DHAKA, 04 June 2021, (TON): A press release was issued in this regard by the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment that over 300 local travel agencies, approved by Saudia, formerly known as Saudi Arabian Airlines, will now be able to book hotels in Saudi Arabia through the airlines’ financial and software channels.

This move aims to ease complexities regarding Bangladeshi migrant workers’ institutional quarantine in the Middle Eastern country.

In the press release the Ministry said that Saudia has also agreed to reissue tickets without additional fees for those who missed their flights due to hotel booking related issues since 20 May.

Expatriates will be able to change the date of their tickets or get reissued from the respective travel agencies as well as from Dhaka’s Saudi Arabia Airlines’ office.

The migrant workers who will purchase up-down ticket of Saudi Arabian Airlines in Saudi Arabia will be able to reconfirm ticket or change its date at the offices of approved local travel agencies in different cities of Bangladesh including Dhaka, Sylhet and Chittagong.

A fee of maximum Tk2,000 for hotel booking and another fee of maximum Tk500 for ticket re issuance has been set separately and the fees have to be paid at the travel agencies.

NYAPYITAW, 04 June 2021, (TON): A military court in Myeik, Myanmar has sentenced two journalists namely Aung Kyaw, 31, a reporter for the Democratic Voice of Burma, and Zaw Zaw, 38, a freelance reporter for the online news agency Mizzima, to two years in prison for their reporting that was in violation of country’s law, spreading misinformation .

The two had been charged under a recently revised provision in the penal code with spreading misinformation that could incite unrest, a charge that critics say criminalises free speech. According to Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, about 90 journalists have been arrested since the takeover, with more than half still in detention, and 33 still in hiding.

The Democratic Voice of Burma and Mizzima are among five local media outlets that were banned in March from broadcasting or publishing after their licenses were cancelled. A statement issued by the Democratic Voice of Burma said Aung Kyaw was arrested 1 March 2021 for reporting about anti-military demonstrations in Myeik.

The news agency said it “categorically opposes the two-year prison sentence handed to Zaw Zaw and calls for the immediate release of all journalists unjustly detained by the ruling military including Zaw Zaw and another four detained Mizzima journalists”.

KABUL, 04 June 2021, (TON): According to Afghan police at least eight people were killed and nine others injured in two bomb blasts targeting minibuses in Kabul.

Ferdaws Faramarz, a Police spokesman said that the first explosion happened on a road in southwestern Kabul near a neighbourhood largely populated by the Hazara community. Four people were killed in that blast, and four others wounded.

Faramarz further said “hours later, a second bus was hit just a few kilometres away, also in a Hazara neighbourhood.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Taliban have strongly condemned the attack.

Two other buses attack incidents took place earlier this week to compel western forces to reconsider to review complete US and NATO withdraws in the coming months. It is being previewed that these attacks are self-engineered to impress international community that Afghan security forces are incapable to handle the security situation and foreign presence should be ensured for another decade.

TEHRAN, 03 June 2021, (TON): The navy said “one of Iran’s largest naval ships sank after catching fire while on a training mission off a strategic port near the head of the Gulf.”

According to the navy “the British-built fleet replenishment vessel Kharg, which measured more than 200 metres (more than 650 feet) long, caught fire off the port of Jask on the Gulf of Oman.”

Footage aired by state television showed a massive column of smoke rising from what it said was the burning vessel. The fire broke out in one of the systems of the ship, a navy statement said without elaborating. Firefighting efforts continued for 20 hours before the ship went down.

KHARTOUM, 03 June 2021, (TON): Sudan’s military chief Mohamed Othman al-Hussein has said the country is reviewing an agreement to host a Russian naval base on its Red Sea coast, which was reached under former President Omar al-Bashir who was overthrown two years ago after nearly 30 years in power.

General Mohamed Othman al-Hussein said in an interview “This deal was signed under the former National Salvation Government”.

He told Sudan’s Blue Nile TV “talks to review the deal to serve Sudan’s interests” had been held with a visiting Russian delegation last week.

News about the deal surfaced late last year on the official portal of the Russian government. The deal allows Russia to set up a naval base with up to 300 Russian soldiers, and also to simultaneously keep up to four navy ships, including nuclear-powered ones, in Port Sudan on the Red Sea.

In exchange, Russia is to provide Sudan with weapons and military equipment. The agreement is to last for 25 years, with automatic extensions for 10-year periods if neither side objects to it.

Al-Hussein said “We are negotiating a possible review to this deal, to ensure that our interests and our profits are taken into account.”

NEW DELHI, 03 June 2021, (TON): Days after India abstained at the UN Human Rights Council on a resolution proposing to set up a Commission of Inquiry into violations related to the latest round of violence in Gaza.

Riyad al-Maliki has written in a sharply worded letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar “India missed an opportunity to join the international community at this turning point, both crucial and long overdue, on the path to accountability, justice and peace”.

India was among 14 countries that abstained on the proposal for an inquiry into the alleged human rights violations around the Israeli action in Gaza, and the systematic abuses in the Palestinian territories and inside Israel.

He said “The resolution is not an aberration to the Human Rights Council. It is the byproduct of extensive multilateral consultations. It is the consolidation of years and thorough investigations into and reporting on Israel’s grave violations by States, United Nations experts, Human Rights treaty bodies and international organizations, without effective accountability measures”.

DHAKA, 03 June 2021, (TON): Prime Minister Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina strongly condemns cruel attacks carried out by Israel on Palestine.

Denouncing the recent Israeli attacks, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told parliament “Bangladesh is always with the Palestinians and will continue to extend all kinds of aids to them.”

PM Sheikh Hasina said "We’re always with Palestinian people. We extended all sorts of assistance to them in the past and are doing so today and will surely do that in the future.”

She further said "What happened in Palestine is extremely inhumane. Children were crying and roaming around after losing their parents. It can't be tolerated."

It is truly sad that the young children were injured and subjected to torture while they lost their parents, PM Sheikh Hasina said.

Coming down heavily on international organizations, she questioned: “Some international organizations had raised their voice for humanity many times in the past, but why were many of them silent this time?”

THIMPHU, 03 June 2021, (TON): The National Assembly’s good governance committee proposed 53 provisions of the Anti-Corruption Act of Bhutan 2011 for amendment.

Commencing the third reading of the Anti-Corruption (Amendment) Bill of Bhutan 2021, the committee’s chairperson, Ugyen Dorji, Dewathang-Gomdar MP, submitted that the provisions for amendment are proposed after the national law review task force recommended consolidating some provisions of the existing Act with other laws.

He said “third session of the Parliament forwarded the Bill to the committee and since they could not discuss it in the fourth session because of the Covid-19 pandemic, they reviewed the Act totally, as they had time.”

He further added that the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) proposed to amend 31 provisions of the existing Act. The committee met with various stakeholders and dropped six provisions proposed by ACC, but proposed to amend 53 provisions.

Ugyen Dorji also explained that the Bill harmonises 27 provisions of the Act with the Penal Code of Bhutan.

The discussion was mostly on whether the grading of the sentences should be specified as per the Penal Code or as per the committee’s recommendation that mostly leaves room for interpretation by the judges.

The committee proposed offences should be graded a misdemeanour or value-based sentencing and not specific to the existing provisions.

ISLAMABAD, 03 June 2021, (TON): A Pakistan Army soldier was martyred after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) exploded near a military checkpost in South Waziristan’s Kaniguram area, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

In a statement, ISPR identified the martyred soldier as Lance Naik Waqas Ahmed. The statement said, search operation was being carried out in the area to apprehend any terrorists present there when IED exploded. 

A day earlier, three children were killed near their house in the Tangi Badeenzai area in Ladha Tehsil of South Waziristan  when a “toy bomb” went off while they were were playing with it.

DHAKA, 03 June 2021, (TON): AHM Mustafa Kamal, Finance Minister of Bangladesh is set to place a Tk 603,681-crore national budget for 2021-22 fiscal year before parliament.

A prolonged pandemic has certainly taken a huge toll on businesses and the economy, a reality that is all too evident and as the Covid-19 pandemic situation is far from easing, the government faces a formidable challenge today in getting the economy back on a recovery trail.

As Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal places a Tk 603,681-crore proposed national budget for the 2021-22 financial year in parliament on Thursday afternoon, he must be knowing very well that a budget is much more than just a figure.

Figure-wise the proposed amount is Tk 35,681 crore more than what has been the passing fiscal’s budget volume. But the businessman-turned finance minister must be crossing fingers on how to finance this budget, with the government’s revenue collection apparatus going through a tough time in meeting higher revenue targets during the relentless pandemic.

The government’s proposed budget outlay will have a sizeable chunk earmarked for the health and education sectors and understandably so, given the current pandemic realities. If there is one lesson the pandemic has taught us the hard way, it is that investment in the health sector is worth more than anything else.