ANKARA, 15 October 2021, (TON): Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said “representatives of the Afghan Taliban at the talks in Ankara said that they had returned women to the country’s health sector.”

Cavusoglu told reporters at the end of the talks “we made several proposals to the Taliban. For peace, the country needs an inclusive government with the participation of all groups of the population. expectations. We were told that women have already returned to the health sector.”

He added that Turkey put forward all the proposals as an equal negotiating partner, and not from the position of “big brother”.

Turkey discussed with Taliban delegation the return of Afghan refugees to their homeland, said Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Cavusoglu added “there are Afghan refugees in Turkey, many of them want to return. The Taliban said they would help them if they return. We also discussed what steps can be taken so that there are no new waves of refugees from Afghanistan.”

TAIPEI, 15 October 2021, (TON): An overnight fire tore through a building in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung on Thursday, killing 46 people and injuring dozens of others in the island's deadliest blaze in decades.

The fire broke out in the 13-storey, mixed-use building in the small hours of Thursday morning, according to officials, raging through multiple floors before firefighters finally got it under control.

Pictures published by Taiwan's official Central News Agency showed smoke billowing out of the building's windows as firefighters desperately tried to douse the flames using extendable hoses.

The city's fire department said it sent more than 70 trucks to tackle the blaze

Kaohsiung's fire department said it sent more than 70 trucks to tackle the blaze, which took four hours to put out.

As daylight broke the sheer scale of the fire became clear, with every floor of the building visibly blackened and most of its windows shattered.

The fire department said the blaze "caused 41 injuries and 46 deaths", officials adding that most of the fatalities occurred on floors seven to 11, which housed residential apartments.

DOHA, 15 October 2021, (TON): Qatar’s foreign minister said isolating Afghanistan and its new Taliban rulers will never be an answer and argued that engaging with the former insurgents could empower the more moderate voices among them.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani spoke amid a flurry of diplomatic meetings taking place in Qatar, where the Taliban have maintained a political office for years in the lead-up to their takeover of Afghanistan in August.

The world has been looking to see how the Taliban transition from two decades of insurgency and war to governance after they seized control of Kabul and the rest of Afghanistan as US and Nato forces withdrew from the country.

This week, the United States, 10 European nations and European Union representatives held face-to-face talks with Taliban leaders in Doha, the Qatari capital the first such meetings since the Taliban blitz.

Al Thani told “an audience of counter-terrorism specialists in Doha that Qatar believes the international community should urge the Taliban to take the right steps and to incentivise” that rather than talking only of penalising them for negative steps.”

Al Thani added “we see that its very important to provide guidance for them,” he said. This will create an incentive for progress and for the way forward.” This will help the moderate power (voices) to also provide an incentive to be more influential and more effective in their government.”

RIYADH, 15 October 2021, (TON): The Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen's government said “more than 150 Huthi rebels were killed yesterday in air strikes south of Marib city, where the insurgents are pushing on the government's last northern stronghold.”

The latest air strikes against the Iran-backed rebels take the number of them killed in oil-rich Marib province's Abdiya district to more than 500 in just the past four days, according to a toll compiled by the coalition.

The rebels rarely comment on losses and the toll could not be independently verified by AFP.

Destruction caused by air strikes "included 11 military vehicles, and killed more than 150 terrorist elements," the coalition said in a statement carried by official Saudi media.

It added that “the latest coalition onslaught involved 36 strikes over the past 24 hours.”

The Huthi rebels renewed their campaign to seize Marib, a strategically vital city that would complete their takeover of the north and its oil reserves, last month.

The Huthis said they were "on the edges of the city" in a video statement.

The rebels have since had to retreat from some of their positions, multiple government military officials in Marib told AFP Thursday.

BEIJING, 15 October 2021, (TON): In a step towards resolving their boundary disputes, Bhutan and China signed an agreement on a three-Step roadmap to help speed up talks, at a meeting of Foreign Ministers of both countries held via videoconference, a development that New Delhi said it has “noted”.

The roadmap "for Expediting the Bhutan-China Boundary Negotiations", is expected to kickstart progress on the boundary talks process that has been delayed for five years, first due to the Doklam standoff in 2017, and then by the Covid Pandemic.

The timing of the agreement is particularly significant for New Delhi, given India-China border talks on their 17-month old standoff at the Line of Actual Control appear to have hit an impasse this week.

“The Bhutan-China Memorandum of Understanding on the Three-Step Roadmap will provide a fresh impetus to the Boundary Talks.

A press release issued by Bhutan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said “it is expected that the implementation of this Roadmap in a spirit of goodwill, understanding and accommodation will bring the boundary negotiations to a successful conclusion that is acceptable to both sides.”

The Bhutanese Embassy in Delhi declined to comment on the details of the three steps outlined in the MoU, and sources said that information on the process of negotiations are “sensitive” and could not be shared at this stage.

DHAKA, 15 October 2021, (TON): The envoy said that global community needs to put pressure on Myanmar to resolve the Rohingya crisis.

Seeking sustained international pressure on Myanmar to achieve the Rohingya repatriation goal, the Japanese ambassador to Bangladesh has said the signing of an MoU between Bangladesh and the UNHCR, to begin UN engagement in Bhasan Char, will pave the way for even better cooperation and coordination on the Rohingya repatriation process.

“It’s very important that the international community puts pressure on Myanmar as part of the repatriation work. How? I think it depends on the individual country,” Ito Naoki told diplomatic correspondents at “DCAB Talk”, emphasizing the importance of peace and stability in the region.

The flagship program was organized by the Diplomatic Correspondents Association Bangladesh (DCAB) at National Press Club in Dhaka. DCAB President Pantho Rahaman and General Secretary AKM Moinuddin also spoke at the event.

Responding to a question on how the international community can put pressure on Myanmar, Naoki said there has been pressure coming through UN resolutions which are of course one way while the other possibility is direct contact or direct representation.

He added “I would say Japan has been doing this by making the use of the channels that Japan has established. So, we directly communicated with the Myanmar military side.”

He also said “Japan might not have played a very prominent role but he thinks Japan has been playing a very important role in its own way. “Japan has been doing what it can do. We’ll continue to do that.”

DHAKA, 15 October 2021, (TON): After attending the COP26 in Glasgow, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is likely to visit Paris, France in the second week of November to attend the prize-giving ceremony of the Unesco-Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman International Prize for the Creative Economy.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen shared the information while talking to reporters at his residence on his recent visits to Romania and Serbia.

Asked whether the prime minister will hand over the award, Dr Momen said “we want Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to do the honours at the program, hosted by Unicef.”

“Tentatively, the event will be held on November 11,” said the foreign minister, before adding that the $50,000 prize money will be awarded on a biennial basis, initially for three iterations of the prize.

The first award ceremony will be held on the occasion of Unesco’s 41st General Conference in November and subsequent award ceremonies will be held on the occasion of the Conference of Parties to the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

According to Unesco documents “the prize will create a knowledge-sharing mechanism by capturing, celebrating and communicating best practices in the development of creative entrepreneurship.”

The objectives of the program are in line with the strategic objectives of eight of Unesco's Medium-Term Strategy for 2014-2021 and with the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

NAYPYITAW, 15 October 2021, (TON): Two Chin resistance groups attacked junta troops who were leaving the Chin State capital of Hakha, killing five soldiers, according to a spokesperson from one of the groups.

The forces involved in the ambush were the Chin National Army (CNA) and the Chinland Defence Force (CDF), according to Salai Htet Ni, spokesperson for the CNA’s political wing, the Chin National Front (CNF).

He said that the clash occurred between 10 and 11am on the outskirts of Hakha Township.

Salai Htet Ni told media “the latest intel we received was that five junta soldiers died in that clash. There were no casualties on the CNA and CDF side.”

He added that several gunshots were also heard on Wednesday morning near Lungpi village in Falam Township, 40 miles from Hakha, but further information about what may have happened there was not confirmed at the time of reporting.

A displaced resident from Taal in Falam said that locals from his village and four others Taal, Thlanrawn, Rialti and Lungpi fled their homes when the shots were fired.

NAYPYITAW, 15 October 2021, (TON): According to locals and sources within the armed resistance movement “the Myanmar military has deployed thousands of troops to upper Myanmar in recent weeks in what appears to be preparation for a concerted push to crush an anti-coup uprising that has inflicted heavy casualties on the junta army.”

Chin State and Sagaing and Magway regions have seen a heavy build-up of military forces since the beginning of the month.”

This comes after months of fierce clashes between junta troops and local resistance groups operating as part of the People’s Defence Force (PDF) formed by the shadow National Unity Government (NUG).

According to figures released by the NUG, the army suffered at least 1,500 casualties in more than 700 armed conflicts between June and September in the areas that are now coming under the most intense pressure.

In retaliation for these losses, the regime has raided scores of villages, forcing tens of thousands of civilians to flee. It has also shut down internet access in 25 townships, in what was seen by many as further evidence of the regime’s plans to carry out massive military operations that will likely lead to a dramatic increase in civilian casualties.

KABUL, 14 October 2021, (TON): Afghanistan's new Taliban government has warned US and European envoys that continued attempts to pressure them through sanctions will undermine security and could trigger a wave of economic refugees.

Acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told Western diplomats at talks in Doha that “weakening the Afghan government is not in the interest of anyone because its negative effects will directly affect the world in (the) security sector and economic migration from the country.”

The Taliban overthrew Afghanistan's former US-backed government in August after a two-decade-long conflict, and have declared an Islamic emirate governed under religious law.

But efforts to stabilise the country, still facing attacks from the militant Islamic State group, have been undermined by international sanctions: banks are running out of cash and civil servants are going unpaid.

According to the statement from his spokesman, Muttaqi told the Doha meeting “we urge world countries to end existing sanctions and let banks operate normally so that charity groups, organisations and the government can pay salaries to their staff with their own reserves and international financial assistance.”