WASHINGTON, 11 February 2022, (TON): The US said “it is committed to supporting Saudi Arabia in the defense of its people and territory after a Houthi attack on the Kingdom's Abha airport, in which 12 people were injured.”

President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said “United States strongly condemns today’s terrorist attack.”

Noting that Houthi rebels had claimed responsibility for the drone, Sullivan said “Washington will work with our Saudi and international partners to hold them accountable.”

He added “America will have the backs of our friends in the region.”

The Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen said Saudi air defenses thwarted a cross-border attack at 12:05 p.m. that involved a booby-trapped drone launched by the Iran-backed Houthi militia in a deliberate attempt to target civilians at the airport.

Shrapnel rained down when the drone was intercepted and fell inside the airport grounds, coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki said, and part of a glass facade was damaged. Two Saudi citizens, four Bangladeshis, three Nepalese, an Indian, a Filipino, and a Sri Lankan were injured.

KABUL, 11 February 2022, (TON): The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said he had met the health minister in the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan for talks on the dire health and humanitarian crisis in the country.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus revealed that he met Qalander Ebad for talks.

Ebad is part of a Taliban delegation visiting Geneva for a week of talks with institutions and non-governmental agencies on humanitarian access and human rights, as Afghanistan’s new rulers expand their international engagement.

The Taliban movement returned to power in Kabul in mid-August as the United States ended its 20-year war in Afghanistan.

Since then, Afghanistan has plunged into financial chaos, with inflation and unemployment surging, while the halting of aid and US sanctions has triggered a humanitarian crisis in a country already devastated by decades of war.

Tedros had already met Ebad during his visit to Kabul in September 2021 in the wake of the Taliban takeover.

Tedros said “despite some improvements since then, the health situation in Afghanistan is still dire and the acute humanitarian crisis is continuing to put lives at risk.”

KABUL, 11 February 2022, (TON): A media report said “Afghan and Turkish foreign ministers have exchanged views on the current situation in Afghanistan.”

Amir Khan Muttaqi and Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke over the telephone, the Anadolu Agency reported, citing information from the foreign ministry in Ankara.

The acting foreign minister also thanked Turkey for sending a special charity train carrying 750 tonnes of emergency aid to Afghanistan. Cavusoglu called for the establishment of a government with broad participation of all factions for stability in Afghanistan.

The Turkish minister was quoted as saying “we are particularly concerned about the news regarding the disappearance of some women activists in Afghanistan.”

DHAKA, 11 February 2022, (TON): Six South Asian nations, including India and Bangladesh, are set to benefit from a new US$21.5 million (EUR 18 million) funding from the European Union, which will help to accelerate climate-smart, inclusive infrastructure investments in their regions.

IFC, the largest global development institution, focused on the private sector in emerging markets, will implement the project under the programme, Accelerating Climate-Smart and Inclusive Infrastructure in South Asia.

ACSIIS is a five-year programme (2021-2026) to help spur investments in energy, water, waste management, transport, logistics, and green buildings to benefit people and businesses in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

A press release said “ACSIIS would leverage USD$ 850 million of private sector investments in the region.”

IFC estimates that South Asian countries can unlock more than US$3 trillion of climate-smart investment opportunities by fully meeting the national targets under the Paris Agreement by 2030.

NEW DELHI, 11 February 2022, (TON): Australia is set to host India, Japan and the United States for the fourth Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Melbourne on Friday and the top diplomats are seeking to bolster cooperation in areas including economy, security, coronavirus pandemic and free and open Indo-Pacific.

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue is a partnership of Australia, India, Japan and the US, each of whom shares a commitment to openness and transparency and challenges posed by China and the situation in Ukraine

This is the first time Quad Foreign Ministers are meeting since the two Quad Summits last year.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne will be joining Indian Minister of External Affairs Dr S Jaishankar, Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Hayashi Yoshimasa, and United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss the positive and ambitious agenda of the Quad.

They will be discussing ongoing Quad cooperation in their bilateral phone calls and meetings.

Since there is a robust bilateral cooperation between the four countries, they are building on their institutional linkages to further Quad cooperation in areas such as healthcare, infrastructure, space, education etc.

NEW DELHI, 11 February 2022, (TON): An interim order passed by a court in India’s southern Karnataka state advised the students against wearing religious garments until it announces final verdict on petition filed against colleges barring Muslim students from wearing hijab.

According to Indian media “the Karnataka High Court on Thursday said that the matter would be heard again on Monday to decide if schools and colleges can order students not to wear the hijab in classrooms.”

"These matters give rise to certain constitutional questions of seminal importance in view of certain aspects of personal law," the judge hearing the case was quoted as saying while referring it to a panel of judges to be led by the chief justice of the Karnataka High Court.

However, the counsel for the petitioners objected to the interim order, saying it amounts to “suspension of our rights”.

DHAKA, 11 February 2022, (TON): Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said “there is no sector of the economy that has negative growth.”

He made the claim while briefing reporters on the outcomes of the two consecutive meetings of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs and the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase.

He presided over the two meetings held virtually.

He said defending his claim “you can easily find a calculation of the economy. There is no inflation while our exchange rates remain stable. When globally remittance was facing tough times, our (inward) remittance achieved 15% growth.”

He also said that the country’s revenue generation obtained 30% growth while the import and IT sector witnessed growth too.

Kamal mentioned that though remittance is not considered while calculating the GDP growth, it comes to the per capita income’s calculation.

He added “these are the areas of the economy. If there is any negative growth, it will be reflected into the economy.”

DHAKA, 11 February 2022, (TON): The Unite States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) awarded a nearly $1.5 million (Tk 12.90 crore) technical assistance grant to Power Cell to help improve the reliability, affordability and resiliency of Bangladesh’s electricity grid through smart grid infrastructure. 

A press release said “PC, a policy and planning agency under the Bangladeshi Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, will use the fund for improvement of the grid system.” 

Ambassador VinaiThummalapally (Ret.), USTDA’s Acting Director said “for USTDA, the grant we are signing is an important example of the climate-smart infrastructure projects we are looking to support.”

Vinai Thummalapally said “it has the potential to shape Bangladesh’s power grid, to make it more efficient and dynamic, and to create a stronger foundation for the integration of renewable energy solutions.”

USTDA’s assistance will provide a detailed roadmap that will provide an investment and implementation schedule for using smart grid technologies to improve the grid in Bangladesh over the next ten years.

 Massachusetts-based Boston Consulting Group will carry out the assistance.

Helen LaFave, Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Dhaka said “two-way communication brought about by a smart grid will allow us to generate and use power more intelligently and efficiently.  Implementing a smart grid is therefore an infrastructure development as potent as any bridge or flyover.”

JERUSALEM, 10 February 2022, (TON): Israel extended a deadline that might have halted its airlines’ flights to the UAE over an aviation security dispute, but warned of a potential crisis with the Gulf state unless the issue is resolved.

Direct El Al, Israir and Arkia connections from Tel Aviv to Dubai were among the fruits of a landmark 2020 deal establishing ties between Israel and the UAE. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have visited the UAE commercial hub since.

But Israel’s Shin Bet security service has voiced concerns — which it did not publicly detail — about arrangements at Dubai International Airport and said the three national carriers would stop operating there if these went unresolved.

The current arrangements had been due to expire on Tuesday. But a senior Israeli official said Transport Minister Merav Michaeli extended the deadline “by about a month” so the negotiations could continue.

Dubai authorities have so far not commented on the issue. In tandem with the deadline extension, Israel increased pressure on the UAE to address its security concerns.

THE HAGUE, 10 February 2022, (TON): The International Court of Justice on Wednesday ordered Uganda to pay $325 million in compensation to Congo for violence in a long-running conflict between the African neighbors that began in the late 1990s.

The compensation order came more than 15 years after the UN court ruled in a complex, 119-page judgment that fighting by Ugandan troops in Congo breached international law.

The court’s president, US judge Joan E. Donoghue, said. “the court notes that the reparation awarded to the DRC for damage to persons and to property reflects the harm suffered by individuals and communities as a result of Uganda’s breach of its international obligations.”

The sum awarded was well below the request for more than $11 billion in damages Congo had submitted to the court.

The court broke down the compensation into different categories of damages.

It assessed $225 million for loss of life and other damage to persons that included rape, conscription of child soldiers and the displacement of up to 500,000 people.