RAMALLAH, 20 August 2022, (TON): There was growing outrage in the occupied West Bank after Israeli troops killed another unarmed Palestinian man.

Saleh Sawafta, 58, was returning from dawn prayers at a mosque near his home in Tubas when he was shot in the head. Doctors fought to save his life, but Sawafta died from critical wounds.

The victim, who had been preparing for his daughter’s wedding next week was not involved in previous clashes with Israeli forces and was not a target for arrest.

His death brought the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army since the beginning of the year to 135.

Hundreds of people attended Sawafta’s funeral on Friday afternoon as anger spread in the city.

By Rudra Raj Koirala, TON Nepal

Total of 84 parties have applied at the Election Commission seeking its approval to contest the upcoming general elections to be held on November 20 for the House of Representatives and seven provincial assemblies onward. Political parties that have previously been listed at the Election Commission requisite to register again every time ahead of elections. So far as many as 79 parties had got approval to contest the local elections.

The election commission has received applications from 80 parties to contest the elections for the House of Representatives and provincial assemblies. The election commission will issue the list of qualified parties after going through their applications. Eighty-eight political parties had applied at the Election Commission to contest the federal and provincial elections in 2017.

The commission will call the parties to submit the needed document if they are unfinished before granting them permission. Tuesday was the last day for parties to list at the commission for general and provincial elections.

On July 5, the commission had asked political parties wishing to contest the November elections to get listed from July 7 until Tuesday. The commission also sought applications from the parties that are planning to contest under a single election symbol. Twelve parties have formed four groups to contest the elections under four different election symbols.

Section 49 of the Act Related to Political Parties says two or more than two parties willing to contest under the same election symbol can apply jointly at the commission. There shall be only one parliamentary party led by the party winning the highest numbers of seats, according to the Act.

On Tuesday CPN (Maoist Centre) and Nepal Samajbadi Party applied to contest under the same election symbol. The Baburam Bhattarai-led Nepal Samajbadi Party will contest under the “hammer and sickle within a circle”, the symbol belonging to the Maoist Centre.

On February 17 Bhattarai’s party had sought its election symbol when it was registered at the commission Bhattarai had contested the 2017 elections with the same eye symbol from the Naya Shakti Party and won from Gorkha-2. However, the party has now decided to contest under the election symbol of the Maoist Centre. The seat-sharing, however, is yet to be decided.

Nepal Communist Party Unity National Campaign, too has reached an agreement with the Maoist Centre to contest the elections under the Maoist symbol. However, the party didn’t apply for a common election symbol.

On July 28, Nepal Communist Party Unity had registered his party just a week earlier the government announced the election dates. All the lawmakers who won from Bhattarai’s and Nepal Communist party unity parties will have to follow the whip of the Maoist Centre.

Similarly, other parties too have decided to contest the polls under a single symbol. Samajbadi Kendra Nepal, Adhunik Nepal Samajabadi Party and Nepal Communist Party Rastrabadi too will contest under a single symbol. Samajadi Ekta Party, Nepal Communist Party Samajbadi and Nepal Dalit Party too are contesting under one symbol. The other parties contesting under one symbol are Nepal Aama Party, Nepal Janabadi Party, Nepal Sachet Party and Nepal Sushan Party.

The commission will start the election process once the party registration process completes. As per the election schedule declared by the commission, it will assign the election symbol for proportional representation on August 31.

Similarly, the parties will have to submit the closed list of candidates under the proportional representation on September 18 and 19. The final list of the candidates under the category will be issued on October 8. The commission is preparing to start the election process for the first-past-the-post system from October 9.

From the 2017 elections, five parties were awarded national party status. Any party that wins at least one seat under the first-past-the-post system and has a minimum of three percent seats under proportional representation system qualifies as national party.

Currently six parties are national parties in Parliament along with the UML (98), the Nepali Congress (61), and Maoist Centre (49), CPN (Unified Socialist) (23), Janata Samajbadi Party (19) and Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (13) too are national parties. However, it is yet to see that either the alliance would give these parties any benefit or not and who will be the major beneficiary of these alliances.

DHAKA, 20 August 2022, (TON): The Chittagong seaport has become the 64th busiest port among the top 100 container ports across the world.

The ranks have been detected in terms of annual container handling in 2021, and according to Lloyd's List, one of the oldest shipping journals in the world.

In 2020, the port held 67th place on the list.

The latest edition of Lloyd's List One Hundred Ports was published on Thursday.

DHAKA, 20 August 2022, (TON): The Chittagong seaport has become the 64th busiest port among the top 100 container ports across the world.

The ranks have been detected in terms of annual container handling in 2021, and according to Lloyd's List, one of the oldest shipping journals in the world.

In 2020, the port held 67th place on the list.

The latest edition of Lloyd's List One Hundred Ports was published on Thursday.

DHAKA, 20 August 2022, (TON): Newly inaugurated Congressional Bangladesh Caucus will promote continued good relations between Bangladesh and the United States.

Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina said "we look forward to strengthening the United States-Bangladesh relationship on the basis of our shared democratic values to address major issues, including climate change, human rights, and humanitarian challenges.”

Caucus members will receive periodic updates on bilateral relationship, joint efforts to combat terrorism and promote human rights, as well as opportunities for high-level visits between the two countries, including with Ambassador M Shahidul Islam as they work to strengthen their relationship.

The Caucus was established, in part, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and the US, which began in 1972, soon after Bangladesh secured its independence from Pakistan.

KABUL, 20 August 2022, (TON): Acting Defense Minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid at an Independence Day event said that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is not dependent on anyone militarily, politically and economically, although some countries want us to accept their demands for various reasons.

According to Minister Mujahid “any demand that goes against religion or national interests is not acceptable.”

Minister Mujahid said “we do not accept any orders or wishes against the national beliefs and interests.”

While talking at the ceremony marked for the 103rd independence day of Afghanistan, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid added that Kabul is honoring this day as the country is truly free and independent.

DHAKA, 20 August 2022, (TON): Prime Minister’s Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Affairs Adviser Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury has encouraged the US companies for oil and gas exploration in Bangladesh's offshore areas.

He also urged the US government to invest more through its International Development Finance Corporation in Bangladesh's renewable energy sector.

The adviser made the request to US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and Environment Jose W Fernandez at a meeting held at the US Department of State in Washington DC.

Dr Chowdhury and Under Secretary Fernandez discussed the existing bilateral energy cooperation and explored possible ways to strengthen it further.

The Embassy in a media release said “the Energy adviser briefed the under secretary on the policies adopted by the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to make Bangladesh self-reliant in power and energy.”

DHAKA, 20 August 2022, (TON): Russian Deputy Defence Minister Colonel-General Alexander Fomin has reaffirmed Russia's commitment and readiness with Bangladesh to make maximum use of the existing potential for further development of cooperation in the military and military-technological fields.

Col Gen Alexander Fomin said "Over this period, a unique experience of working together, based on many years of friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation, has been accumulated."

He added that there are no contradictions or unresolved issues between the countries.

The Russian Deputy Defence minister met with PM's Security Affairs Adviser Maj Gen (Retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique on the margins of the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security, said the Russian Embassy in Dhaka.

By Muhammad Ali

The 1996 Ganges Water Sharing Treaty was an important breakthrough in solving disputes over sharing Ganges water between India and Bangladesh. The past studies quantifiably recognized that Bangladesh has been frequently deprived of its minimum share during the most critical periods of the dry season. However, these works were more or less limited to piecemeal analyses due to the lack of sufficient hydrological data. Furthermore, most of the studies did not systematically investigate the critical features of the Treaty which led to severe water scarcity in a number of dry years; thus leaving a knowledge gap on the major barriers against the successful implementation of the Treaty.

Thus, a quantitative evaluation of the current Treaty is essential to negotiate further revision and extension of the Treaty. An understanding of future risks related to the new emerging conflicts will also be major concerns for the revision of the Treaty. Therefore, the present study focuses on the current status of the Treaty and explores the outcome of the Treaty provisions using a long-term data set on water availability recorded at Farakka in India and Hardinge Bridge in Bangladesh.

The signing of the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty in 1996 was considered as a new prospect to offer the opportunity for regional cooperation between India and Bangladesh. India, in spite of being the hydro-hegemon controlling most of the Ganges waters, showed positive intention towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict by incorporating the principles of equity and ‘do no harm’ to either riparian in the Treaty (GWT, 1996). But despite having a unique water sharing formula, the efficacy of the Treaty was questioned several times due to the low availability of flow at Farakka during the post-Treaty periods.

India and Bangladesh are likely to ink at least one major river agreement later this month. The planning for the agreement is being tightly guarded by officials on both sides as water sharing between the two countries is considered to be a sensitive subject given the fact that it often takes political meaning.

In response to a query, that there is a "strong possibility" that an agreement on the Kushiyara that flows from Assam into Bangladesh is part of one such agreement that may get "done" during the JRC. A diplomatic source also hinted at a "major agreement" involving the Ganga may also be taken up as there is a "strong urge" to achieve a big river agreement ahead of Prime Minister Hasina's visit, which may be her last trip to Delhi before Dhaka goes into election mode next year.

In the recent development, both sides are also expected to take up the Ganga Waters Treaty of 1996 that is scheduled to be renewed in 2026. The treaty was signed by Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and PM Hasina in December 12, 1996 and was expected to be renewed after thirty years. Apart from these issues, reduction of river pollution and increased navigation are also on the agenda. Bangladesh will be back to square one regarding the Ganges water sharing in 2026 when its 30-year sharing agreement with India, signed in 1996, expires. The treaty underestimated the impact of climate variability on lower riparian Bangladesh due to increasing water withdrawals by India from the upstream.

While reviewing the water sharing of the Ganges from 1997 to 2016, water experts have found that during most of the critical dry periods Bangladesh did not receive its part as agreed under the Ganges treaty. The dispute between Bangladesh and India over the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna provides an example of a lack of a fair and acceptable institutional arrangement on sharing the world's third-largest freshwater outlet to the ocean. The insufficient supply of water in overpopulated downstream Bangladesh during the dry season causes severe adverse socio-economic impact by disrupting its agriculture, fisheries, forestry, navigation as well as ecology.

The facts and figures showed that a substantially lower amount of water than the indicative share as per the Treaty was released to Bangladesh during the six critical periods from March 11 to May 10. During the March 21–31 cycle in the year 2010, the actual release to Bangladesh was only 474 m3/s, which was 44% lower than the indicative release of 841 m3/s flows. There were further 38% and 36% decreases of 10-day average flows during the other alternate critical periods of April 11–20 and May 1–10 in 2010, which confirmed a consistent lower share for Bangladesh. In 2016 the situation became even worse than that of 2010; the actual release during March 21–31 was only 442 m3/s, which was 47% lower than the indicative share, followed by a further 34% and 49% decrease of flows during the other alternate critical periods.

It indicates that the Treaty performed poorly for both countries during low to moderate flow events, depicting a wide variation of flows released or withdrawn from Farakka. Such sharp ‘rise and fall’ fluctuation of flow distribution is the result of the obligation of providing a guaranteed 991 m3/s flow alternately to each country in the six 10-day cycles between March 11 and May 10. However, during favorable wetter years, it showed that the flow distribution was more than satisfactory and most of the time India was able to release more water than was specified in the Treaty. Results even indicated that the average flows at Hardinge Bridge during April 1–10 and April 21–30 cycles were unusually 5% and 2% lower than the flow released from Farakka, respectively. Due to the lack of natural justice as well as international best practices in the 1996 Ganges Water Sharing Treaty, it require to be revamped and Bangladesh water rights must be protected.

BRUSSELS, 19 August 2022, (TON): NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo will take any measure that is necessary to ensure peace there, the alliance’s chief said as Serbia-Kosovo tensions simmered.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said “should stability be jeopardised, KFOR stands ready to intervene and will take any measure that is necessary to ensure a safe and secure environment and freedom of movement for all the people of Kosovo.”

He was speaking alongside Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in a joint media conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

In a sign of continued animosity between Belgrade and Pristina, Stoltenberg held a separate media conference a short time later with Kosovo President Albin Kurti.