DHAKA, 29 September 2021, (TON): The SS-4 or Shallow Sea-4 block, located offshore in the Bay of Bengal, will be drilled under Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) by Indian state-owned ONGC Videsh Ltd, Oil India Ltd, and Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (Bapex).

According to the media reports “the drilling could help the country, which has been experiencing severe gas shortages due to limited output from existing onshore gas fields.”

Finding gas will improve domestic production and reduce reliance on pricey Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Md Anisur Rahman, senior secretary of the energy division in the Ministry of Energy, Power and Mineral Resources, told The Business Standard.

He added that because of the worldwide pandemic, the drilling was postponed for a year. International oil firms (IOCs) will now be permitted to search for oil and gas in the shallow sea.

ONGC would drill 4,000 metres beneath the block, according to officials from the Bangladesh Oil, Gas & Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla).

The company plans to drill again on this block in the middle of next year, sources said.

NAYPYITAW, 29 September 2021, (TON): Two civilians were killed and 30 houses burned down by Myanmar army troops during two days of battles with local resistance forces in Kayah (Karenni) State’s Demoso Township over the weekend.

A spokesperson for the Karenni National Defence Force (KNDF) said that the burned remains of one person was found with the individual’s hands tied behind their back in a car parked near Kone Thar village, where the fighting occurred.

He added that the car was travelling from Demoso town, and that the KNDF had warned those in it to turn around due to the ongoing fighting. Junta troops likely started shooting at the vehicle as it neared the village, he speculated.

The KNDF spokesperson told media “we actually tried to stop the car and told them to turn back because there was a battle going on, but they didn’t stop. They eventually got burned alive by the military. We still cannot confirm how many people were in that car.”

The military council’s troops have been struggling to confront the many local defence forces active around Demoso, which is 10 miles from the Kayah State capital of Loikaw.

The Progressive Karenni People’s Force (PKPF), a youth-led community organisation, released a statement on Monday saying that a 70-year-old man from Kone Thar known as U Gyi Kyaw was killed by artillery shells fired by the military in Kone Thar.

NAYPYITAW, 29 September 2021, (TON): The Chinland Defence Force (CDF) ambushed Myanmar army troops on patrol in the largely deserted town of Thantlang, Chin State.

A spokesperson for the CDF-Thantlang said that their members “intercepted and attacked” a 40-soldier unit that morning on a local road.

According to the CDF spokesperson “a  junta base on a nearby hill provided cover for their troops by firing heavy artillery at the resistance fighters, but no local houses were hit.

The number of casualties was not known at the time of reporting.

One of the estimated 30 remaining Thantlang residents told Myanmar Now that he heard gunfire being exchanged for around half an hour.

He said “we are all hiding in fear. I don’t know what happened because I haven’t dared to go outside.”

Those who have stayed behind in the town, which previously had a population of 8,000, are from two households in Thantlang or sheltering in an orphanage.

Around 200 junta troops were still stationed in Thantlang at the time of reporting, positioned advantageously on a hill overseeing the town.

ISLAMABAD, 28 September 2021, (TON): Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said that the government was in contact with Interpol over the threatening emails sent to the New Zealand cricket team that resulted in the cancellation of the tour hours before the first ODI.

Addressing a weekly presser, the interior minister said “interpol has been contacted to probe into 12 emails sent to the NZ team and their "India-Singapore links". "There will be good news soon."

It may be noted here that one of the emails was sent from an associated device in India using VPN, showing the IP address or location of Singapore.

"The device RMX 1971 (Realme) used 13 email IDs and except for Hamza Afridi, the 12 other email IDs had Indian/Hindi names," the minister had said in an earlier press conference.

Fake news generated by India led to the shock cancellation of New Zealand cricket team’s tour of Pakistan, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry had said last week, describing the plot as part of a fifth generation hybrid warfare against the country, in a presser he addressed with Rashid.

PARIS, 28 September 2021, (TON): Greece may conclude a contract with the French shipbuilding company Naval Group for the construction of six warships. This was announced on Monday by the BFM TV channel, citing sources.

According to him, the contract may be announced after negotiations on Monday evening between French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Paris or on Tuesday morning.

The cost of the possible deal is estimated at € 5 billion. We are talking about the production of three frigates of the FDI-HN type, ships more than 120 meters long and weighing over 4.6 thousand tons, as well as three corvettes of the Gowind class.

Earlier, Australia announced that it was breaking a contract with the Naval Group for the supply of submarines worth more than € 50 billion due to a new partnership with the United States and Great Britain in the field of security (AUKUS).

NEW DELHI, 28 September 2021, (TON): Indian farmers opposed to reforms they say threaten their livelihoods renewed their push against the changes with nationwide protests on Monday, a year after laws on the liberalisation of the sector were introduced.

For 10 months, tens of thousands of farmers have camped out on major highways around the capital, New Delhi, to oppose the laws in the longest-running growers' protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

Rakesh Tikait, a prominent farmers' leader, told media "thousands of farmers have spread out to different districts to ensure a complete nationwide strike aimed at reminding the government to repeal the laws introduced to favour large private corporations."

In Noida, a New Delhi satellite town, farmers confronted police and pushed past them to break through barricades. There were no immediate reports of any injuries or arrests.

In Gurgaon - another satellite town near the capital's main airport - farmers thronged onto a road and blocked traffic, while protesters stormed into a railway station in the northern outskirts of New Delhi.

Nearly a dozen opposition parties have supported the farmers' protest to step up pressure on Modi's administration to repeal the laws.

SANAA, 28 September 2021, (TON): Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmad Awad bin Mubarak on Monday urged the international community to put more financial pressure on the Iran-backed Houthi militia, in an address at the UN General Assembly in New York.

He thanked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on behalf of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi for his efforts to bring peace to Yemen, and congratulated its people on the anniversary of the 1962 revolution.

He added “Bin Mubarak reminded the assembly that Yemen has been at war for seven years, with the Houthis supported logistically and militarily by Iran which, aims to destabilize both Yemen and the wider region by backing armed sectarian proxy groups.”

“This proves,” he said, “that Iran has been, and continues to be, part of the problem in Yemen, rather than the solution.”

He added that the Houthis have presided over a humanitarian crisis in their bid to enrich themselves, calling their coup an “autumn of suffering, injustice, oppression, destruction of political participation, suffocation of public freedom, raids on houses, explosion of schools and places of worship, chasing of opponents, torture of citizens and transforming of Sanaa, a city of history and coexistence, into a large prison for the Yemeni people.”

Bin Mubarak said Yemen’s economy has declined by over 50 percent since the start of the conflict.

NAIROBI, 28 September 2021, (TON): About 1,500 people living in areas near Nanyuki town in central Kenya are in court to fight what they see as attempts by the British military to avoid legal action in a case where they have been sued for loss of livelihoods and environmental damages.

A fire started by the activities of British soldiers training at the Lolldaiga Conservancy in Kenya five months ago destroyed about 12,000 acres of land, with claims of at least one human death.

The British Army Training Unit in Kenya has filed for state immunity.

The petitioners, including affected locals and the African Centre for Corrective and Preventive Action, want reparations for human effects, destroyed lands as well as financial damages.

The petitioners claim wild animals escaping the inferno swept through their homes, destroyed their farms and caused them mental trauma.

They also claim one person died trying to put out the fire.

The suit also claimed some soldiers who were alleged perpetrators of the fire were found to have been under the influence of cocaine and heroin.

NEW YORK, 28 September 2021, (TON): The UN has already received $ 131 million of the total $ 1.2 billion promised by the participants in the conference on humanitarian aid to Afghanistan on September 13.

This was stated on Monday at a briefing by the representative of the UN Secretary General Stephane Dujarrick.

He said “we received $ 131 million out of $ 1.2 billion. This is 21.7% of our declared amount of $ 606 million, which is needed to help Afghanistan by the end of the year.”

NEW YORK, 28 September 2021, (TON): Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that Iran had crossed "all red lines" in its nuclear programme and vowed that Israel would not allow Tehran to acquire a nuclear weapon.

In his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Bennett said Iran sought to dominate the Middle East under a "nuclear umbrella" and urged a more concerted international effort to halt Iran's nuclear activities.

But he also hinted at the potential for Israel to act on its own against Iran, something it has repeatedly threatened in the past.

Bennett said "Iran's nuclear programme has hit a watershed moment, and so has our tolerance. Words do not stop centrifuges from spinning. Israel will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon."

Bennett, a far-right politician who ended Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year run as prime minister in June, wants US President Joe Biden to harden his stance against Iran, Israel's regional arch-foe.

He opposes the new US administration's efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Biden's White House predecessor, Donald Trump, abandoned in 2018.

Indirect US-Iran talks in Vienna have stalled as Washington awaits the next move by Iran's new hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi.