KABUL, 13 July 2021 (TON): Afghanistan's Kabul airport has been fitted with an air defence system to counter incoming rockets, officials said on Sunday, as the Taliban pressed on with a blistering offensive across the country.

Washington and its allies are due to end their military mission in Afghanistan at the end of next month, even as the insurgents say they now control 85 per cent of the country, a claim impossible to independently verify and disputed by the government.

The fundamentalist group's rapid gains in recent weeks have raised fears about the security of the capital and its airport, with NATO keen to secure a vital exit route to the outside world for foreign diplomats and aid workers.

The interior ministry said in a statement "the newly installed air defence system has been operational in Kabul since 2:00 am Sunday. The system has proven useful in the world in repelling rocket and missile attacks."

Interior ministry spokesperson Tariq Arian told AFP it had been installed at the airport, though officials did not offer details about the type of system or who had installed it.

KATHMANDU, 13 July 2021 (TON): The Supreme Court, in yet another landmark verdict, overturned Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s May 21 decision to dissolve the House of Representatives and ordered appointment of Sher Bahadur Deuba, Nepali Congress president, as prime minister by 5pm Tuesday.

The five-member Constitutional Bench led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana said that Oli’s claim to the post of prime minister as per Article 76 (5) was unconstitutional.

Reinstating the House yet again–the court had restored the House earlier on February 23 after Oli dissolved it on December 20. The bench has ordered to make arrangements for holding the House meeting by 5pm July 18.

Monday’s court verdict is expected to end months of political turbulence, but experts on constitutional matters said the bench has minutely examined various issues raised in the aftermath of the May 21 House dissolution so as to help understand the constitution.

According to experts “the court verdict primarily has saved the constitution from unravelling, and it has also set a precedent for future prime ministers, that they cannot dissolve the Parliament on a whim and for their short-term political gains.

Said Bhimarjun Acharya “this verdict has ensured the constitution’s longevity, and with a strongly worded verdict, the court has told the authorities to stop making a mockery of the constitution.”

 DUBAI, 12 July 2021, (TON): Oman’s Sultan visited Saudi Arabia on his first official overseas trip since assuming power last year, with talks expected to focus on the Yemen war and economic and investment cooperation as Muscat looks to shore up its finances.

Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, whose country has joined United Nations-led efforts to secure a peace agreement in Yemen, arrived in the Red Sea city of Neom for a two-day visit.

He was greeted by Saudi King Salman in what Saudi-owned media said was the 85-year-old monarch’s first face-to-face meeting since the coronavirus pandemic began - and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The sultan recently faced his biggest challenge with demonstrations against unemployment in the debt-burdened country, which is pursuing wide-ranging reforms and austerity measures. During the visit Saudi Arabia and Oman signed a document to establish a joint coordination council to oversee several agreements.

Oman’s foreign minister, Badr al-Busaidi, had told the Saudi-owned Asharq Alawsat newspaper on Saturday the opening of a delayed new road linking the two Gulf states would facilitate logistics and other infrastructure projects.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, 12 July 2021, (TON): Haitian police said they had arrested one of the suspected masterminds in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, a Haitian man whom authorities accused of hiring mercenaries to oust and replace Moise.

Moise was shot dead early on Wednesday at his Port-au-Prince home by what Haitian authorities describe as a unit of assassins formed of 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans, plunging the troubled Caribbean nation deeper into turmoil.

National Police Chief Leon Charles told a news conference the arrested man, 63-year-old Christian Emmanuel Sanon, flew to Haiti on a private jet in early June, accompanied by hired security guards, and wanted to take over as president.

Charles added “he did not explain Sanon’s motives beyond saying they were political, but added that one of those in custody had contacted him upon being arrested. Sanon, in turn, contacted two other intellectual authors of the assassination.”

He said “the mission of these attackers was initially to ensure the safety of Emmanuel Sanon, but later the mission was changed and they presented one of the attackers with an arrest warrant for the president of the republic.”

ANKARA, 12 July 2021, (TON): Local authorities said that a bus carrying Afghan, Pakistani and Bangladeshi migrants crashed in eastern Turkey, killing at least 12 people and injuring 26 others.

Two local sources with information on the matter told media that the crash occurred in Van province’s Muradiye district near the Turkish border with Iran, where the vehicle caught fire after tumbling into a ditch.

The identities of those killed in the accident were not immediately clear, both sources said, adding that the owner of the bus had been detained.

Turkey has been a key transit point for migrants aiming to cross into Europe. Migrants, mostly from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, regularly cross the Iranian border into Turkey on foot before being ferried west to cities such as Istanbul and Ankara.

NEW DELHI, 12 July 2021, (TON): India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, has proposed legislation that aims to discourage couples from having more than two children, becoming the second state ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party to make such a proposal.

If Uttar Pradesh were a country, its 240 million people would make it the world's fifth most populous, and population density in the northern state is more than double the national average. Under the state government proposals unveiled on Saturday, couples with more than two children would not be allowed to receive government benefits or subsidies and would be barred from applying for state government jobs.

The bill says that because of the state's "limited ecological and economic resources at hand, it is necessary and urgent that the provision of the basic necessities of human life are accessible to all citizen".

Per capita income in Uttar Pradesh is less than half the national average. The draft law, which is open for public comments until July, would need to be ratified by state lawmakers.

DHAKA, 12 July 2021, (TON): Members of the police’s Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crimes (CTTC) unit recovered a huge stash of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and bomb-making materials from a Neo JMB den in Araihazar area of Narayanganj on Sunday night.

Three IEDs were defused after the raid.

Another team of the CTTC arrested a suspected militant from Madanpur area of Kazipara in Narayanganj the same evening, Superintendent of Police Zayedul Alam confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune.

The identity of the arrestee could not be known immediately.

The CTTC members cordoned off the house located beside Miabari mosque in Noagaon area of Araihazar in the afternoon, and took time to assess the situation and launch the operation.

They raided the house in Noagaon area and arrested the youth from Kazipara based on information given by Mamun during interrogation.

The bomb, found near a police box in Siddhirganj of Narayanganj in May, was manufactured in this house.

DHAKA, 12 July 2021, (TON): Police arrested 18 Rohingyas from Chittagong who had reportedly fled the Bhashan Char refugee facilities.

The arrestees include four men, six women and eight children. They were captured by locals, who then handed them over to police in Mirsarai upazila of Chittagong.

According to Mirsarai Bangabandhu Economic Zone Security In-charge and Industrial Police Sub-Inspector Mohammad Ariful Islam, of the arrestees, one woman is pregnant while several children are ill.

Zorarganj Police Station Officer-in-charge (OC) Mohammad Nur Hossain Mamun confirmed that the locals had held the Rohingyas in the economic zone area before handing them over to the police.

During interrogation, the arrestees said that they had reached the economic zone area on a reserve trawler from Bhasan Char in an attempt to get to Kutupalong Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar.

ATHENS, 12 July 2021, (TON): Authorities said “Greek firefighters have brought dozens of wildfires under control despite high winds, after a coastal village had to be evacuated.

Holidaymakers and locals were among 500 people who fled Niborio village on Evia island after a large blaze ripped through a forest.

“The fire with the help of the wind moved south and as a result the Fire Brigade officer in charge asked for the preemptive evacuation of the Niborio inhabitants,” civil protection deputy minister Nikos Hardalias said in a televised emergency briefing after 51 fires were declared.

Four fires, all in areas of dried grass, were also burning simultaneously in different locations in the western Attica towns of Elefsina and Aspropyrgos on Saturday, while a forest fire in Varnavas, in the northeast of the peninsula, raged without threatening homes.

Sixty firefighters and 23 fire engines tackled the blazes, backed by six helicopters and seven planes.

By Sunday, all the fires were under control, the Fire Brigade said, while in Evia a 57-year-old man was arrested for arson.

COLOMBO, 12 July 2021, (TON): As part of the Pakistani government’s relief assistance to people affected by floods and landslides in Sri Lanka, Major General (R) Muhammad Saad Khattak, High Commissioner of Pakistan to Sri Lanka visited Anuradhapura, Kilinochchi and Arugam Bay to distribute dry rations to affected families.

In Anuradhapura, the ceremony to distribute dry rations was held at Mirisawetiya Temple. Ven. Ethawetunawewa Gnanatilake Thera appreciated the efforts of the Pakistan government and the High Commission to support the needy families.

At a ceremony held in the Security Forces Headquarter, Iranamadu, Kilinochchi, the High Commissioner distributed dry rations among people affected by flood in the region. He also met with Major General Harendra Parakrama Ranasinghe, Commander of the Security Force Headquarters (Kilinochchi) during which matters of mutual interests were discussed.

Apart from that, the High Commissioner also visited Jaffna for a meeting with parliamentarian Angajan Ramanathan, where matters relating to agriculture, education and further strengthening bilateral relations were discussed.