DHAKA, 18 September 2021, (TON): Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left Dhaka for New York, USA via Helsinki to attend the 76th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told media "a VVIP chartered flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines departed the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA), Dhaka for Helsinki carrying the premier and her entourage members.”

Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque ,State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Md Mahbub Ali,Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam,Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Dr. Ahmad Kaikaus and other senior civil and military officials saw the Prime Minister off at the airport.

This is the premier's maiden foreign tour after one and a half years since she visited Italy in February,  2020.

The prime minister will stay in New York from September 19 to 24 as part of an official visit to attend the UNGA and a number of high-level events there.

On the way to New York, Sheikh Hasina will make a stopover at Helsinki, the capital of Finland for two days.

MOGADISHU, 18 September 2021, (TON): Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed announced he had withdrawn the powers of Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble, the latest development in a bitter row that has plunged the country into fresh crisis.

The office of the president, popularly known as Farmajo, said in a statement "the prime minister has violated the transitional constitution so his executive powers are withdrawn... especially his powers to remove and to appoint officials, until the election is completed.”

The head of state justified his decision by saying that the Prime Minister had taken "imprudent decisions that could pave the way for political and security instability," and that he had not carried out "any consultation and collaboration with the president.

The two men, who have had a tense relationship for several months, have clashed twice in the past ten days over dismissals and appointments to key security positions.

On September 5, Mohamed Roble dismissed the head of the Intelligence and Security Services Agency (Nisa), Fahad Yasin, a close associate of Farmajo, for his handling of the investigation into the unexplained disappearance of one of his female officers, Ikran Tahlil.

The president overturned the "illegal and unconstitutional" decision and appointed a replacement of his choice after promoting Fahad Yasin to national security adviser.

TEL AVIV, 18 September 2021, (TON): Israel’s foreign minister said that he will visit Bahrain later this month, the first such visit by an Israeli minister to the Gulf country following a diplomatic agreement reached last year.

Yair Lapid announced the visit in a conference call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and officials from Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco, which signed US-brokered agreements to normalize relations with Israel last year.

The officials hailed the so-called Abraham Accords, which have led to the opening of embassies, the launch of direct flights and a raft of agreements to boost economic ties. They expressed hope that the new relationships would be deepened and that other nations would follow suit.

“This Abraham Accords club is open to new members,” Lapid said, before announcing that he plans to visit Bahrain by the end of the month.

He visited the UAE in June and Morocco in August.

The Biden administration has welcomed the accords brokered by former President Donald Trump’s administration, and has pledged to build on them.

The Palestinians viewed the agreements as a betrayal of their national cause because they further eroded a longstanding Arab consensus that recognition of Israel should be conditioned on progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state.

Blinken, who hosted the video conference, said “we all must build on these relationships and growing normalization to make tangible improvements in the lives of Palestinians and to make progress toward the longstanding goal of advancing a negotiated peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”

NEW DELHI, 18 September 2021, (TON): Indian foreign minister said that India has told China that their bilateral relations will only develop when both countries pull their troops back from a confrontation on their disputed Himalayan border.

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar discussed the possibility of both sides when he met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of a regional conference in Dushanbe.

"Discussed disengagement in our border areas. Underlined that progress in this regard is essential for restoration of peace and tranquillity, which is the basis for development of bilateral ties," Jaishankar said on Twitter.

Thousands of Indian and Chinese soldiers have been locked in confrontation in the western Himalayas since last year when animosity over a decades-old border dispute blew up.

In June last year, tension erupted into hand-to-hand fighting resulting in deaths on both sides, the first between them in decades.

After several rounds of talks between their commanders, their forces have stepped back on some sections of the border, including the Pangong Tso lake, a contested area near the site of last year's clashes.

But troops backed by artillery remain dug in in close proximity in other sectors.

Wang said "China has always handled the China-India border issue properly and with a positive attitude."

"Both sides should work together to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas, and stop border incidents from recurring."

WASHINGTON, 18 September 2021, (TON): Top United States General Mark Milley has defended calls he made to his Chinese counterpart in the final tumultuous months of Donald Trump’s presidency, saying they were “perfectly within the duties and responsibilities” of his job.

Milley’s comments came after a new book detailed two calls he made to General Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army to assure him that the US was not going to suddenly go to war with or attack China.

The calls were reportedly motivated by concerns over Trump’s possible actions as the presidential election approached and later as he sought to overturn the victory of President Joe Biden.

Milley said “the calls, which have sparked a firestorm that has included calls for him to be fired, were “routine” and done “to reassure both allies and adversaries in this case in order to ensure strategic stability.”

Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave the brief defence of his actions to reporters while travelling in Europe.

He plans a deeper discussion about the matter for Congress when he testifies at a hearing later in September, he said.

Milley said  “I think it’s best that I reserve my comments on the record until I do that in front of the lawmakers who have the lawful responsibility to oversee the US military.”

“I’ll go into any level of detail Congress wants to go into in a couple of weeks.”

General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, right, has said his calls to his Chinese counterpart in the final months of Trump Presidency were ‘routine’.

ISLAMABAD, 18 September 2021, (TON): Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the Taliban must fulfil the promises they have made in Afghanistan, and called on the international community to stand with the people of the war-torn country.

The premier expressed these views while addressing the 20th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Council of Heads of State (SCO-CHS) Summit in Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf and Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry were also present alongside the premier.

He said "the Taliban must fulfil the pledges made, above all for an inclusive political structure where all ethnic groups are represented. This is vital for Afghanistan’s stability.”

The prime minister said that it was also important to ensure respect for the rights of all Afghans while ensuring that it is never again a safe haven for terrorists.

He said that Pakistan, which had suffered due to the spillover of conflict and instability in the neighbouring country, had an interest in a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON, 18 September 2021, (TON): Some 10,000 migrants have gathered under a US-Mexico border bridge over recent days, leading to a growing humanitarian crisis.

The bridge connects Del Rio in Texas to Mexico's Ciudad Acuña and the temporary camp there has grown with staggering speed in recent days.

The mostly Haitian migrants, who have crossed the Rio Grande, are sleeping under the bridge in squalid conditions.

The US government has been facing a surge of migrants at the border.

Earlier this year, it was reported that the number of migrants detained at the US-Mexico border in July exceeded 200,000 for the first time in 21 years, government data shows.

And last month, the authorities arrested more than 195,000 migrants at the Mexican border, according to government data released on Wednesday. This summer's numbers represent a significant increase from the 51,000 arrested in August 2019.

The makeshift camp has few basic services, and migrants waiting in temperatures of 37C (99F) are said to be going back to Mexico to get supplies.

Migrants seeking asylum in the US bathe in the Rio Grande river near the International Bridge between Mexico and the US, where they wait to be processed, in Del Rio, Texas, on 16 September 2021

They are said to be mostly Haitians, with some Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans also present, reports say.

ISLAMABAD, 18 September 2021, (TON): Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said that there was a "conspiracy" behind the cancellation of New Zealand's tour to Pakistan, the team's first in 18 years.

In response to a question, Ahmed declined to name the country responsible for the conspiracy but termed the cancellation "an attempt to damage our efforts for peace in the region.”

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the minister said “the New Zealand team's security incharge spoke to government officials in the morning and informed them of a threat. When the officials asked for further details, the NZ security incharge "did not have any".

Ahmed said “Pakistan had deployed commandos from Pakistan Army's Special Services Group (SSG), soldiers, and 4,000 policemen for the matches in Rawalpindi.”

He disclosed "we also tried to convince them to play the match without spectators. But they did not agree to it.”

The minister said that the government's team also reached out to Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is currently in Dushanbe to participate in the 20th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Council of Heads of State (SCO-CHS) Summit.

"He called New Zealand's Prime Minister [Jacinda Ardern] and assured her of providing complete security to the Kiwis. The New Zealand prime minister said there was no issue of a threat."

WASHINGTON, 18 September 2021, (TON): A White House official said that the United States regrets France’s decision to recall its ambassador from Washington and will continue to be engaged in the coming days to resolve differences between the two countries.

France recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia after Australia struck a deal with the United States and Britain which ended a $40 billion deal to purchase French-designed submarines.

PARIS, 18 September 2021, (TON): France has recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia for consultations, in a backlash over a submarine deal.

Australia cancelled a multibillion-dollar deal for conventional French submarines to enter a strategic Indo-Pacific alliance with the United States and Britain in which it will obtain US nuclear-powered submarines.

US moves to assure ‘vital partner’ France over submarine pact

Calling the cancellation “unacceptable behaviour”, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement “the decision to recall the envoys, on request from President Emmanuel Macron, “is justified by the exceptional seriousness of the announcements” made by Australia and the United States.

A White House official on Friday that the US regrets France’s decision and will continue to be engaged in the coming days to resolve differences between the two countries.

Australia said on Saturday it also regrets France’s decision

It added that it values its relationship with France and will keep engaging with Paris on many other issues.