WASHINGTON, 08 July 2021 (TON): A State Department spokesman said that the United States’ top envoy for North Korea spoke with his Chinese counterpart, after Pyongyang’s repeated rejection of the Biden administration’s attempts to establish dialogue.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said “earlier its special representative on the Korean Peninsula, Liu Xiaoming, spoke by phone with U.S. special representative Sung Kim and that the two “agreed to keep contact.”

Kim visited South Korea last month to try to break an impasse in denuclearization talks with the North, which has not responded to Washington’s attempts at contact since President Joe Biden took office in January.

Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, held three summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but failed to persuade him to give up his nuclear weapons.

State Department spokesman Ned Price confirmed the call but declined to detail what was discussed.

Washington would work with allies South Korea and Japan on North Korea, and China has a role to play as well and obviously has influence with the regime,” Price said.

MALE, 08 July 2021 (TON): The Parliament of Maldives has approved a resolution to officially declare a stand on the matter of Palestine within the international community.

This resolution was proposed by the MP for Villingili Constituency Saud Hussain.

The resolution calls on the international community to take a stand and encourage to call for the end of Israeli occupation and annexation of Palestinian land and to denounce the continued inhuman aggression of Israel and call the international community to accept Palestine as an independent sovereign state.

The resolution was passed by the votes of 44 members. 33 votes were needed to pass the resolution. No member voted against passing the resolution.

While the Parliament has decided to officially declare their stand on the matter of Palestine, Maldives have shown solidarity with Palestine on many previous occasions and have condemned Israeli systematic violation of the human rights of Palestinians.

COLOMBO, 08 July 2021 (TON): The United States has maintained a warning of the threat of terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka.  In an updated travel advise, Americans have been told to reconsider travel to Sri Lanka because of the threat of terrorism.

 The US State Department said that that terrorists may attack with little or no warning in Sri Lanka, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets, shopping malls and government facilities.

It also says hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, parks, major sporting and cultural events, educational institutions, airports, hospitals, and other public areas are also at risk.

The US State Department issued the updated travel advise.

 Following an earlier update in May when the terror warning was maintained, the US Embassy in Sri Lanka had clarified that the travel advisory issued at the time had been solely due to the terrorist threat level was maintained as earlier and not changed.

DUBAI, 08 July 2021 (TON): A container ship anchored at one of the world’s largest ports in Dubai caught fire, local authorities said, after an explosion shook the commercial hub of the United Arab Emirates.

The blaze sent up giant orange flames on a vessel at the crucial Jebel Ali Port, the busiest in the Middle East, which sits on the eastern side of the Arabian Peninsula, but authorities said the situation is under control.

A fire caused by an explosion within a container on board a ship at Jebel Ali Port has been brought under control; no casualties have been reported.

The combustion unleashed a shock wave through the city, shaking buildings and windows in neighbourhoods as far as 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the port.

At least three residents in the area of the blast, the cause of which remains unknown, reported windows and doors in their homes were shaken as a result of the incident.

There were no immediate reports of casualties at the port, which is also the busiest port of call for American warships outside of the US.

MUZAFFARABAD, 08 July 2021 (TON): The Jammu Kashmir National Front (JKNF) paid eulogizing tributes to prominent freedom fighter Shaheed Burhan Muzaffar Wani, on his 5th martyrdom anniversary.

In a statement, the JKNF spokesperson Shafiq-ur-Rehman highlighted the martyred commander's supreme sacrifices and peerless contribution towards the ongoing freedom struggle.

He said "Shaheed Burhan would be remembered in the history of Kashmir as a symbol of resistance against Indian occupation. The way he (Burhan) imbibed new spirit and gave a new direction to the movement is a proud legacy that would continue to inspire our coming generations.”

The spokesman added that we owe a debt gratitude to the martyrs who sacrificed their precious lives for the noble cause and brought Kashmir issue at the center stage internationally.

The spokesman also praised the Wani family's contribution to the liberation struggle, saying that Burhan's elder brother had also laid down his life for the cause while fighting against the occupation forces.

MUZAFFARABAD, 08 July 2021 (TON): While describing Shaheed Burhan Wani as a role model for the freedom fighters across the globe, AJK President, Sardar Masood Khan said that his valiant struggle for the liberation of Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and the martyrdom will continue to be a source of inspiration for the young minds.

In a special message on the fifth martyrdom anniversary of Kashmir’s most beloved freedom fighter, AJK President said “Shaheed Wani would always be remembered on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) for his courageous struggle against the illegal Indian rule and the supreme sacrifice of his life for the noble cause of freedom and liberty.”

Wani, a resident of Tral and commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen was martyred along with two associates by the Indian troops in a fake encounter in the Kokernag area on July 8 in 2016. His martyrdom had triggered a sustained wave of protests that claimed the lives of at least 100 civilians.

The AJK President, while paying tributes to Shaheed Wani said that that the history of Kashmiris’ struggle will remain incomplete without the chapter of Burhan Wani because he is a hero and a glittering star of the liberation struggle, which has been continuing for the last seven decades.

The state president said that the Shaheed Burhan Wani at his young age had devoted himself to the Kashmir liberation movement and had carried forward the liberation struggle with his valor, wisdom, and vision in a way that he had become the role model for the liberation movements across the world.

NEW DELHI, 08 July 2021 (TON): Twelve Indian government ministers resigned Wednesday, hours ahead of an expected reshuffle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet aimed at refurbishing its image after widespread criticism of its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, whose response to the epidemic came under close examination, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister DV Sadananda Gowda, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar were among those who resigned.

President Ram Nath Kovind's office said he accepted their resignations as advised by the prime minister. The Press Trust of India said 43 Cabinet ministers and junior ministers were expected to be sworn at a ceremony in the presidential palace.

Modi's government is facing increasing criticism for its handling of the pandemic. It is the first Cabinet reshuffle since he was returned to power for a second term in 2019.

KABUL, 08 July 2021 (TON): Afghan military officials said that the U.S. left Afghanistan’s Bagram Airfield after nearly 20 years by shutting off the electricity and slipping away in the night without notifying the base’s new Afghan commander, who discovered the Americans’ departure more than two hours after they left.

The U.S. announced it had completely vacated its biggest airfield in the country in advance of a final withdrawal the Pentagon says will be completed by the end of August.

Gen. Mir Asadullah Kohistani, Bagram’s new commander said “we (heard) some rumor that the Americans had left Bagram and finally by seven o’clock in the morning, we understood that it was confirmed that they had already left Bagram.”

U.S. military spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett did not address the specific complaints of many Afghan soldiers who inherited the abandoned airfield, instead referring to a statement last week.

The statement said “the handover of the many bases had been in the process soon after President Joe Biden’s mid-April announcement that America was withdrawing the last of its forces. Leggett said in the statement that they had coordinated their departures with Afghanistan’s leaders.

According to Afghan military officials “before the Afghan army could take control of the airfield about an hour’s drive from the Afghan capital Kabul, it was invaded by a small army of looters, who ransacked barrack after barrack and rummaged through giant storage tents before being evicted.

ACCRA, 07 July 2021, (TON): Hundreds of opposition supporters marched through the streets of Ghana’s capital Accra demonstrating against what they described as rising insecurity and lawlessness since President Nana Akufo-Addo came to power in 2017.

Wearing mostly red or black, the youth wing of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) danced through the streets with signs such as “You tweeted for George Floyd … Ghanaians have died, speak up!”.

Accompanied by the honking of motorcycle horns and music blasting from pick-up trucks, the group delivered a petition to the offices of the president and speaker of parliament.

George Opare Addo, the National Youth Organizer for the NDC, posted on Twitter “thank you to the Youth of Ghana for turning up and having a peaceful protest.”

“May the powers that be see reason in our protest and act accordingly.”

The marchers pointed to a string of high-profile murders across the country.

“The recent killings in the city have put fear in us. We are afraid to go out at night for fear of being killed,” said Kingsley Boateng, a 40-year-old mechanic.

Two protesters were shot dead and four wounded in clashes with security forces in the southern region of Ashanti last month, in rallies over the death of youth activist Ibrahim “Kaaka” Mohammed.

NAYPYITAW, 07 July 2021, (TON): On May 24 in Myanmar’s Kachin State, 13-year-old Awng Di walked over to his aunt’s house about noontime to feed her chickens. Thirty minutes later, heavy artillery crashed through the chicken coop; Awng Di died before reaching the nearby clinic.

“Our family has never been involved in politics.. We’re just trying to survive,” Awng Di’s mother told media. “Now, I want to curse [the military soldiers] every time I see them.”

According to UN estimates “Momauk township, where Awng Di was from, has been the site of clashes between the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s military, and the Kachin Independence Army, the armed wing of an ethnic armed organisation, since April. The uptick in violence in Momauk and other parts of Kachin State has displaced more than 11,000 people.”

The clashes in Momauk mark a broader escalation in fighting across the country since the February 1 military coup, as decades-long conflicts between the Tatmadaw and ethnic armed organisations in Myanmar’s border areas resume or accelerate, and civilian defence forces emerge in townships that had not previously seen fighting.

In response to the increase in armed resistance, the Tatmadaw has launched indiscriminate air and ground strikes on civilian areas, displacing 230,000 people since the coup. Security forces have also looted and burned homes, blocked aid access and the transport of relief items, restricted water supplies, cut telecommunications networks, shelled places of refuge, and killed and arrested volunteers seeking to deliver humanitarian assistance.

According to Kim Jolliffe, an independent researcher focused on security and conflict in Myanmar, the four cuts strategy “treats civilians not just as ‘collateral damage’ but as a central resource in the battlefield.

He told media “they are targeted directly with extreme violence and see their livelihoods intentionally destroyed so that armed groups cannot find sanctuary and civilian support.”