VIENNA, 09 August 2022, (TON): The European Union submitted a final text at talks to salvage a 2015 deal aimed at reining in Iran’s nuclear ambitions and Tehran said Monday it was reviewing the proposals.

Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran and Russia, as well as the United States indirectly, resumed talks in Vienna, months after they had stalled.

A European official said “the European Union has submitted a final text.”

The official told reporters “we worked for four days and today the text is on the table.”

“The negotiation is finished, it’s the final text and it will not be renegotiated.”

DUBAI, 09 August 2022, (TON): Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi said “Amman is committed to continuing its support for Yemen and enhancing its stability.”

Safadi, who spoke in a joint press conference with his Yemeni counterpart, Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, said Jordan supports the truce in Yemen and ‘roads to Taiz must be opened.’

He said “a comprehensive agreement must be reached in Yemen in accordance to the Gulf’s references and initiatives.”

Jordan’s foreign minister added that the country has received ‘7,000 Yemenis since the start of the armistice.’

Also speaking at the conference, bin Mubarak accused the Iran-backed Houthis of not abiding by a key element in the UN-brokered truce to reopen roads to the besieged city of Taiz saying the group was running away from its commitments.

SEOUL, 09 August 2022, (TON): State media said “North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament will hold its next session in September where it is set to discuss new laws and other organizational issues.”

The hermit state’s legislative body meets only once or twice a year, mostly for day-long sessions to approve budgets or other decisions deemed necessary by the ruling Workers’ Party.

The official Korean Central News Agency reported “the 7th Session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK will be convened in Pyongyang on September 7.”

It added “the session will discuss the issue of adopting the law on the socialist rural development and the law on landscaping and the organizational matter.”

Such meetings are carefully monitored by observers for any changes to economic policy or a reshuffle of high-ranking officials.

TOKYO, 09 August 2022, (TON): “Humanity is playing with a loaded gun” as crises with the potential for nuclear disaster proliferate worldwide, UN head Antonio Guterres said in Hiroshima, the 77th anniversary of the first atomic bomb attack.

At an annual memorial, Guterres warned of the risk posed by crises in Ukraine, the Middle East and the Korean peninsula as he described the horrors endured by the Japanese city.

He said “tens of thousands of people were killed in this city in the blink of an eye. Women, children and men were incinerated in a hellish fire.”

Survivors were “cursed with a radioactive legacy” of cancer and other health problems.

“We must ask: What have we learned from the mushroom cloud that swelled above this city?“

KYIV, 09 August 2022, (TON):  Kyiv said “the first cargo ship to reach its final destination after departing from Ukraine under a deal between Moscow and Kyiv docked in Turkey, while a consignment due in Lebanon reported delays.”

Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain exporters, was forced to halt almost all deliveries after Russia’s invasion, but Black Sea exports recently restarted under a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey.

The Turkish cargo ship the Polarnet that reached its final destination left the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk last week carrying 12,000 tons of corn.

Kyiv said “it arrived in Turkey as scheduled after being inspected by the Joint Coordination Center established in Istanbul under the international agreement signed last month.”

“This first successful completion of the implementation of the ‘grain deal’ means it is possible to be optimistic about future transportation,” Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov was quoted as saying in a statement by the ministry.

DHAKA, 09 August 2022, (TON): After nearly two and a half years, the Chinese government has opened visas for Bangladeshi students pursuing higher studies in the Asian country.

The visa procedures will begin within the next two or three days, according to the Chinese embassy in Bangladesh.

The development comes on Sunday, after a bilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of both countries.

China and Bangladesh signed bilateral instruments in the presence of Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

NEW DELHI, 09 August 2022, (TON): India seeks to restrict Chinese smartphone makers from selling devices cheaper than 12,000 rupees ($150) to kickstart its faltering domestic industry, dealing a blow to brands including Xiaomi Corp.

The move is aimed at pushing Chinese giants out of the lower segment of the world's second-biggest mobile market, according to people familiar with the matter.

They said “it coincides with mounting concern about high-volume brands like Realme and Transsion undercutting local manufacturers .“

According to market tracker Counterpoint “exclusion from India's entry-level market would hurt Xiaomi and its peers, which in recent years have increasingly relied on India to drive growth while their home market endures a series of Covid-19 lockdowns that crippled consumption.”

Smartphones under $150 contributed to a third of India's sales volume for the quarter through June 2022, with Chinese companies accounting for up to 80% of those shipments.

DHAKA, 09 August 2022, (TON): India’s Kolkata Port has started the first of the four trial runs to fully implement Bangladesh’s Mongla Port usage agreement.

The first trial vessel, Bangladeshi flag carrier MV Rishad Raihan, arrived at jetty 9 of Mongla Port on Monday through Jack Shipping Agent while Swift Logistics Services Ltd is working as the C&F agent.

A press release said “transit cargo is currently stationed at Mongla Port for trials on Mongla-Tamabil and Mongla-Bibirbazar routes.”

Under the ‘Agreement on The Use of Chattogram and Mongla Ports for Movement of Goods to and from India.

DHAKA, 09 August 2022, (TON): China pledged on Sunday to support Bangladesh in repatriating thousands of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen discussed the issue with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Dhaka.

More than a million Rohingya Muslim refugees live in camps in Bangladesh, having fled persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, mostly in 2017.

'Bangladesh needs support from China'

Momen said “Beijing has already constructed about 3,000 houses in Myanmar's Rakhine state, for prospective Rohingya returnees.”

He added “China will also arrange initial food support for the repatriated refugees.” 

The foreign minister said "we must thank China that they agreed to do that.”

Analyst Munshi Faiz Ahmad, who served as Bangladeshi ambassador in Beijing, told the Associated Press that to "resolve the Rohingya crisis Bangladesh needs support from China."

DHAKA, 09 August 2022, (TON): Bangladesh has urged the United States to extend their support regarding the Rohingya case with the International Court of Justice in the Hague brought by the Gambia under the genocide convention.

Bangladesh also thanked the US side as it has decided to extend its support to the Rohingyas now living in Bhasan Char.

Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen told reporters “we thank them (US side) as they will extend their support to the Bhasan Char.”

He said “Bangladesh also thanked the US side recalling that the US in March determined members of the Myanmar military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingya following a rigorous factual and legal analysis.”