NEW DELHI, 09 October 2021, (TON): Tata Sons Pvt. was selected as the winning bidder for India's flag carrier, ending decades of attempts to privatize a money-losing and debt-laden airline, and potentially ending years of taxpayer-bailouts that's kept the company alive.

Tata Sons, which originally launched Air India Ltd. with a namesake branding in 1932, bid Rs. 18,000 crore ($2.4 billion) as an enterprise value for Air India, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, the top bureaucrat at India's Department of Investment and Public Asset Management, said at a briefing on Friday.

The government aims to complete the transaction by the end of 2021.

The high-profile sale is a boost for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has embarked on a bold privatization plan to plug a widening budget deficit, validating his stand of the state staying away from most businesses.

For Tata Sons, Air India adds a third airline brand to its stable, and gives it access to more than a hundred planes, thousands of trained pilots and crew, and lucrative landing and parking slots all around the world.

Bloomberg News reported last week that a panel of ministers accepted a proposal from bureaucrats, who recommended the conglomerate's bid ahead of an offer from entrepreneur Ajay Singh.

ISLAMABAD, 09 October 2021, (TON): Prime Minister Imran Khan has stressed the need for a 'coordinated policy' on Afghanistan during the 34th National Security Committee (NSC) meeting.

According to a press release issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, the NSC was convened under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Imran Khan to discuss the ongoing situation in Afghanistan.

It was attended by relevant federal cabinet members, all services chiefs, and heads of intelligence services.

During the crucial NSC moot, Afghanistan remained the topic of discussion and the prime minister received a detailed briefing on the evolving regional security situation and the recent developments in the war-torn country and their possible impact on Pakistan.

The NSC reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to a peaceful, stable and sovereign Afghanistan, according to the statement by the PMO and added that the participants noted, with concern, the "dire humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and emphasized the urgent need for the international community to provide assistance to avert a humanitarian crisis".

The forum also highlighted the importance of international coordination on constructive political and economic engagement with the interim government in Afghanistan.

The PMO stated “the prime minister expressed satisfaction on Pakistan’s support to the international evacuation effort from Afghanistan and noted that the entire world had recognised Pakistan’s positive contribution.”

WASHINGTON, 09 October 2021, (TON): Bahrain, Russia and other members of the UN Human Rights Council pushed through a vote on Thursday to shut down the body’s war crimes investigations in Yemen, in a stinging defeat for Western states who sought to keep the mission going.

Members narrowly voted to reject a resolution led by the Netherlands to give the independent investigators another two years to monitor atrocities in Yemen’s conflict.

It marked the first time in the council’s 15-year history that a resolution was defeated.

The independent investigators have said in the past that potential war crimes have been committed by all sides in the seven-year conflict that has pitted a Saudi-led coalition against Iran-allied Houthi rebels.

More than 100,000 people have been killed and 4 million have been displaced, activist groups say.

He told delegates “Dutch ambassador Peter Bekker said the vote was a major setback. “I cannot help but feel that this Council has failed the people of Yemen.”

“With this vote, the Council has effectively ended its reporting mandate, it has cut this lifeline of the Yemeni people to the international community.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres still believes there is a need for accountability in Yemen, spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.

JERUSALEM, 09 October 2021, (TON): An Israeli court on Friday upheld a ban on Jewish prayer at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, overturning a lower court's decision that had sparked fury among Palestinians and the Muslim world.

Aryeh Lippo, an Israeli rabbi, was slapped with a two-week ban from the compound last month after praying there, but a Jerusalem court struck down the move, saying Lippo's whispered prayer did "not violate police instructions".

Jews are allowed to visit the site but may not overtly pray or engage in rituals there.

Israeli police appealed the decision, and Jerusalem District Court judge Aryeh Romanoff on Friday upheld the ban, saying officers had acted "within reason".

"The fact that there was someone who observed [Lippo] pray is evidence that his prayer was overt," Romanoff wrote. "I restore the decision of the police commander."

Palestinians, as well as officials in Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia had condemned the lower court's decision.

WASHINGTON, 09 October 2021, (TON): President Joe Biden on Friday announced that he signed into law a measure that provides compensation to the US diplomatic personnel whose health has been affected by the so called “Havana Syndrome.”

Biden said in a statement “today, I was pleased to sign the HAVANA Act into law to ensure we are doing our utmost to provide for US Government personnel who have experienced anomalous health incidents.”

Earlier, the US house unanimously passed legislation to compensate CIA personnel and diplomats affected by the so called “Havana Syndrome” w-hile serving in Cuba, China and elsewhere.

US diplomats were first diagnosed with the Havana syndrome in Cuba in 2016 and then in China in 2018.

The diplomats said they experienced piercing sounds that have caused longer-term health effects. It has since been rumored to affect US officials in China, Russia, Austria and even Washington, DC.

MOSCOW, 09 October 2021, (TON): The Extended Troika on Afghanistan (Russia, the US, China, Pakistan) will hold a meeting in October, Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan and Director of the Foreign Ministry’s Second Asian Department Zamir Kabulov told journalists.

He said “the meeting is being planned.”

In response to a clarifying question, the diplomat added that the meeting would be held “a bit earlier” than the end of October.

After the Biden administration had announced the end of Washington’s 20-year-long military operation in Afghanistan and the launch of its troop pullout, the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) embarked on an offensive against Afghan government forces.

BRUSSELS, 09 October 2021, (TON): High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, announced the following appointment for a senior position in the European External Action Service (EEAS):

Delphine PRONK as Chair of the Political and Security Committee (PSC)/Deputy Political Director. She will take up her duties on 16 October. She is currently Ambassador/Representative of the Netherlands to the Political and Security Committee of the European Union.

High Representative Borrell also announced the appointment of a new Head of Delegation of the European Union.

ISLAMABAD, 09 October 2021, (TON): Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday said that Pakistan wants broad-ranging, long-term and stable relations with the United States to promote economic cooperation and establish peace in the region.

He made the comments during a meeting with US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman who is on a two-day visit to Pakistan.

The two sides discussed bilateral relations, Afghanistan and the regional situation during the meeting, according to a statement from the Foreign Office.

The FO statement said “Qureshi stressed that a proper dialogue between the two countries was "necessary" for mutual benefit of the US and Pakistan as well as the promotion of regional objectives.”

The foreign minister said Pakistan and US had similar perspectives and stressed the importance of a peaceful solution to the situation in Afghanistan.

He further said Pakistan hoped the interim Taliban government in Afghanistan would work for the betterment of all Afghan citizens alongside peace and stability.

KABUL, 09 October 2021, (TON): Local news agency reports “Uzbekistan and the Taliban movement will soon hold talks in the Uzbek city of Termez on the construction of the Termez-Mazar-i-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar railway. This was reported by the press service of the Uzbek Foreign Ministry following the meetings of the delegation headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov with the Taliban, held in Kabul on October 7.”

First, Kamilov held talks with the deputy head of the interim government for political issues, Mulla Abdul Kabir. The meeting was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Abdul Salam Hanafi, Ministers of Transport and Civil Aviation, Public Works, Energy and Water Resources of Afghanistan. Then he spoke separately with acting. Foreign Minister Mawlavi Amirhon Muttaki.

At the upcoming meeting in Termez, the parties will discuss a number of issues of trade and economic nature, including the implementation of the construction project for the Surkhan-Puli-Khumri transmission line.

The Taliban have pledged to ensure the safety of Uzbek specialists involved in the implementation of infrastructure projects in Afghanistan.

The press service of the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said “the official Kabul also firmly stated that there would never be any threat to the security of brotherly Uzbekistan from the territory of Afghanistan.”

“The language and culture of our Uzbek compatriots, who have lived in Afghanistan for a long time, will continue to develop under the new government.”

KABUL, 09 October 2021, (TON): A suicide bomb attack on worshippers at a Shia mosque in the Afghan city of Kunduz killed at least 55 people on Friday, in the bloodiest assault since US forces left the country.

Scores more victims from the minority community were wounded in the blast, which has not been claimed but appears designed to further destabilise Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban takeover.

A medical source at the Kunduz Provincial Hospital said that 35 dead and more than 55 wounded had been taken there, while Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital said 20 were dead and scores more wounded.

Matiullah Rohani, director of culture and information in Kunduz for Afghanistan's new Taliban government, confirmed to AFP that the deadly incident was a suicide attack and that at least 46 people had died and 143 were wounded.

Bilal Karimi, a Taliban security official, added that targeting civilians was the "ultimate low". He said that the Islamic Emirate would not allow the criminals to go unpunished.