take place in October.

The Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev , as well as John Bolton , who at that time was the US President’s National Security Advisor and then the head of the Israeli National Security Council, Meir Ben-Shabbat, discussed the situation in Syria for the first time in a trilateral format .

BEIJING, 17 October 2021, (TON): US lies about China's Wuhan lab are motivated not by science but geopolitics, and the purpose of this torrent of lies is to demonise China and the Chinese people, and to scapegoat them for a disease that has killed over one million Americans, the World Socialist Web Site said in an article.

Titled "The Wuhan lab libel, the Washington Post teaches America to hate," the article lashed out at The Post's new editorial, which revived the discredited claim that Covid-19 is a biologically engineered virus created in China by the world's leading coronavirus researchers.

There is not a word in this editorial that has not been repeatedly disproven by scientists, international bodies and even the US government itself, the article pointed out.

In February, the World Health Organisation (WHO) inquiry into the origins of Covid-19 declared the lab leak narrative "highly unlikely" and stated it was not worth further research, it said, adding that The Post simply ignores these conclusions.

WASHINGTON, 17 October 2021, (TON): British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited the church where lawmaker David Amess was stabbed to death a day earlier in what police say they are treating as a terrorist attack.

Amess, 69, from Johnson's Conservative Party, was knifed repeatedly in the attack at about midday on Friday in Leigh-on-Sea, east of London, during a meeting with constituents.

Johnson, interior minister Priti Patel, and leader of the opposition Labour Party Keir Starmer were among those to lay flowers in tribute to Amess at the scene of the murder.

Johnson and Starmer stood side by side in a moment of silence before leaving. Johnson said “Britain had lost a fine public servant and a much-loved friend and colleague.”

In a statement early on Saturday, police said the early investigation had revealed a potential motivation linked to extremism.

Police arrested a 25-year-old British man at the scene on suspicion of murder, adding it is believed he acted alone.

As tributes poured in for Amess, politicians described the attack as an assault on democracy, and Patel said security for lawmakers, known as MPs, was being reviewed and strengthened.