MOSCOW, 18 February 2022, (TON): Ivan Malyuta, a resident of Donetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, applied for Russian citizenship this month and said he, his wife and three children will soon be getting Russian passports.

He said “at a Donetsk migration service office “I want to be a citizen of the Russian Federation. We are moving towards this, aren’t we?”

Malyuta and his family will join more than 720,000 residents of rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine who have received Russian citizenship and passports in a fast-track procedure widely seen as an attempt to underscore Russia’s influence in the region.

Russia threw its weight behind a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine in 2014, shortly after annexing Crimea in response to a popular uprising in Kyiv ousting a Kremlin-friendly president.

Moscow has denied deploying troops or weapons to the rebel-held areas, with government officials repeatedly stressing that Russia is not a party to the conflict, which has killed over 14,000 people.

Ukraine has been appalled by the efforts amid rising tensions and fears of a new invasion. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the European Union last week to impose sanctions on Russia for “its illegal mass issuing of Russian passports to Ukrainian citizens.”

RAMALLAH, 18 February 2022, (TON): Abbas’s office said “Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas met with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the Israeli-occupied West Bank for talks on reviving a two-state solution to the conflict.”

It was one of the highest-level meetings with an American official in recent years for the 86-year-old Palestinian president.

Abbas urged US action on what he described as “unilateral Israeli practices” that “undermine a two-state solution.”

Those included expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and moves to evict Palestinians from various parts of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, which Palestinians claim as their future capital.

Relations between the US and the Palestinian Authority effectively collapsed during former president Donald Trump’s administration, notably after Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s “undivided capital.”

PORT-AU-PRINCE, 18 February 2022, (TON): The US, European Union and others pledged $600 million in additional funds to help hundreds of thousands struggling six months after a powerful earthquake struck Haiti’s southern region.

The pledges made during a conference held by the United Nations and Haiti’s government fell short of an international push to raise $2 billion to help the country rebuild from a magnitude 7.2 quake last August.

It killed an estimated 2,200 people and destroyed or damaged more than 130,000 homes and some 1,250 schools.

Amina Mohammed, a deputy UN secretary-general, called the $2 billion figure “daunting,” but said Haiti needs international support.

She said “we are aware that aid budgets are under pressure across the globe. We also know there is donor fatigue. And we have heard, loud and clear, concerns about the results of aid in Haiti. But this is not the time to give up.”

Shortly after she spoke at the conference held at a hotel in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and also streamed online, the US Agency for International Development pledged an additional $50 million, the European Union more than $30 million worth of grants and Canada nearly $20 million, among others.

 Ariel Henry, Haiti’s prime minister, thanked the international community for the solidarity they showed immediately after the quake but said much needs to be rebuilt, especially in rural communities.

NEW YORK, 18 February 2022, (TON): Talks aimed at securing the release of five UN workers abducted by Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen have reached a deadlock after the Yemeni government refused to take part in a prisoner swap.

A local security official told Arab News that tribal negotiators had failed to convince terror group leaders to free the staff who were taken hostage while travelling in the southern province of Abyan.

The UN employees’ abductors had demanded a release swap for militant prisoners being held by the Yemeni government in Aden, along with a ransom of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The official, who wished to remain anonymous, said “they want us to release terrorist elements. They are trying to blackmail the state.”

The five UN workers, four Yemenis and a foreigner who were based in Aden, were seized in Abyan’s Moudia district while heading back to their office on Feb. 11. Their Al-Qaeda captors later demanded, through local tribal figures, that local authorities swap them with militant prisoners, and also demanded a ransom of SR1 million.

The security official said that the militants also demanded that the government pay money for relatives of dead militants and militant prisoners, threatening to kill the hostages if the security and army services tried to use force to release them.

RIYADH, 18 February 2022, (TON): Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum of understanding with Oman to build full partnership and integrative relations between the two countries on food and water security strategic objectives.

The deal was signed by Saudi Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman Al-Fadhli and Omani Minister of Agricultural Wealth, Fisheries and Water Resources Saud bin Hamoud Al-Habsi.

It aims to strengthen cooperation between the two countries in the field of integrated water management systems and related mechanisms of legislation, institutional framework and operations, in addition to launching initiatives and projects in fields related to food and water security.

The fields of cooperation include discussing climate change and its impact on water resources, avoiding its negative effects, supporting ground and surface water management, and exchanging knowledge, expertise, information and studies related to food and water security.

OTTAWA, 18 February 2022, (TON): Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said “he had sought emergency powers to end protests that blocked border crossings and central Ottawa because the standoff posed an economic threat that was hurting ties with the United States.”

Authorities have promised to clear out hundreds of truckers who have paralyzed central Ottawa, an act Trudeau had earlier called a threat to democracy.

A video by a CBC reporter showed two buses of police arriving in the central core of Ottawa, although there was no immediate sign of a move to clear protesters.

Police started to erect fencing around some government buildings. Trudeau invoked the little-used Emergencies Act on Monday, giving his Liberal government a wide range of additional temporary powers. read more

Trudeau told the House of Commons “the blockades and occupations are illegal. They’re a threat to our economy, the relationship with trading partners, they’re a threat to supply chains and the availability of essential goods like food and medicine.”

VIENNA, 18 February 2022, (TON): The calm outside Vienna's luxury Palais Coburg hotel belied the fraught diplomatic talks on Iran's nuclear programme being thrashed out inside.

Aside from a few television cameras keeping watch for envoys arriving in black saloons, there are no indications that the negotiations to revive the 2015 deal could achieve a breakthrough or fail in the next few days.

The building, built by Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1845 on an old city wall bastion, was soon dubbed the "Asparagus Palace" by locals in the Austrian capital on account of its slender columns.

Behind the ornate facade, meetings have often stretched into the evening, including at weekends.

The Iranian delegation's refusal to sit around the same table as the United States means the EU's Enrique Mora, who is co-ordinating the talks, constantly shuttles between the two.

WASHINGTON, 18 February 2022, (TON): US President Joe Biden said there was now every indication Russia was planning to invade into Ukraine, including signs Moscow was carrying out a false flag operation to justify it, after Ukrainian forces and pro-Moscow rebels traded fire.

Moscow, for its part, ejected the number two official from the US embassy and released a strongly worded letter to the United States accusing Washington of ignoring its security demands.

Biden's remarks came shortly after Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists exchanged fire across a frontline that divides them, in what Western officials described as a possible pretext created by Moscow to invade.

Biden told reporters as he departed the White House "we have reason to believe they are engaged in a false flag operation to have an excuse to go in. Every indication we have is they’re prepared to go into Ukraine and attack Ukraine.”

Biden ordered Secretary of State Antony Blinken to change his travel plans at the last minute to speak at a United Nations Security Council meeting on Ukraine.

US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told reporters "the evidence on the ground is that Russia is moving toward an imminent invasion. This is a crucial moment.”

Russia denies planning to invade its neighbour and said this week it was pulling back some of the more than 100,000 troops it has massed near the frontier. Washington says Russia is not withdrawing, but in fact sending more forces.

KABUL, 18 February 2022, (TON): The Afghan embassy in Washington is struggling with financial issues, a top Afghan diplomat said, saying that if the financial problems are not solved, the continuation of Afghanistan’s diplomatic mission in the US will be impossible.

The deputy Afghan ambassador to the US, Abdul Hadi Najrabi, said the US Department of State demanded that the embassy hand over all of its property. Earlier, the New York Times reported that Afghan diplomats in the US were seeking permission to remain in the US after they lost their pay and faced the possibility of being deported.

Najrabi said “the letter we received on February 1st by the US Department of State, we were asked to accept a date to transfer the property of the embassy to the State Department.”

According to the deputy Afghan ambassador “the Afghanistan embassy in Washington received several letters from the current Afghan government over establishing ties with the Afghan diplomatic mission in the US.

He said “however, the Kabul side made demands of us but we gave a negative response because we are still representing the former government.”

DHAKA, 18 February 2022, (TON): Another 1,904 more Rohingyas reached Bhasan Char from the city's Patenga Boat Club in the ninth phase under the supervision of Bangladesh Navy. 

Sources said “they arrived at the Bhasan Char after 24 hours after the 9th batch of Rohingyas reached there as a part of their relocation.” 

Earlier, they reached Patenga from Cox's Bazar's Ukhiya Balukhali camp and left for Bhasan Char with the help of five naval ships, after an overnight stay at a temporary transit camp of BAF Shaheen College. 

The first group of 1,642 Rohingyas reached Bhasan Char on December 4, the second batch of 1,804 Rohingyas on December 29, in 2020 and the 3rd batch of 1778 Rohingyas on January 29, fourth batch 1,464 Rohingya on January 30 and

Sources said “5th batch 2010 Rohingya reached on Feb 15 and 1,021 Rohingya reached on Feb 16, 2,260 Rohingya reached March 3, 1,759 more Rohingyas reached at Bhasanchar under the supervision of the Bangladesh Navy.”