DHAKA, 12 July 2022, (TON): The chief of Air Staff of Bangladesh Air Force left Dhaka for the United Kingdom on Sunday on a seven-day official visit.

Air Chief Marshal Shaikh Abdul Hannan left the country at the invitation of chief of the Air Staff of Royal Air Force Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston.

During the visit, the chief of Air Staff will visit the C-130 Hercules aircraft maintenance, modification and repairing organization “Marshall Aerospace Facility”.

Subsequently, he will attend the “Global Air Chiefs Conference-2022” organized by the Royal Air Force in London, says an Inter Service Public Relation media release.

By TON Sri Lanka

On Saturday mobs ended the Rajapaksa Raj in Sri Lanka. As huge crowds of angry youth stormed the official residences of the President and the Prime Minister and set fire to the private residence of the Prime Minister forcing the hands up of both the two leaders.

Both President and Prime Minister declared their intention to resign. While the President said he would quit on July 13, the Prime Minister said he would quit as soon as the proposed all-party government was formed.

Meanwhile, a meeting of all parliamentary parties called by the Speaker had demanded the resignation of the President and the Prime Minister and proposed that the Speaker take charge as interim President for thirty days within which parliament should elect a President to complete the outgoing President’s term.

The party leaders rejected PM's plea that he be allowed to complete critical talks with the IMF for a bailout package and get petroleum from various countries. The mob violence was unprecedented because it was the first time that anger was directed against the top rulers of the country and not a minority community, Tamils or Muslims.

The police and fire services watched as thousands broke iron barricades and occupied the President’s colonial-era mansion and the Prime Minister’s official residence. Later in the night, the mob gleefully set fire to the Prime Minister’s private residence destroying hundreds of books, antiques, and paintings collected by the PM and his wife, both aesthetes.

It looked as if the Sri Lankan State machinery had smashed under the heaviness of the agitators’ numbers as well as the public support they enjoyed. The island nation’s citizens suffered for months for want of basic necessities like food, fuel, and medicines. Both the President and Prime Minister were in residence at the time of the attacks, having been displaced to unidentified safe houses by the army.

Now it is obvious to President that the political situation has turned against him irrevocably. The first sign of the system's downfall seemed when the courts declined the police’s request to ban rallies near the President’s house.

The curfew that the police had clamped the previous night, was lifted at 8 am on Saturday on the demand of the Bar Council of Sri Lanka. Trains and buses, which were not supposed to run on Saturday, did run, carrying thousands of protestors to Colombo.

The police, who were fighting the marchers primarily eventually gave in and allowed the crowd to attack the President’s and the PM’s official residences and residences. The army had decided not to act, seemingly because Western nations had warned against the use of force against “serene” protestors.

Above all, several members of the ruling coalition led by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) demanded the resignation of the President. It looked as if the President had no legs to stand on. His support structure, comprising the ruling party and its coalition partners, the law and order machinery, and the courts, had collapsed. Extra-constitutional forces like the “Gota Go Home” agitators.

The common demand was for an all-party government under Prime Minister whose political legality was probed because he was not an elected MP but a selected one. And he represented the United National Party (UNP) which did not have even a sole elected MP. That PM had the support of the President and the SLPP, the single largest party in parliament.

According to the news, President has fled just moments earlier, helped by troops who fired into the air to clear his escape. Once he had left, the mood inside the compound was celebratory.

Sri Lanka’s future is now extremely uncertain for many reasons as the formation of an all-party government is difficult because the parties in parliament are an extremely disparate lot, each in hard rivalry with the other. Further, there is no energetic leader to gather the many groups under one umbrella. Given the uncertainty reasons the IMF package is also in jeopardy, foreign aid may stop, and foreign investment will not come which has increased Sri Lanka's solidarity in danger. Leaders like Sajith Premadasha should step forward to control the situation.

LONDON, 11 July 2022, (TON): Organizers have said “a UK-based pro-Palestinian humanitarian charity has raised £15,000 to provide medical aid for Palestinian communities at a gala dinner.”

About 250 guests attended the “Come Dine for Palestine” event hosted by Medical Aid for Palestine, in Walthamstow, London, and organizers said that they had exceeded their target of £10,000.

Organized by human rights activist, Arifa Nasim, the event was in memory of Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot and killed while wearing a press jacket by Israeli forces as she covered a raid in the West Bank town of Jenin last month.

The organizers said “Shireen’s fearlessness and courage in the face of an unbearable reality inspired Arifa to hold another fundraising dinner in support of Medical Aid for Palestine.”

They added “we are so grateful to live in a generous and compassionate community, where people will turn up to express their solidarity and their care for the plight of the Palestinian people.”

KYIV, 11 July 2022, (TON): Ukrainian defenders battled to contain Russian forces along several fronts, officials said, as the United States urged China to align itself with the West in opposing the invasion following an ill-tempered G20 meeting.

Its governor said “a missile strike on the northeastern city of Kharkiv wounded three civilians.”

Those two provinces, parts of which were held by pro-Russian separatists before the conflict began in February, comprise the eastern industrial region of the Donbas.

Ukrainian officials reported strikes in both on Saturday, while Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Moscow was assembling reserve forces from across Russia near Ukraine.

Donetsk regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said “a Russian missile had struck Druzhkivka, a town behind the front line, and reported shelling of other population centers.”

BANGKOK, 11 July 2022, (TON): The United States and Thailand signed agreements on Sunday to deepen the countries’ already strong ties as Washington steps up its efforts to counter China’s expanding influence in Asia.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Thai foreign minister Don Pramudwinai pledged to advance partnerships in climate change, law enforcement and security cooperation.

Blinken’s visit comes a day after he met Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in Indonesia on the sidelines of the G20 foreign minister’s meeting.

Blinken will also meet with Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. China’s Wang has been engaged in intense diplomacy across Asia in recent weeks and met Prayuth.

Blinken said “we are taking the partnership between us fully into the 21st century.”

TEHRAN, 11 July 2022, (TON): Iran has described as a threat the United States’ plans for enhancing air defense cooperation with its Middle East allies, due to be discussed during President Joe Biden’s upcoming regional trip.

The White House’s National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said “greater collaboration on issues such as air defense, particularly with regards to countering Tehran, would be on Biden’s agenda as he visits the Middle East next week.”

Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said “the proposal of this issue is provocative and the Islamic republic of Iran views these remarks as a threat to national and regional security.”

Trying to create new security concerns in the region will have no result other than weakening common regional security and serving the security interests of the Zionist regime.

Biden is due to begin on Wednesday his first visit to the Middle East since taking office in January 2021. He is set to meet the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Israel.

KYIV, 11 July 2022, (TON): A Russian missile struck an apartment building in eastern Ukraine, killing at least 15 people as Moscow’s forces sought to consolidate their control over the Donbas region.

The local emergency service said “during the rescue operation, 15 bodies were found at the scene and five people were pulled out of the rubble.”

“At least 30 others are under the rubble” of the four-story building after it was hit by a Russian Uragan missile, Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said earlier on Telegram.

The building was partially destroyed in the strike, AFP correspondents saw at the scene where dozens of rescuers were sifting through the rubble with a mechanical digger.

Emergency services said “rescuers had so far been able to establish contact with three people under the rubble.”

TOKYO, 11 July 2022, (TON): Japanese went to the polls Sunday in the shadow of the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, gunned down while making a campaign speech for the governing party that cruises to a likely major victory.

Police in western Japan sent the alleged assassin to a local prosecutors’ office for further investigation toward pressing murder charges, the day after a top regional police official acknowledged possible security lapses that allowed the attacker to get so close and fire a bullet into the still-influential former Japanese leader.

In a country still recovering from the shock, sadness and fear of Abe’s shooting, the first of a former or serving leader to be assassinated in postwar Japan, polling started for half of the upper house, the less powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament.

Abe was shot in Nara and airlifted to a hospital but died of blood loss.

Police arrested a former member of Japan’s navy at the scene. Police confiscated his homemade gun and several others were later found at his apartment.

MAKKAH, 11 July 2022, (TON): Saudi Interior Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif has conveyed greetings from the Kingdom’s leadership to the employees of the ministry, the Presidency of State Security, and the military forces participating in the Hajj security efforts.

The Saudi minister, who is also the chairman of the Supreme Hajj Committee, also conveyed King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s wishes on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha.

The leadership congratulated them for the success of the security plans implemented over the last few days to ensure the security and safety of pilgrims. 

During a meeting with the directors of the security sectors and leaders of the Hajj security forces at the headquarters of the Ministry of Interior in Makkah, Prince Abdulaziz confirmed that the leadership provided all capabilities to serve the guests of Allah and ensure that they perform their rituals with ease.

DHAKA, 11 July 2022, (TON): President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina greeted the countrymen as well as the Muslims across the globe on the occasion of the holy Eid-ul-Azha to be celebrated Sunday in Bangladesh.

On the eve of the day, they issued separate messages praying that the holy Eid-ul-Azha would bring welfare for all with the rising ideology of sacrifice.

In his message, the president said "Hazrat Ibrahim (AS) has set an incomparable example of love, obedience and sacrifice to Allah by taking steps to sacrifice his beloved son Hazrat Ismail (AS) at the directive of Allah."

He said "Azha means sacrifice.”

He added that sacrifice instils the spirit of self-sacrifice into all and also teaches them the spirit of sharing happiness and sorrow with relatives and neighbors.