BEIRUT, 20 November 2022, (TON): Turkiye launched airstrikes over several towns in northern Syria on Saturday, US-backed Kurdish-led forces reported.

The airstrikes occurred a week after a bomb rocked a bustling avenue in the heart of Istanbul, killing six people and wounding over 80 others.

Turkish authorities blamed the attack on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, as well as Syrian Kurdish groups affiliated with it. The Kurdish militants groups have, however, denied involvement.

Ankara and Washington both consider the PKK a terror group, but disagree on the status of the Syrian Kurdish groups, which have been allied with the US in the fight against the Daesh group in Syria.

DHAKA, 20 November 2022, (TON): Mentioning that BNP has started terrorist activities again, Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud on Saturday said that Bangladesh cannot be handed over to the patron of terrorists.

The minister said “these while addressing the tri-annual conference of Chittagong North District Bangladesh Krishak League, held at Chittagong Engineers Institution as chief guest.”

He said “those who used to snatch money from people by building Hawa Bhaban, who installed poles without providing electricity, who attacked grenades on August 21st, who created ‘Bangla Bhai' all over the country and killed people, We can't hand over the country to those terrorists.”

MANAMA, 20 November 2022, (TON): The Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has given a speech at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, in which he called our Russia and Iran as threats to the security of the Middle East.

Thank you for inviting me to speak here today.

When Britain opened our Embassy here in Bahrain, our diplomats could look directly over the waters of the Gulf and watch dhows carrying pearl divers to the northern oyster beds.

Yet today our Embassy is almost half a mile from the coast, not because it has moved, but because Bahrain has moved the sea by reclaiming land that once lay beneath the waves.

The lesson I draw is that when our friends in the Gulf and the wider region decide to make change happen, they can reinvent themselves, and indeed reinvent their economies, with astonishing speed.

RIYADH, 20 November 2022, (TON): Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed Al-Khuraiji recently met Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto in Bahrain. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue.

The two sides reviewed bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and Finland and discussed the latest international developments.

The Saudi minister also held talks with Tobias Lindner, minister of state at the German Foreign Office. The two also reviewed bilateral relations and ways to develop them across all fields.

BRUSSELS, 20 November 2022, (TON): The EU strongly condemns the DPRK’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that landed in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone on 18 November.

The EU is deeply concerned by such dangerous, illegal and reckless action.

Pyongyang’s continuing efforts to develop ever more menacing means to deliver weapons of mass destruction threatens all countries.

The EU urges the DPRK to immediately stop destabilising actions that violate United Nations Security Council resolutions and raise international and regional tensions.

The EU calls upon the DPRK to comply with its obligations under UN Security Council resolutions.

The DPRK must abandon all its nuclear weapons, any other weapons of mass destruction, ballistic missile programmes and existing nuclear programmes, in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner, and cease immediately all related activities.

DHAKA, 20 November 2022, (TON): Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz has accepted the invitation to visit Bangladesh at a convenient time in 2023. 

This would be a landmark event in the history of bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia leading to the consolidation of ties especially in trade and commerce, investment and economic cooperation.

Saudi Ambassador to Bangladesh Essa Yussef Essa Al Duhailan revealed this, while paying a courtesy call on with the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the latter's official residence Ganabhaban here.

Prime Minister's Deputy Press Secretary Hasan Jahid Tusher briefed reporters after the meeting.

KYIV, 20 November 2022, (TON): British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised 125 anti-aircraft guns and other air-defense technology as he made an unannounced visit his first to Ukraine’s snow-blanketed war-time capital for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The air-defense package, which Britain valued at 50 million pounds ($60 million), comes as Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s power grid and other key infrastructure from the air, causing widespread blackouts for millions of Ukrainians amid frigid weather.

The package includes radar and other technology to counter Iran-supplied exploding drones that Russia has used against Ukrainian targets. It comes on top of a delivery of more than 1,000 anti-air missiles that Britain announced earlier this month.

MANAMA, 20 November 2022, (TON): Britain’s foreign minister on Saturday hit out at Iran for “spreading bloodshed” and vowed to work with allies to counter Tehran as he addressed leaders in Bahrain.

Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Iran of supplying Russia with drones that they say Moscow has used in recent weeks to carry out attacks in Ukraine.

Earlier this month, Tehran admitted it had sent drones, but insisted they were supplied before Russia’s invasion.

“Iranian-supplied weapons threaten the entire region,” British foreign secretary James Cleverly told the annual Manama Dialogue conference in Bahrain.

WASHINGTON, 20 November 2022, (TON): The United States will help Thailand develop nuclear power through a new class of small reactors, part of a programme aimed at fighting climate change, Vice President Kamala Harris announced on a visit.

The White House said the assistance was part of its Net Zero World Initiative, a project launched at last year’s Glasgow climate summit in which the US partners with the private sector and philanthropists to promote clean energy.

Thailand does not have nuclear power, with the public mood on the issue souring after the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.

The White House said it would offer technical assistance to the Southeast Asian country to deploy the developing technology of small modular reactors, which are factory-built and portable.

SRINAGAR, 20 November 2022, (TON): Having already announced his decision to step down as president of National Conference, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah on Saturday said he will be contesting the next assembly elections.

Mr Abdullah, who had announced he will be relinquishing the presidency of NC next month, said he is not escaping the responsibility and will continue to work to strengthen the party.

"Insha Allah, I am going to fight the next Assembly elections whenever held (in J&K)," Mr Abdullah told reporters on the sidelines of a function organised to welcome new entrants into the party.