SANAA, 4 MARCH, 2021, (TON): Yemen's Houthi powers fired a missile at a Saudi Aramco facility in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea city of Jeddah, a Houthi military representative said on Thursday.

There was no immediate confirmation of the attack from Saudi officials.

Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said in a Twitter post that the rebels hit an Aramco facility in Jeddah with a Quds-2 missile at dawn on Thursday in retaliation for a six-year military campaign led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen.

He posted a satellite image that matched Aramco’s North Jeddah Bulk Plant, where oil products are stored in tanks.

The Iran-aligned rebels have struck Aramco facilities in the past, underscoring the vulnerability of Saudi Arabia’s expensive oil infrastructure.

Most of the strikes claimed by the Houthis caused limited damage and few casualties; their frequency has roiled energy and shipping markets in the oil-rich Persian Gulf.

Late last month, the Houthis targeted Riyadh, the Saudi capital, with drones and missiles.

Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when Shiite rebels “Houthi” with links to Iran took control of Yemen’s capital Sanaa.

The Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in 2015 to support Hadi's government. The Saudi-led coalition has continued to wage its campaign against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, resulting in heavy civilian casualties.

CAIRO, 4 March, 2021 (TON): The 78 years old Ahmed Aboul Gheit was reappointed for a second term as secretary-general of the 22-member Arab League on Wednesday.

From 2004-2011 Ahmed has been serving as the FM of Egypt and was first elected to lead the Cairo-based pan-regional body in 2016.

A diplomatic source said, “Arab foreign ministers unanimously decided to approve Egypt’s request to reappoint Arab League secretary-general Ahmed Aboul Gheit for a new five-year term.”

The Arab League was founded in 1945 that aimed to strengthen and coordinate the political, cultural, economic, and social programs of its members and to mediate disputes among them or between them and third parties.

Egypt's membership was suspended in 1979 after it signed the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty and the League's headquarters were moved from Cairo to Tunis. In 1987, Arab League states restored diplomatic relations with Egypt, the country was readmitted to the League in 1989 and the League's headquarters were moved back to Cairo.

DHAKA, 4 March, 2021 (TON): In order to prepare for PM Modi’s Dhaka visit, S Jaishankar, the external affairs minister of India, has arrived in Dhaka to prepare the ground.

On Thursday, at 10 in the morning, a special flight carrying the minister reached the Bangabandhu Air Base in Dhaka, where he was greeted by his counterpart AK Abdul Momen upon arrival.

The two ministers will hold a bilateral meeting at the state guest house the Padma at 12:15 pm. Jaishankar is also scheduled to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the afternoon.

At 5 pm, he will attend a function at Bharat Bhavan and will leave Dhaka afterward.

The two sides will discuss ways to take their partnership, especially in connectivity, forward beside the celebration, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam told the media on Wednesday.

The relations between the two countries have been seemingly getting deeper as India has recently allowed Bangladesh’s transports to travel to Bhutan and Nepal directly, and also, the sources said that the two will also discuss to cooperate on the ways to tackle the pandemic.

NEW YORK, 4 March, 2021 (TON): U.S. President Joe Biden calls for alliance with like-minded people, gives high alert about growing dangers to the International order from China.

On Wednesday, in a document he declared to support China’s neighbors and said, “We will deepen our partnership with India." introducing the document, he said it would "convey my vision for how America will engage with the world" and guide his administration while Washington begins work on a new national security strategy.

He called Beijing "the only competitor potentially capable of combining its economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to mount a sustained challenge to a stable and open international system".

To counter this as well as the challenge from Russia, U.S. will have to "promote a favorable distribution of power to deter and prevent adversaries from directly threatening the united states and our allies, inhibiting access to the global commons, or dominating key regions", he said.

"We can do none of this work alone. For that reason, we will reinvigorate and modernize our alliances and partnerships around the world," he said.

U.S.’s democratic alliances enable us to present a common front, produce a unified vision, and pool our strength to promote high standards, establish effective international rules, and hold countries like china to account, he stressed.

NEW YORK, 4 March, 2020, (TON): The UN's agent to Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, on Wednesday cautioned of the furthest down the line danger to the Rohingya Muslim minority in the country.

The Tatmadaw, Myanmar's military, which held onto control of the country a month ago in a coup, said it means to audit the proposals of the 2018 Advisory Commission on Rakhine State. This was led by previous UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan with the point of finishing the Rohingya emergency.

On August 25, 2017 assaults against police and military powers by a furnished gathering recognized as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), provoked the dispatch of supposed "clearance operations." Moreover to military and regular citizen setbacks, this brought about the mass relocation of countless Rohingya who had to escape from Rakhine across the line to Bangladesh.

As well as reexamining the proposals of the Annan commission, the upset chiefs are additionally evaluating crafted by the Independent Commission of Inquiry. This was set up in line with regular citizen pioneer Aung San Suu Kyi's government to examine the 2017 assaults and their outcomes, including claims of common liberties infringement and atrocities, with the end goal of considering liable gatherings responsible and finding a way to harmony.

Schraner Burgener said that if the Tatmadaw finishes on its expressed expectation to reexamine crafted by the two commissions, “then I really fear that they will go back to square one with the treatment of Rohingya.”

In its report, the Annan commission gave the public authority 88 suggestions, including the allowing of full compassionate and media admittance to the contention zones, and a fair examination of denials of basic freedoms supposedly did by the Tatmadaw.

It likewise required Myanmar's citizenship-confirmation interaction to be quickened by upgrading the 1982 citizenship law, the arrangements of which are liable for a great many Rohingya staying stateless. There were likewise various suggestions identifying with financial turn of events, foundation, wellbeing, schooling, law and order and social turn of events.

Schraner Burgener said that Soe Win, the delegate president of the Tatmadaw, at first guaranteed her that endeavors dependent on the commission's report to address the Rohingya exile emergency would “absolutely continue.”

Though, she said she was subsequently astounded to discover that the Administrative Council set up after the coup wanted to direct an examination concerning Annan's work because it had been completed. Aung San Suu Kyi, the representative said “in the self-interest of an individual without taking national interest into consideration.”

The Rohingya people have faced decades of systematic discrimination, statelessness and targeted violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar. More than 1 million Rohingya refugees from predominantly Buddhist Myanmar are living in teeming camps in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

In August 2017, a deadly crackdown by Myanmar's army on Rohingya Muslims sent hundreds of thousands fleeing across the border into Bangladesh.

MOSCOW, 4 March, 2021 (TON): On the allegations of poisoning the opposition leader Navalny and its sanctioning on Tuesday, on Wednesday, Russia threatened to retaliate against the U.S. and the European Union for imposing sanctions.

EU and U.S. teaming up is a hostile move towards Russia by announcing to punish Moscow, a new sanction, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharoca.

However, Kremlin said that the move indicated that the White House is again trying to cultivate the image of an external enemy.

Zakharova said while describing U.S.’s policy as baseless, she said that it is increasingly aggravating bilateral relations that Washington has already brought to a complete halt.

This is just a pretext for the continuing undisguised interference in our domestic affairs, and we will not accept this, she said.

"Based on the principle of reciprocity, we will respond but not necessarily with symmetrical measures," the Foreign Ministry threatened.

"If the US is not ready for an equitable and reasonable dialogue, it is their choice," the spokesperson said, adding that Russia will continue to consistently and resolutely uphold its national interests and rebuff any aggression, regardless of the US enthusiasm for sanctions.

The agitated Russian spokesperson denounced U.S and its policy to dictate one’s will to others as counterproductive stressing that times have changed the current geopolitical realities.   

NEW YORK, 4 March, 2021 (TON): One of the top UN envoys for South Sudan David Shearer said that despite little progress in the past four years the peace process in South Sudan remains extremely fragile.  

On Wednesday, the media reported citing Shearer that the country has progressed in terms of security and political stability.

"At the end of my four years in South Sudan, I look back with a certain level of comfort about how far the country has come," he told the Security Council in a briefing.

There is a cease-fire, a peace deal, and a transitional government. And local leadership is slowly being installed. The majority of people who flocked to point-of-care sites have either left or now live in newly transitioned camps for internally displaced persons, a result of improved political security, he noted.

As Shearer will leaving his post next month as the special representative of the UN secretary-general and head of the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, he will be replaced by Nicholas Haysom of South Africa.

NEW DELHI, 4 March, 2021 (TON): As the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won four out of five municipal seats in Delhi’s civic bodies by-polls, the party slammed the MCD ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) saying the Delhi is fed up of its corruption in civic agencies.

It said BJP failed to secure a single seat in the by-polls so the people of Delhi are agitated with the party.

Addressing the party workers after the results, Pathak said, "AAP's biggest victory of this by-election is that the BJP that has been in power in all the three civic bodies for the last 15 years got zero seats. I would like to first extend my gratitude to every AAP worker, who worked hard and delivered a better result. I would also thank all senior party leaders because of whom we could achieve such massive support from the people in the city."

He alleged that the BJP instead destroyed municipal corporations of Delhi. "Even as the financial conditions of civic bodies have deteriorated, the income of the BJP councilors and the party has increased. MCD's primary work was to ensure a clean city, but there is not one street in Delhi that can be said to be clean," Pathak added.

"MCD employees have been protesting for the last several months for their dues. Whenever we questioned the BJP ruled MCD over non-payment of salaries they say that they do not have money. Yet, they have the money to put up hoardings worth Rs 13,000 crore. This behavior by the party generated feelings of animosity among the people of Delhi," Pathak added.

AAP leader Durgesh Pathak, who was in-charge of MCD by-polls stressed that the people of the city have shown that the BJP has lost its ground in Delhi and they do not trust the BJP leaders anymore as they supported the AAP.

AL-MAHRA, 4 March, 2021 (TON): On Wednesday, the second phase of the winter clothes project was launched by KSrelief in Yemen’s Al-Mahrah governorate.

The KSrelief aid has benefited around 700 people, the reports said.

Saudi Arabia’s role in supporting and assisting the region was highly admired and applauded by Abdullah Neimer Local Council Secretary-General.

KSreilef has been doing a lot for a while, as in Yemen, it has distributed more than 77,000 tons of food items in the rural areas, specially Hadibu. Similarly, in Jordon, it has provided medical facilities in the camps of the refugees to around 500 patients suffering from various illnesses and dysfunctions.

LONDON, 4 March, 2021 (TON): On Wednesday, Britain signs a trade deal with Ghana, the latest bilateral agreement since it left the EU.

Duty-free and quota-free access for Ghana to the UK market and preferential tariff reductions for UK exporters to the Ghanaian market comes under the pact according to a statement on the UK government website.

“The Agreement will enter into effect following the completion of relevant internal procedures required in both Ghana and the UK,” both governments said in the statement.

It means Ghanian products such as bananas, tinned tuna, and cocoa can be traded to Britain without tariffs.

Before leaving Brexit, the U.K. laid economic partnerships with around 16 African countries so that it may continue to have the deals.

The EU deals with Africa also involved that African countries do not pay tariffs or duties on exports to the UK, however, Ghana was never included.

The UK also signed a trade deal with Egypt in December last year.

The UK wants to trade big with Africa and sees the continent's potential, as it is seemingly said that Ghana’s largest exports to Britain include mineral fuels and oil, preparations of fish, fruit, cocoa, and cocoa preparations.