DHAKA, 12 August 2022, (TON): Foreign Minister Dr A K Abdul Momen today urged UN World Food Programme and other UN agencies operating in Myanmar's Rakhine State to help create an environment conducive to the safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable repatriation of the Rohingya, now sheltered in Bangladesh, to Myanmar.

The foreign minister came up with the call as the newly Country Director of UN WFP Domenico Scalpelli presented his credentials to him at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Taking interest in Scalpelli's previous experience of serving in Myanmar, Dr Momen recalled his last meeting with the WFP Executive Director David M. Beasely and thanked WFP for commencing work in support of the Rohingya relocated to Bhashan Char.

A statement reads “the WFP country representative informed the foreign minister about his upcoming trip to Bhashan Char, and thanked the government for providing support to WFP staff with accommodation, transportation and other facilities there.”

RIGA, 11 August 2022, (TON): Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said “the U.S. will conduct more military exercises with Baltic nations such as Latvia, and look to provide increased training.”

 He said “the U.S. may bring in additional troops from America if needed to bolster the region against any possible threat from Russia.”

Speaking at a press conference with Latvia’s Defense Minister Artis Pabriks, Austin said plans to do continuous rotations of forces into the Baltics will likely use troops from U.S. brigades in Romania and other parts of Europe, but we can also bring in forces from the United States.

Austin is the first U.S. defense secretary to visit Latvia in nearly three decades, underscoring the increased importance of the Baltic nations, who sit at Russia’s western edge.

They have watched Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and fear that they could be the next victims of Moscow’s aggression.

The Pentagon said “the last defense chief to go to Latvia was William Perry in 1995.”

RIYADH, 11 August 2022, (TON): Saudi Arabia’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Abdulmohsen Majed bin Khothaila, met with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

The pair reviewed a number of important issues and discussed ways to enhance cooperation with the agency.

Earlier, Khothaila met with the permanent representative of the Republic of Djibouti to the UN, Ambassador Kadra Ahmed Hassan.

During the meeting they discussed issues of common interest within the framework of international organizations.

PINGTUNG, 11 August 2022, (TON): Many people on self-ruled Taiwan look upon China’s unprecedented military exercises with calm resignation, doubting that war is imminent and if anything, feeling pride in their democratic island’s determination to defend itself.

China, reacting to a visit to Taiwan last week by Nancy Pelosi, the U.S. House speaker, has sent ships and aircraft across an unofficial buffer between Taiwan and China’s coast and missiles over its capital, Taipei, and into waters surrounding the island.

But Rosa Chang, proudly watching her son take part in Taiwan military exercises that included dozens of howitzers firing shells into the Taiwan Strait off Pingtung, in the island’s far south, said China’s behaviour was childish.

Chang said “it’s like a group of children threatening you and telling you what to do China really doesn’t have to do all this.”

SANAA, 11 August 2022, (TON): Infighting among pro-government Yemeni forces has killed 35 troops in a southern province in the past 24 hours, officials said, a development that threatens a ceasefire in the country’s wider conflict.

They said that an artillery duel that start in the hit areas around a local airport in the city of Ataq, the capital of the southern Shabwa province.

Five civilians were among the dead, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

The fighting comes after months of tensions within the pro-government, Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting a common enemy the Houthi rebels since 2015.

The officials said “earlier violence late Sunday erupted in the area after the province’s governor, backed by the United Arab Emirates, decided to sack a police commander known to have an anti-UAE stance.”

RAMALLAH, 11 August 2022, (TON): Palestinian leaders have launched a new diplomatic drive to obtain full membership of the UN.

The campaign will culminate with a landmark speech by President Mahmoud Abbas at the UN General Assembly on Sept. 23, in which he will make the case for enhanced status.

Palestinian government spokesman Ibrahim Melhem told media “in the absence of a political path and hope for the Palestinians to end the occupation, they have no choice but to resort to the UN to enhance the status of Palestine as a state and the Palestinians as a people on their land under occupation.”

The UN granted Palestine non-member observer state status at a historic vote in the General Assembly in November 2012, when 138 countries voted in favor, 9 opposed it, and 41 abstained.

The resolution included the hope that the Security Council will consider positively accepting the request for full membership. Abbas submitted this in September 2011, but it fell in the Security Council because the US threatened to use its veto.

ISTANBUL, 11 August 2022, (TON): Turkey’s president inaugurated the country’s newest and largest undersea hydrocarbon drill ship Tuesday that he said “would head for a spot northwest of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean, which is not claimed by any other country.”

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said “our exploration and drilling in the Mediterranean is within our own sovereign dominion.”

Turkey is embroiled in acrimonious disputes with Greece and Cyprus over maritime boundaries and offshore energy rights, which triggered high tensions in the eastern Mediterranean two years ago.

Erdogan said Tuesday the new Abdulhamid Han ship would begin drilling at the Yorukler-1 well about 55 kilometers off the coast of Gazipasa, in Antalya province.

He said “neither the puppets nor the ones who hold their strings will be able to prevent us from getting our rights in the Mediterranean.”

BEIJING, 11 August 2022, (TON): China on Wednesday reaffirmed its threat to use military force to bring self-governing Taiwan under its control, amid threatening Chinese military exercises that have raised tensions between the sides to their highest level in years.

The statement issued by the Cabinet’s Taiwan Affairs Office and its news department followed almost a week of missile firings and incursions into Taiwanese waters and airspace by Chinese warships and air force planes.

The actions have disrupted flights and shipping in a region crucial to global supply chains, prompting strong condemnation from the US, Japan and others.

The Chinese statement said Beijing seeks peaceful unification with Taiwan but does not pledge to relinquish the use of military force and retains all necessary options.

HOSTENS, 11 August 2022, (TON): Wildfires tore through the Gironde region of southwestern France on Wednesday, destroying homes and forcing the evacuation of more than 8,000 residents, some of whom had clambered onto rooftops as the flames got closer.

Skies darkened from the smoke billowing from forests destroyed by fires that have razed more than 6,000 hectares and were continuing to burn out of control despite the efforts of firefighters backed by water-bombing aircraft.

France, like the rest of Europe, has been struggling this summer with successive heatwaves and its worst drought on record. Dozens of wildfires are ablaze across the country, including at least eight major ones.

The Gironde municipality of Belin-Beliet said “prepare your papers, the animals you can take with you, some belongings and WAIT FOR THE INVITATION TO LEAVE which will be notified to you by the gendarmerie, officials or volunteers going door-to-door.”

KYIV, 11 August 2022, (TON): Ukraine’s air force said that nine Russian warplanes were destroyed in a deadly string of explosions at an air base in Crimea, amid speculation of a Ukrainian attack that would be a significant escalation in the war.

Russia denied any aircraft were damaged in blasts, or that an attack even took place. But Ukrainian officials mocked Russia’s explanation that a careless smoker might have caused ammunition at the Saki air base to catch fire and blow up.

Analysts also said that explanation made no sense and that the Ukrainians could have used anti-ship missiles to strike the base.

Military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said “officially Kyiv has kept mum about it, but unofficially the military acknowledges that it was a Ukrainian strike.”