MALE, 7 April, 2021 (TON): In Wednesday’s parliamentary sitting, a total of 22 parliamentarians are on a leave of absence.

Parliament Speaker and former President Mohamed Nasheed, announced the attendance at the beginning of today’s sitting.

Nasheed said that only 22 MPs were in attendance today. Meanwhile, he specified that 22 MPs were on a leave of absence while two MPs were on official visits and three MPs were in quarantine. 

Speaker Nasheed said that out of the 22 MPs on leave, 20 were working in their constituencies. 

The Parliament’s General Committee had declared such visits by Parliamentarians to their constituencies as official visits and to depart in the cause of official visits, parliamentarians are required to obtain a document from the legislative body.

Nasheed specified today, that the most of parliamentarians had departed before the policy of official visits was passed by the committee and only two MPs, Alifushi MP Mohamed Rasheed Hussain and South Kulhudhuffushi MP Jamsheed Mohamed had departed under the policy

DHAKA, 7 April, 2021 (TON): Arguments with authorities who were trying to enforce the lockdown led to the allegedly planned arson attack, Faridpur district administration and the police said.

“The attack was carried out in a planned way based on rumors,” Saltha Upazila Nirbahi Officer Hasib Sarkar said.

On Monday, from around 8pm to 11pm, ‘thousands of people’ carried out vandalism and set the Upazila Complex and the office of Upazila assistant commissioner on fire.

After firing over 700 rounds of bullet, the law enforcers brought the situation under control.

Police detained three individuals, but no case has been started.

The UNO said, “We went to Ramakantapur area on Monday afternoon to put the lockdown in effect as per government instructions due to a spike in corona virus infection.

“After we returned, the locals spread rumors that several people had died from police firing and two Muslim clergymen from Bahirdia Madrasa had been arrested and beaten up. This led to several thousand people arriving with sticks and vandalizing and setting different places on fire from 8pm and 11pm,” it added.

However, besides detaining three over the incident, the police are preparing cases and running identification checks using video footages.

MOSCOW, 7 April, 2021 (TON): As the Myanmar Military junta continues its bloody crackdown on protests since 1 February, Russia on Tuesday warned against imposing sanctions on Myanmar.

The media cited the foreign ministry saying, threats, pressure and using sanctions against the acting authorities in Myanmar are futile and extremely dangerous.

Such policies "only contribute to setting the parties against each other", said the Ministry, adding that it would drive people into civil war.

The US, the UK, the European Union and Canada have already hit the military with a raft of sanctions.

Since the coup, the military junta has violently cracked down on protests and at least 564 people have been killed, including 46 children, and nearly 2,700 people are in detention, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

COLOMBO, 7 April, 2021 (TON): SL has imposed an immediate ban has been imposed on the import of palm oil, said an official on Tuesday.

The decision was taken by the Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who also ordered the gradual removal of the crops, in a move to eliminate the environmentally harmful cultivations in the country.

On Monday, the President ordered his officials to promulgate laws preventing fresh imports of palm oil. 

"The objective of the President is to free the country of use of palm oil and eradicate palm cultivations from the country," the spokesperson said.

The move followed the complaints made by the villages that it caused environmental damages, including deforestation, soil erosion and water pollution.

Under a phased out plan of 2019 to stop palm cultivation, the President ordered the uprooting of 10 per cent of existing palm plantations annually, and that they be replaced by rubber or environmentally friendly crops.

However, no immediate reason was given for the ban and the decision was criticized and resisted by a section of industry that uses palm oil to manufacture bakery products, animal feed and soaps.

ISLAMABAD, 7 April, 2021 (TON): As both countries are power by nuclear weapons, India and Pakistan cannot afford to engage in an all-out war, said Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.  

"Pakistan has a clear stance on trade with India. It's now India's turn to make the environment conducive for dialogue," he said.

Referring to Pakistan’s serious concerns on the situation in J&K, he said, "The people of Kashmir and different political parties had already rejected the Indian government's decision of August 5, 2019."

Qureshi said that it is Pakistan's firm belief that all issues could be resolved through dialogue, adding that it is India's responsibility to create conducive environment.

Qureshi's statement comes at a time when the Imran Khan-led government in Pakistan took a U-turn on its decision to open trade with India, summary of which was later rejected in the cabinet meeting, which reiterated that there can be no trade with India until it reverses its decision of 5 August, 2019, which changed the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated it into two Union Territories, by abrogating Articles 370 and 35A.

However, the Pakistan government maintains that its position on Kashmir cannot change, opposition benches have raised serious questions on the government's intentions and competency in taking major decisions related to the country's foreign policy.

NEW YORK, 6 April, 2021, (TON): The U.S. is pressing ahead with plans to hit six nations that tax Internet-based companies with retaliatory tariffs that could total almost $1 billion annually. 

The move will hit six nations including India.  

The six countries are Austria, Spain, Turkey, UK, Italy and India. 
Goods entering the U.S. -- ranging from Austrian grand pianos and British merry-go-rounds to Turkish Kilim rugs and Italian anchovies -- could face tariffs of as much as 25% annually, documents published by the U.S. Trade Representative show.  

The duties are in response to countries that are imposing taxes on technology firms that operate internationally such as Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc. In each of the six cases, the USTR proposes to impose tariffs that would roughly total the amount of tax revenue each country is expected to get from the U.S. companies.  

The Internet Association, whose members include Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, welcomed the USTR’s move.  

The USTR’s action “is an important affirmation in pushing back on these discriminatory trade barriers as the US continues to work to find a viable solution at the OECD,” the group said in a statement. 

There have been efforts to replace each individual country’s digital taxes with one global standard to be brokered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development but a deal has yet to be reached.  
The proposal is a key pillar of President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure spending plan, which calls for an increase in the U.S. corporate tax rate to 28% while eliminating some deductions associated with overseas profits  

Without a global minimum, the US would again have higher rates than a number of other major economies. 

JAKARTA, 6 April, 2021, (TON): Floods and landslides triggered by tropical cyclone Seroja in a cluster of islands in southeast Indonesia and East Timor have killed 113 people, with many still unaccounted for and thousands displaced, officials said on Monday. 

At least 86 deaths were reported on several islands in Indonesia’s West and East Nusa Tenggara provinces, while 71 others were missing, after the cyclone brought flash floods, landslides and strong winds amid heavy rain over the weekend, disaster agency BNPB said.  

In East Timor, which shares the Timor island with Indonesia, at least 27 people were killed by landslides, flash floods and a falling tree, while 7,000 were displaced, its government said.  

On Lembata island, authorities feared bodies had been washed away.  

Thomas Ola Langoday, deputy head of Lembata district government said, “We are using rubber boats to find bodies at sea. In several villages, flash floods hit while people were sleeping.”  

About 30,000 people have been impacted by floods in Indonesia, some already taking shelter in evacuation centres, but rescue operations have been made difficult after five bridges collapsed and falling trees blocked some roads, BNPB spokesman Raditya Jati said.  

According to local authorities, continuing storm had also halted evacuations in some places.  

Hundreds of houses and other facilities such as a solar power plant were damaged, BNPB said. Ships and motor boats sank as the cyclone set off waves as high as 6 metres. 

Fatal landslides and flash floods are common across the Indonesian archipelago during the rainy season. 

The disaster agency has estimated that 125 million Indonesians, nearly half of the country's population live in areas at risk of landslides. 

KABUL, 6 April, 2021, (TON): Four members of local policemen were killed in an attack on a security outpost in the eastern province of Nangarhar, Afghanistan on Monday night.  

According to the sources the attack took place in the Ghazi Baba area in Sorkh Rod district of Nangarhar.  

Local officials have not commented on the incident.   

Figures by security officials show that at least 26 members of Afghan forces were killed and 30 more, including four civilians, were wounded in separate security incidents in six provinces in the last 24 hours. 

Earlier on Sunday, 82 Talibans were killed in Afghan airstrikes in the Arghandab district of southern Kandahar province. 

The incident comes amidst a sharp increase in violence in the country ahead of a key conference in Turkey that is expected to change the direction of the Afghan peace efforts. 

In February, 2020, the US signed a peace deal in the final year of Donald Trump's presidency with the Taliban and also signed a declaration with Afghanistan government to start an intra-afghan peace talks. The entirety of this agreement is the complete settlement of conflict among those parties who signed it. 

DHAKA, 6 April, 2021, (TON): A protest over police enforcement of coronavirus restrictions in rural Bangladesh turned violent when a mob of demonstrators attacked a police station, resulting in at least three people being shot, police and a doctor said. 

The incident took place in the central town of Saltha in the Faridpur district on Monday. According to the police, rumours had spread about a man being injured in police sweep of a market aimed at enforcing health measures to curb the spread of COVID. 

Thousands of villagers took to the streets in anger. A group of them hurled bricks at a police station and vandalised government offices in the town, torching an officer's home and two cars belonging to government officials, police said. 

"Police fired in self-defence after they attacked the police station," a police spokesman said. A second police official, inspector Nur-a-Alam Fakir, confirmed the incident. 

Police did not give any casualty figures, but Abdul Matin, a doctor at the emergency ward of the state-run Faridpur Medical College Hospital, said three people were in critical condition after suffering gunshot wounds. 

Bangladesh on Monday instituted a seven-day nationwide lockdown after coronavirus case numbers reached record highs and fatalities skyrocketed in recent weeks. 

Earlier, tens of thousands of Hefazat supporters staged nationwide demonstrations against the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi late last month, which triggered deadly clashes with police. 

BEIJING, 6 April, 2021, (TON): China is holding naval drills involving an aircraft carrier battlegroup near Taiwan.   

China says that the naval drills are aimed at safeguarding Chinese sovereignty, an apparent reference to Beijing's claim to the self-governed island. 

Taiwan has complained of an increase in Chinese military activity near it in recent months, as China steps up efforts to assert its sovereignty over the democratically run island.  

The navy said the exercises involving the Liaoning, one of its two aircraft carriers, are routine and assigned under an annual schedule. China has been steadily increasing its threat to take control of the island militarily with exercises and incursions into the island’s air defense identification zone by Chinese warplanes. 

In a statement issued on late Monday, the navy said more such drills will be held in the future but did not say when the exercises began or how long they would last.  

It said the exercises aim to “assist in improving the ability to safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests,” terms often interpreted as being directed at Taiwan’s democratically elected government, which has refused to give in to Beijing’s demands that it recognizes the island as part of Chinese territory. 

China operates two aircraft carriers, of which the Liaoning, originally purchased as a hulk from Ukraine, is the first, having been operating in a combat role since at least 2019. 

China and Taiwan have had separate governments since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. Beijing has long tried to limit Taiwan's international activities and both have vied for influence in the Pacific region. 

Taiwan is China’s most sensitive territorial issue and a potential military flashpoint. China has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. 

In recent years, tensions have increased and Beijing has not ruled out the use of force to take the island back.