ROME, 28 August 2021, (TON): Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said that Italy’s last evacuation flight from Kabul left Afghanistan on Friday, ending the country’s airlift operation.

De Maio said “as well as Afghan civilians, the flight will bring back to Italy our envoy Stefano Pontecorvo” the Italian diplomat serving as NATO’s senior civil representative to Afghanistan.

He tweeted “the flight, which had “just taken off,” is also carrying the last Italian soldiers who were still on site.”

Di Maio had told an earlier press conference in Rome with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the C-130 plane would soon leave Kabul.

He added that all the Italian nationals who wanted to leave had been evacuated, along with around 4,900 Afghan civilians.

Italian consul Tommaso Claudi was on board the last flight as well as Pontecorvo.

Pontecorvo tweeted “leaving Kabul with a heavy heart. My gratitude to all #NATO allies & partners for a massive evacuation effort from #Afghanistan despite all challenges.”

KATHMANDU, 28 August 2021, (TON): More than three dozen houses have been inundated as swollen Doda River gushed into human settlements in Laljhadi Rural Municipality-3 of Kanchanpur district in the wee hours of Friday. Locals fled to safety after the flood triggered by the torrential rain in the Chure range inundated the houses in Balmi, Dunga among several villages.

Laljhadi-3 ward chair Tikaram Chaudhary said “the residents along with the domestic animals were shifted to safe places after the local river gushed into the settlements at around 2:00 am.

According to him, more than 40 houses have been inundated in Balmi and Dunga. Moreover, food grains stored in those houses have been damaged and some houses are at the risk of collapse.

Ward chair Chaudhary said that details of loss incurred in the catastrophe are awaited. No casualties have been reported in the natural disasters as locals became aware of the flood before it could take its toll on them.

Local Jhakku Prasad Chaudhary said that the flood destroyed the sugarcane farm lying on more than 10 bighas of land.

Jhakku said "more than two dozen sugarcane farmers have suffered huge loss due to the flood triggered by torrential rain in Chure range."

NAYPYITAW, 28 August 2021, (TON): The Myanmar kyat continues to weaken against the US dollar, despite the sale of American currency reserves to the private sector by the junta-controlled Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM).

Since the February 1 coup, the CBM has released more than US$120 million into domestic markets in an attempt to combat the rapidly devaluing kyat.

There have been seven such sales of dollars in August alone, the most recent being $5 million on August 25 at a fixed rate of 1,663 kyat per dollar. The next day, KBZ Bank’s exchange rate was notably higher, at 1,676 kyat per dollar.

Dr Soe Tun, a Yangon-based entrepreneur whose businesses include currency exchange counters, said that rising exchange rates were controlled in the past by the sale of hard currency reserves by the CBM.

He explained “at the moment, there is no sign of a decrease in the US currency price. It is increasing instead, because the demand for this currency is still growing.”

The amount of dollars being sold by the CBM is not sufficient to meet market demand, Soe Tun said, noting that “just to import an oil tanker of petroleum would cost more than $10 million.”

On the black market, the exchange rate for US currency has reached 1,700 kyat on average, but spiked to 1,805 on August 17, according to exchange agents who spoke to Myanmar Now. It signified the highest rate on record in 10 years, when it was fixed to a floating rate in 2011 by the military-backed administration headed by former president Thein Sein.

Two days before the coup, on January 29, the price of one US dollar was 1,326 kyat.

TEHRAN, 28 August 2021, (TON): The ministry said that Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian left for Iraq to participate in a regional summit.

Foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh announced the departure to the meeting to support Iraq in a short statement.

The Islamic republic’s new President Ebrahim Raisi has also been invited to the Baghdad summit, but it is not clear if he will attend.

The meeting seeks to give Iraq a “unifying role” to tackle the crises shaking the region, according to sources close to Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhemi.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II have said “they will attend, as has French President Emmanuel Macron, the only official expected from outside the region.”

Leaders from Saudi Arabia and Turkey have also been invited.

Iraq is seeking to establish itself as a mediator between Arab countries and Iran.

Baghdad has been brokering talks since April between regional heavyweights Riyadh and Tehran on mending ties severed in 2016.

NEW YORK, 28 August 2021, (TON): The Kingdom’s permanent representative to the UN, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, met his newly appointed Jordanian counterpart, Mahmoud Daifallah Hmoud, at the headquarters of Saudi Arabia’s mission in New York.

Both parties discussed common issues and important international topics during the meeting.

Al-Mouallami welcomed the Jordanian ambassador, stressed the bonds of affection, brotherhood and common interests that brought the two countries together.

Faisal Al-Haqbani, the first secretary of the Kingdom’s permanent mission to the UN, also attended the meeting along with Tafoul Al-Aqbi, the media officer of Saudi Arabia’s mission.

MALE, 28 August 2021, (TON): Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid has met with Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.

As per a tweet by the Foreign Ministry, the meeting between the two ministers was held, as part of the official visit to Japan by Minister Shahid in his capacity as the President-elect of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

During the meeting, both of them discussed avenues to further strengthen the existing bilateral relations between Maldives and Japan.

Minister Shahid also outlined his priorities during the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, and the main themes of the Presidency of Hope.

Minister Shahid is making this trip upon the invitation of the Government of Japan. He departed to Japan on August 26 - and is due to return to the Maldives on August 28.

NAYPYITAW, 28 August 2021, (TON): “According to locals who were among those displaced in the assault “Myanmar junta soldiers killed one civilian and allegedly burned down houses during a raid on a village in Sagaing Region’s Taze Township.”

Nearly 100 soldiers stormed the village of Kar Paung Kya in six trucks at 2am, a resident said.

He told that the troops shot a man who came out of his house to see what was happening, and arrested another while the rest of the villagers fled to the nearby forest.

The deceased was identified as 25-year-old Lwin Moe.

Hein Thar, 28, was the man reportedly taken into junta custody.

The local source added that after the raid, the soldiers occupied the 800-household village.

At around 10pm, he told media that the troops torched several houses in Kar Paung Kya and fired both light weapons and heavy artillery into the areas where residents were hiding.

He said “before they fired the artillery, we also heard gunfire. We were unable to go and see what was happening.”

Another villager said that “only buffaloes, cows and pigs are left in the village.”

 DHAKA, 28 August 2021, (TON): It will support a new trade route connecting Ctg port with India’s northeastern states through the land ports of Akhaura, Sheola, and Tamabil, and from there to Bhutan and Myanmar.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $1.78 billion multi-tranche financing facility (MFF) to improve mobility, road safety, and regional trade along the Dhaka-Sylhet trade corridor in Bangladesh.

according to the global lender “The SASEC Dhaka-Sylhet Corridor Road Investment Project will be delivered in four tranches.”

The $400 million first tranche of the MFF will help finance the initial works of the major contracts for the widening of about 210 km of National Highway 2 along the Dhaka–Sylhet corridor from two to four lanes. It will include 60 km of a footpath, 26 foot bridges, and 13 overpasses.

Its design will have features responsive to the needs of the elderly, women, children, and the differently abled, as well as disaster and climate risks.

The government will fund $911,000,000 of the total project cost of $2,690,000,000. Apart from the MFF, ADB will also provide a $1,000,000 technical assistance grant from its Technical Assistance Special Fund and an additional $2,000,000 grant from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, financed by the Government of Japan, to support capacity building of the Roads and Highways Department on road safety and maintenance, climate change, and gender equality and social inclusion.

The Dhaka-Sylhet corridor, once complete, will support a new trade route connecting Chittagong port with India’s northeastern states through the three land ports of Akhaura, Sheola, and Tamabil, and from there to Bhutan and Myanmar.

WASHINGTON, 28 August 2021, (TON): US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in White House talks that he was putting diplomacy first to try to rein in Iran's nuclear program but if negotiations fail he would be prepared to turn to other unspecified options.

In brief remarks before reporters were ushered out of the Oval Office, both leaders touched on Iran, one of the thorniest issues between the Biden administration and Israel, but mostly papered over disagreements.

Biden said “he and Bennett discussed the threat from Iran and our commitment to ensure Iran never develops a nuclear weapon.”

Biden added, without offering specifics “we're putting diplomacy first and we'll see where that takes us. But if diplomacy fails, we're ready to turn to other options.”

After a one-day delay due to a deadly suicide bombing in Kabul during the chaotic US evacuation from Afghanistan, Biden and Bennett held their first meeting seeking to reset US-Israeli relations and narrow differences over how to deal with Iran's nuclear developments.

NEW DELHI, 28 August 2021, (TON): The minority Muslims in India these days are facing another episode of denial of their religious rights, as the country continues with its human rights violations in line with Hindutva policies.

The capital New Delhi has witnessed violent protests this week after the Hindu leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) strongly opposed the construction of Hajj House and also called for genocide of Muslims.

At present, New Delhi does not have a Hajj House, even though the national capital is the largest embarkation point for the pilgrimage in the country.

Nearly 15,000-20,000 Muslims from Delhi, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, western Uttar Pradesh and Chandigarh leave for Makkah, Saudi Arabia from New Delhi every year.

However, in absence of a Hajj House, the pilgrims usually stay in camps before their flights.

During the recent protests, slogans were raised at Jantar Mantar in Delhi in a gathering of hundreds organised by Supreme Court lawyer and former spokesperson of the Delhi unit of BJP, Ashwini Upadhyay.

Two similar incidents within a week in India’s capital have reaffirmed the secondary citizenship of Muslims in the country, with the situation worsening every day.

In a video available on social media, a Hindutva activist can be seen openly calling for the anti-Muslim attacks, suggesting that Hindus have had their share of “being defensive” and that it was time to attack.