SYDNEY, 22 February 2022, (TON): Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said “a Chinese naval vessel that pointed a laser at an Australian defense plane was potentially visible from Australia’s mainland, as Canberra demands a “full investigation” by Beijing.”

Morrison said on radio his government had not received an explanation from China over the incident last Thursday, considered by Canberra as a “dangerous and reckless act.”

A Chinese navy vessel within Australia’s exclusive economic zone directed a laser at an Australian military aircraft in flight over Australia’s northern approaches, illuminating the plane and potentially endangering lives, Australia’s defense said on Saturday.

The P-8A Poseidon a maritime patrol aircraft detected a laser emanating from a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA-N) vessel, the Defense Department said, releasing photographs of two Chinese vessels sailing close to Australia’s northern coast.

A Chinese guided missile destroyer and an amphibious transport dock were sailing east through the Arafura Sea between New Guinea and Australia at the time of the incident, and later passed through the narrow Torres Strait.

LONDON, 22 February 2022, (TON): Human Rights Watch said in a statement issued “trade with settlements in occupied territories contributes to human rights abuses and must be halted.”

The group honed in specifically on the EU, urging the European Commission to “prohibit EU trade with settlements in occupied territories globally.”

Among the settlements HRW addressed are those exploited by Israeli settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the existence of which, it said, amount to a war crime.

HRW said in the statement “the transfer of an occupying power’s civilian population to a militarily occupied territory violates the Fourth Geneva Convention and, under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, is a war crime.”

The trade of goods produced in those areas, the group continued, “helps to sustain these violations of international humanitarian law,” and “entrenches the human rights abuses that often stem from settlements.”

Those abuses include land confiscation, natural resource exploitation, displacement and discrimination against the local population.

OTTAWA, 22 February 2022, (TON): Canada’s parliament backed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to invoke rarely-used emergency powers to end pandemic-related protests that have blocked streets in the capital Ottawa for more than three weeks.

The Emergencies Act was approved in parliament by 185 to 151, with the minority Liberal government getting support from left-leaning New Democrats.

The special measures, announced by Trudeau a week ago, have been deemed unnecessary and an abuse of power by some opposition politicians.

Over the weekend, Canadian police restored normalcy in Ottawa. The protesters initially wanted an end to cross-border vaccine mandates for truck drivers, but the occupation turned into a broader demonstration against Trudeau and his government. Protesters blocked the busiest land crossing between Canada and the United States for six days, snarling trade.

Tehran, 22 February 2022, (TON): Authorities said “an Iranian F-5 fighter jet crashed into a school compound in the northwestern city of Tabriz on Monday, killing two crew and a passerby.”

Local official Mohammad-Bagher Honarvar told state television “luckily the school was closed because of the pandemic.”

The aircraft was on a training mission when it went down around 9:00 am (0530 GMT) in the city’s central district of Monajem, said Honavar, who heads a crisis management unit in East Azerbaijan province.

The head of the local Red Crescent organization said the plane crashed into an external wall, and that one of the dead was a nearby resident.

A blaze broke out at the crash site and firefighters were seen battling the flames as a crowd looked on, in video footage by the official news agency IRNA.

The charred remains of the warplane could be seen amid the rubble of the school’s blackened facade.

The plane had been stationed at the Shahid Fakouri air base in Tabriz, base commander General Reza Youssefi told the broadcaster.

He added that it was heading back from the training mission when it encountered a technical problem that prevented it from landing.

DHAKA, 22 February 2022, (TON): Bangladesh and Australia have reviewed possibility of cooperation in offshore gas exploration and renewable energy as well as scope of diversifying trade and economic relations in line with the signing of the Trade and Investment Framework Arrangement last year.

A foreign ministry press release said “these was discussed at a bilateral meeting between Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen and his Australian counterpart Marise Payne held on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany.”  

During the meeting, the two foreign ministers also exchanged views on the Indo-Pacific in the backdrop of growing interest in the region.

They reaffirmed the importance of freedom of navigation for the shared prosperity and security of all in the region.

Dr. Momen urged Australia to continue to work on finding durable solutions to the Rohingya humanitarian crisis.

DHAKA, 22 February 2022, (TON): Officials say “in an effort to give further impetus to Dhaka-Delhi relations, the two neighboring countries are now planning to have enhanced engagement ahead of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India at a convenient time this year.”

An official said “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already extended an invitation to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to visit India in 2022 in commemoration of the Golden Jubilee of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.”

Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen is scheduled to leave Dhaka on Wednesday for India and the two sides are likely to begin the discussion during his engagements in New Delhi.

The foreign secretary will first go to Chennai from where he will head towards New Delhi.

In Chennai, Masud Momen will see the progress of the work as Bangladesh Deputy High Commission is getting operationalised.

He is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with his Indian counterpart Harsh Vardhan Shringla on February 24.

NEW DELHI, 22 February 2022, (TON): India and France have adopted a road map on the ‘blue economy’ and ocean governance to enhance partnership for the exploitation and preservation of marine resources through economic, infrastructure and scientific cooperation.

The road map was adopted at meeting between external affairs minister S Jaishankar and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian in Paris.

It is part of measures agreed on by the two ministers to deepen the bilateral strategic partnership, especially in trade and investments, defence and security, health, education, research and innovation, energy and climate change.

Jaishankar travelled to France after participating in the Munich Security Conference in Germany last week. France is among India’s closest strategic partners in Europe, and the two sides are also working with other countries in areas such as critical technologies and supply chains.

NEW DELHI, 22 February 2022, (TON): The first shipment of 10,000 tonnes of wheat from India for the people of Afghanistan will be despatched via the Attari-Wagah land border crossing, with more food supplies and other humanitarian assistance expected to follow in the coming weeks.

The shipment is being sent after the Indian and Pakistani sides finalised modalities for transporting the wheat via Pakistani land routes after weeks of negotiations.

India first offered to send 50,000 tonnes of wheat via the Attari-Wagah crossing on October 7, and received an initial response from Pakistan on November 24. Since then, the two countries have been engaged in talks on the modalities.

The first shipment will be formally flagged off at Attari-Wagah in the presence of India and Pakistani officials and representatives of the World Food Programme (WFP), which is responsible for distributing the wheat in Afghanistan.

KABUL, 22 February 2022, (TON): The UN children’s agency says it will pay Afghan teachers a monthly stipend for at least two months.

Salaries have been unpaid for months as the country plunged into economic crisis due to sanctions imposed by some Western governments on the Taliban administration.

Afghan families sell their children into marriage amid hunger crisis.

The country has been in economic crisis since the Taliban took over last August as foreign forces withdrew.

Restrictions on the banking sector due to sanctions and a drop-off in development funding left the new administration struggling to pay many public sector salaries, including for teachers.

KABUL, 22 February 2022, (TON): Acting Mines and Petroleum Minister Shahabuddin Dilawar has termed the auctioning of mining contacts a failed attempt and said “in order to ensure transparency, laws of the previous government are still being implemented in the ministry.

Key points of Pajhwok Afghan News exclusive interview with Shaikhul Hadith Shahabuddin Dilawar, acting minister of mining and petroleum.

Previous government laws are still implemented in the ministry of mines, we tried the auction process for one contract which was a failed attempt, now contracts are issued through bidding, in order to ensure transparency, mining contracts bidding is carried out in front of media persons, new government policy is that illegal mining will be fully stopped, individual stealing state property is a thieve,

A national thieve and national traitor, foreign aid is tied with bitter policies, our country is rich and we should depend on ourselves, after the takeover of new government, the mining ministry collected over five billion afs revenue.

Pajhwok: Afghanistan is rich in natural resource and people expect that the untapped natural reserve will help strengthen the country’s economy, what is you view how long it will take for Afghanistan mining sector to strengthen the country’s economy?