ATHENS, 21 August 2021, (TON): Greece has installed a 40km (25-mile) fence and surveillance system on its border with Turkey amid concern over a surge of migrants from Afghanistan.

"We cannot wait, passively, for the possible impact," Greece's Citizens' Protection Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis said on a visit to the region of Evros on Friday.

"Our borders will remain inviolable."

His comments came as Turkey called on European countries to take responsibility for Afghan migrants.

In a telephone conversation with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said “a sharp increase in people leaving Afghanistan could pose "a serious challenge for everyone".

Mr Erdogan said "A new wave of migration is inevitable if the necessary measures are not taken in Afghanistan and in Iran."

The rapid takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, an Islamist militant group, has left some fearing for their lives and seeking to escape the country, often by any means necessary.

Mr Chrisochoidis said the crisis had created new "possibilities for migrant flows" into Europe.

Last year, Athens temporarily blocked new asylum applications after Mr Erdogan said Turkey had "opened the doors" for migrants to travel to the EU.

KABUL, 21 August 2021, (TON): Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Chinese state media “China has played a constructive role in promoting peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan and is welcome to contribute to the rebuilding the country.”

Taliban seized control over the weekend in an upheaval that sent thousands of civilians and Afghan military allies fleeing for safety. Many fear a return to the austere interpretation of Islamic law imposed during the previous Taliban rule that ended 20 years ago.

In dealing with the Taliban, an increasingly powerful China may be able to leverage the fact that unlike Russia and the United States, it has not fought in Afghanistan.

Shaheen said "China is a big country with a huge economy and capacity – I think they can play a very big role in the rebuilding, rehabilitation, reconstruction of Afghanistan.”

During Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's meeting with a Taliban delegation in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin last month, he said he hoped Afghanistan could adopt a moderate Islamic policy.

China has cited religious extremism as a destabilising force in its western Xinjiang region and has long worried that Taliban-controlled territory would be used to harbour separatist forces.

China is ready to deepen "friendly and cooperative" relations with Afghanistan, a government spokeswoman said Monday, after the Taliban seized control of the country.

ISLAMABAD, 21 August 2021, (TON): Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa said “Pakistan expects that the Taliban will fulfil promises made to the global community regarding women and human rights and will not allow Afghan land to be used against any other country.”

He made the comments during a wide-ranging speech at the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) Kakul where he was the chief guest for the Flag Presentation Parade.

Gen Bajwa said that Pakistan wanted peace in the country and the region and this desire was shown by its "sincere efforts" to support an Afghan-led process to resolve the decades-long conflict in the neighbouring country.

He stressed "we have unambiguously and repeatedly asked [the] global community to play its part in an inclusive and unbiased Afghan process as well as economic sustenance of Afghanistan.”

he pointed out that despite paying a "huge price" for the instability in Afghanistan and its own economic challenges, Pakistan had been hosting over three million Afghan refugees for the last four decades.

ADDIS ABABA, 21 August 2021, (TON): Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan backs a peaceful resolution to Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict, which has displaced tens of thousands and left millions hungry. He also says Turkey is willing to mediate between Ethiopia and Sudan to resolve a separate border dispute.

Erdogan told visiting Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that the war-hit country’s “peace and integrity is important to us”.

Erdogan told a joint media appearance with Abiy “If the situation deteriorates, all countries in the region will be affected.”

Northern Ethiopia has been racked by fighting since last November when Abiy sent troops to topple the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the region’s governing party at the time.

Tens of thousands of Ethiopians fled to refugee camps in Sudan to escape a conflict the UN says has pushed 400,000 people into famine-like conditions.

In July, the UN warned that more than 100,000 children in Tigray could suffer life-threatening malnutrition in the next 12 months.

MOSCOW, 21 August 2021, (TON): German Chancellor Angela Merkel traveled to Russia to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan, the separatist conflict in Ukraine and Moscow’s treatment of imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, among other issues.

Merkel’s visit to Moscow comes as she is nearing the end of her almost 16-year-long leadership of Germany. Despite sharp differences, she has maintained close contacts with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been in power for more than two decades.

Merkel said as she sat down for talks with Putin in the Kremlin “even though we certainly have deep differences today, we speak to each other and that should continue to happen.”

She said “Libya, Afghanistan, bilateral and trade relations and civil society issues would feature in Friday’s talks.”

Putin noted the importance of ties with Germany and hailed Merkel’s role in developing them.

He said “Germany is one of our key partners in Europe and the entire world thanks to your efforts over the past 16 years.”

Before the talks, Merkel laid flowers at the Unknown Soldier’s Tomb near the Kremlin wall to honor the Soviet victims of World War II.

High on the agenda of Friday’s talks is the situation in eastern Ukraine. Germany and France have sought to help broker a peaceful settlement to end the fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists that has killed more than 14,000 since 2014.

Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert said earlier this week that “Russia could do much more” to help the settlement.

COLOMBO, 21 August 2021, (TON): Major General Mohammed Jubayer Salehin, Commandant of the Defence Services Command and Staff College (DSCSC) in Mirpur, Bangladesh, currently in Sri Lanka with a few DSCSC Directing Staff to conduct a Joint Warfare Workshop at its Sri Lankan counterpart, DSCSC in Sapugaskanda on August (16) called on General Shavendra Silva, Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army at the Army HQ and extended his courtesies, symbolizing sound bilateral relations that prevail between Bangladesh and Sri Lankan Armed Forces.

During cordial interactions that ensued, the Sri Lankan Army Chief paid his gratitude to the visiting Bangladesh DSCSC Commandant for his support for improvement of professional standards of its Sri Lankan counterpart and tri service personnel in the past few years and highly appreciated Bangladesh Armed Forces' unfailing generosity and cooperation to this effect.

General Shavendra Silva remarked "even at this critical moment of the pandemic, your kind and brave gesture of uninterrupted professional support for training modules here exemplifies well how closely both armed forces are collaborating on multifaceted training projects. Your brotherly assistance to us would enormously help enhancement of career prospects of our young Officers.”

Major General Mohd Jabayer Salehin extending his compliments during the meeting recalled friendly relations that have broadened the scope of working relations between the Sri Lankan DSCSC and the Bangladesh's DSCSC as well as exchange of military programmes in a very sound and cordial manner and said that he was highly impressed and honoured to be invited to the office of the Army Chief in Sri Lanka, despite his extremely busy schedules as regards control of the epidemic, etc.

NAYPYITAW, 21 August 2021, (TON): According to local residents “a house was destroyed in the Kachin State town of Waingmaw night after troops from the Myanmar army’s Infantry Battalion (IB) 58 fired artillery shells at three residential neighbourhoods.

The shelling took place between 8pm and 9pm, said “a man who lives near the battalion. He added that one artillery shell narrowly missed a house in Waingmaw’s Hkakun ward.”

“They were lucky they were all sleeping at the time. If they had gone out to see where firing was coming from, they might have been hit,” he said of the house’s inhabitants, noting that the shell exploded directly over the house and left pieces of shrapnel on its roof.

He added “there was also an unexploded 60mm artillery shell in the neighbourhood.”

Two other Waingmaw wards nearby were also affected by the shelling, according to residents of the town.

Myitkyina residents said “they saw three armoured vehicles and a number of military trucks leave for Waingmaw at around the same time as the shelling there on Wednesday night.”

Another Waingmaw resident who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Kachin Independence Army (KIA) troops fired a few shots at a junta post two villages away from IB 58 at around 8pm, and the army troops fired back at them.

KIA spokesperson Colonel Naw Bu was not available for comment on the incident when contacted.

BEIRUT, 21 August 2021, (TON): A Britain-based war monitor said that Israeli air strikes on Syria have killed four pro-Iranian fighters allied to the Damascus regime.”

Syrian state media earlier said its air defense system engaged “hostile targets” over the capital Damascus late on Thursday.

A military source told state news agency “the Israeli enemy launched an aerial attack... targeting positions near Damascus and around the city of Homs.”

“Our air defense responded to the missiles and shot most of them down.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Israeli missiles had targeted “arms depots and military positions” belonging to Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, in the Qarah area in the northwest of Damascus province, near Homs province and the Lebanese border.

The Britain-based war monitor said “the strikes had killed four members of the Iran-backed group, but it was not immediately clear whether they were Syrian or Lebanese.”

Lebanese media also earlier reported two missiles had fallen in the Qalamoun region.

The Israeli army rarely acknowledges its strikes in Syria and a spokesperson told media it did “not comment on foreign media information.”

NAYPYITAW, 21 August 2021, (TON): The military council is trying to fill 200 positions in the country’s internal revenue department by seeking out family members of police officers and military personnel.

The vacancies are due to the general strike carried out by civil servants in accordance with the anti-coup Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), which aims to topple the coup regime.

State-run newspapers announced that they were accepting open applications for the assistant supervisor positions within the department, which is under the Ministry of Planning and Finance at the headquarters in Naypyitaw and in the tax offices in Yangon.

However, an internal letter seen by media sources revealed that the department office sent orders to tax office staff to spread the word about the vacancies so that adult children of non-striking employees, police officers and military personnel could apply.

The move indicates that the coup regime is finding it difficult to replace the positions left empty by the striking civil servants.

A staff member from the department who is on strike, said “they’re replacing the staff members taking part in the CDM with the families of police and military personnel. They’re not going to let outsiders in.”

DUBAI, 21 August 2021, (TON): The UAE has agreed to host 5,000 Afghan nationals evacuated from Afghanistan on their way to other countries.

The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said “following a request from the US, the UAE will host the evacuees temporarily after which they will travel to other nations.”

The evacuees will travel to the UAE from Kabul on US aircraft in the coming days, Emirates News Agency reported.

The UAE has so far facilitated the evacuation of 8,500 people from Afghanistan on its aircraft and through its airports, WAM added.