BANGKOK, 29 July 2022, (TON): The UN Security Council has condemned the Myanmar junta’s execution of four prisoners, drawing praise from a shadow government of ousted Myanmar lawmakers.

In a rare consensus on the post-coup crisis, the Security Council released a statement condemning the executions, Myanmar’s first in decades and calling for the immediate release of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Council said “the members of the Security Council condemned the Myanmar military’s execution of opposition activists over the weekend.”

“They recalled the Secretary-General’s statement of 25 July 2022 and echoed his call for the immediate release of all arbitrarily detained prisoners.”

DUBAI, 29 July 2022, (TON): Iranian law enforcement authorities said “Iranian police have arrested the alleged leader and four other members of a spy network they suspect is affiliated to Israel’s secret services.”

They did not give the nationality of those arrested but said they had received training for armed operations and sabotage.

The law enforcement intelligence organization said “the arrested five members of this spy network were given various pledges from (Israel’s) Mossad, including financial promises, to gather information from important areas across the country.”

In Israel, the Prime Minister’s Office, which oversees the foreign intelligence agency Mossad, declined comment on the reported arrests.

RIYADH, 29 July 2022, (TON): When Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman paid a visit to the archaeological site of the Acropolis in Athens, the purpose was more than to take in the greatest architectural and artistic complex bequeathed by Greek antiquity to the world.

The crown prince went to the Acropolis Museum, where he and Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek prime minister, witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Saudi Arabia and Greece for cooperation in the cultural field.

The agreement was signed from the Saudi side by Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al-Saud, the Kingdom’s culture minister, who previously visited Athens in May 2021 to discuss aspects of cultural cooperation.

RIYADH, 29 July 2022, (TON): An EU spokesman said “European Union seeks to enhance relations with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries.”

Speaking at a news conference in Brussels, the EU lead spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy Peter Stano said “The European Union, Saudi Arabia, and all countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council share the interest to develop this relation, our cooperation.”

He added “the European bloc wants to enhance its partnership with GCC countries because that is something mutually beneficial for us and for people in these countries.”

KYIV, 29 July 2022, (TON): Russian forces launched a missile attack on the Kyiv area for the first time in weeks Thursday and pounded the northern Chernihiv region as well, in what Ukraine said was revenge for standing up to the Kremlin.

Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, announced a counteroffensive to take back the occupied Kherson region in the country’s south, territory seized by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces early in the war.

The Vyshgorod district on the outskirts of Kyiv was targeted early in the morning, and an infrastructure object was hit, regional Gov. Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram.

There was no immediate word on any casualties. Vyshgorod is 20 kilometers north of the capital’s center.

Kuleba linked the strikes to the Day of Statehood, a commemoration that President Volodymyr Zelensky instituted last year and Ukraine marked for the time.

DHAKA, 29 July 2022, (TON): The European Union has disbursed €2 million, equivalent to around Tk 20 crore, to the government of Bangladesh as budget support.

The fund is to be utilised for strengthening key areas of its social security system.

A press release of the EU said “the areas in focus include strengthening of institutional set-up, overall monitoring and evaluation framework of social security services, introduction of nutrition sensitive child benefit programme, etc.”

The disbursement of the fund came after a positive decision of the Budget Support Steering Committee of the European Commission.

DHAKA, 29 July 2022, (TON): Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury left here this morning for the United Kingdom  to participate in the "Fifteenth Workshop of Parliamentary Scholars and Parliamentarians" scheduled to begin.

An official release said “a Bangladesh parliamentary delegation led by the Speaker left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport here.”

During the visit, the speaker will participate in the two-day workshop co-sponsored by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Centre for Legislative Studies of the University of Hull, to be held at Wroxton College, Oxfordshire, the United Kingdom.

She will attend the 73rd birth anniversary ceremony of martyred Captain Sheikh Kamal at the initiative of Bangladesh High Commission in London as the chief guest.

DHAKA, 29 July 2022, (TON): The sixth meeting of the Nepal-Bangladesh Joint Expert Committee on Harnessing of Water Resources and Mitigation of Floods and Flood Damages began in Kathmandu.

Senior secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, Kabir Bin Anwar, is leading the Bangladesh delegation and secretary for Water Resources of the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation of Nepal, Sagar Kumar Rai, is leading the Nepalese delegation.

The meeting discussed issues related to joint collaboration in the development, management, and harnessing of water resources, irrigation, and flood mitigation in the region.

Both sides stressed the importance of sharing real-time hydro-meteorological data for flood forecasting as well as basin-wide management of common rivers and initiating joint venture projects on water resources management.

DHAKA, 29 July 2022, (TON): Member states of Developing-8 known as D-8 at its ministerial meeting in Dhaka agreed to begin implementation of the Preferential Trade Agreement by October and work on multilateral cooperation to maximise business prospects and opportunities.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina said “the D-8 countries celebrating the 25th anniversary of the bloc should focus on some specific areas like implantation of PTA, D-8 Economic Zone, diversified agriculture to ensure food security and alternative sources for addressing energy crisis.”

She also called upon the D-8 countries for implementation of the PTA and offered spaces for investments in Bangladesh’s Special Economic Zones.

She told “let us work together to harness the D-8 countries’ potential for a prosperous future.”

RIYADH, 29 July 2022, (TON): Prince Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz, the deputy governor of Riyadh region, met Djibouti’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Dya-Eddine Said Bamakhrama to discuss areas of mutual interest.

The envoy, who is also dean of the diplomatic corps, told Arab News he was pleased to have had the opportunity to meet the prince and discuss matters with him and other senior officials.

He said “we had cordial conversations and exchanged ideas on a number of topics of common interest.”

He added “the discussions focused on various subjects, particularly the situation of Djiboutian nationals residing in the Riyadh region.”