LAUSANNE, 25 February, 2021 (TON): Brisbane has been named by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as a preferred bidder to host the 2032 Olympic Games.

The IOC's future host commission recommended the body enters a "targeted dialogue" with Brisbane bid organizers and the Australian Olympic Committee.

Several other countries had also expressed an interest in hosting the Games, including Indonesia, Budapest, China, Doha, and Germany's Ruhr Valley.

Sydney hosted the 2000 Olympic Games.

The state of Queensland hosted the 2018 Commonwealth Games and Brisbane was praised for its high percentage of existing venues, a good master plan, experience in organizing major events, and its favorable weather.

The delayed 2020 Olympics will be held in Tokyo, Japan in the summer, with Paris in France staging the 2024 Games and Los Angeles in the United States hosting the 2028 Olympics.

The IOC overhauled its bidding rules in 2019 to reduce costs and make the process easier for cities. However, there are no official candidate cities campaigning before the vote as has been the case in the past.

BANGKOK, 25 February, 2021 (TON): On Wednesday, three present Thai Cabinet ministers lost their posts due to their court verdicts for jail in relation to 2014's Bangkok shutdown and street protests which had been unlawfully harmonized by them.

Media reported that Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan, Digital Economy and Society Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta, and Deputy Transport Minister Thavorn Senniam, who received jail terms ranging from five years to seven years and four months respectively, have automatically lost their ministerial seats.

The Criminal Court ruled a group of 39 defendants, all being former political activists attached to the now-defunct People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), guilty of illicitly organizing the massive anti-government protests against the government of the former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

Former deputy prime minister and former secretary-general of the PDRC Suthep Thaugsuban were among the convicts and sentenced to five years in jail.

CAIRO, 25 February, 2021 (TON): With the intention of mending relations with Doha in the wake of the AlUla agreement, Qatar and Egypt have agreed to appoint envoys and reopen their embassies.

The resolve came after delegations from both countries held talks in Kuwait to plan the normalization of links between the nations.

“The two parties agreed to resume the work of their diplomatic missions followed by the appointment of an Egyptian ambassador in Doha and a Qatari ambassador in Cairo,” an Egyptian diplomatic source said.

The AlUla agreement, signed on Jan. 5 during the Gulf Cooperation Council summit held in the ancient city, saw Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt restore ties with Qatar, ending a dispute which started in 2017.

Sources reported that Ibrahim Abdul Aziz Al-Sahlawi, Qatar’s permanent representative to the Arab League was expected to become Doha’s envoy in Cairo.

Cairo and Doha thanked Kuwait for hosting the first round of talks between them and for its efforts to heal the rift and promote Arab unity.

Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently announced that Cairo and Doha had exchanged two official memoranda agreeing to restore diplomatic relations and on Jan. 18 flights between Egypt and Qatar resumed after having been suspended for more than three years.

The meeting involved a discussion on the ways to enhance joint work and bilateral relations in areas including security, stability, and economic development.

RIYADH, 25 February, 2021 (TON): A meeting held by Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Shahin Abdullayev with the joint Saudi-Azerbaijani Parliamentary Friendship Committee of the Shoura Council in Riyadh.

It examined various ways to strengthen cooperation between the two countries in various fields, especially at the level of parliamentary relations between the Shoura Council and the Azerbaijani parliament.
The meeting was co-chaired by Dr. Faiz Al-Shehri, member of the Shoura Council and head of the committee.

Abdullayev wished the council success in its new session and expressed his appreciation for the Kingdom’s policies to enhance security, peace, and stability in the Gulf region and beyond.
Al-Shehri ran through the Shoura Council’s organizational structure and highlighted the importance of the diplomatic role played by parliamentary friendship committees.

In February 2017, Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan celebrated the 25th anniversary of their diplomatic relations.

NEW DELHI, 25 February, 2021 (TON): On Wednesday, Narendra Singh Tomar Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare urged the states to ensure that all eligible beneficiaries under the flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) of the Modi-government are covered.

The scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24 February, 2019 from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.

While addressing a program on completion of two years of PM-Kisan, the Union minister informed since the inception of the scheme, Rs 1, 15,638.87 crores has been transferred to more than 10.75 crore beneficiaries.

The financial benefit of Rs 6,000 is transferred by the Central government in three four-monthly installments of Rs 2,000 each over the year directly into the bank accounts of the eligible farmers under the direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode.

Praising the hard work of the farmers, he said regardless of the adversity the hard work of the farmers has the potential to get the country out of any crisis.

The Centre has approved an annual budgetary provision of Rs 65,000 crore for the scheme for the financial year 2020-21.

Speaking about the sufficient budgetary allocation under the scheme, Tomar requested the state governments to run campaigns for the registration of the beneficiaries in their states so that not a single needy farmer remains deprived of the benefits of this scheme.

On the occasion, Tomar, who is also the Union Minister for Rural Development, Panchayat Raj, and Food Processing Industries, awarded the top-performing states and districts for their exemplary work with respect to the implementation of the PM-Kisan scheme.

PYONGYANG, 25 February, 2021 (TON): On Thursday the media reported that North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un has presided over a Central Military Commission meeting to discuss the discipline among the military officials and stricter control over the younger officers.

On Wednesday, at the expanded military commission meeting of the ruling Workers' Party Kim stressed the importance of establishing revolutionary moral discipline particularly among the younger generation in the Army.

"To establish the revolutionary moral discipline within the KPA is not just a technical issue, but a fatal issue related to the existence of the KPA and success or failure in the army building and military activities," Kim said, referring to the People's Army.

Kim also called for intensified education and control to ensure that the commanding officers of the "new generation have the proper political consciousness and moral point of view."

The meeting also saw a discussion of "a series of shortcomings revealed in the military and political activities and moral life of KPA commanding officers."

It seems that amid challenges from global sanctions and the country's prolonged fight against the global pandemic, Kim's criticism appears to be aimed at tightening discipline among military officers in this regard.

ADDIS ABABA, 25 February, 2021 (TON): The foreign minister of Ethiopia Demeke Mekonnen Hassen told a United Nations human rights meeting that the humanitarian access in the Tigray region is so far improving; however, security remains "a work in progress."

"Full return to stability is a work in progress. But there is no doubt the situation keeps on improving, allowing better movement of humanitarian operations except for a few pocket areas where there is sporadic shooting by these remnants (of opposition forces). Emergency humanitarian assistance is being delivered in 36 wards of the (inaudible) region at 92 food distribution centers," Demeke said.

The responsibilities to all refugees were very seriously handled by Ethiopia, as it had reached out to two million people in need of aid, he said.

A United Nations report on Sunday sounded the alarm over a 'very critical malnutrition situation' unfolding in Tigray.

Last November, the conflict in Tigray erupted after the government’s loyal, the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) attacked federal army camps located in the region, killing troops and seizing weapons. But the TPLF has since been ousted from power and arrest warrants issued against the region's fugitive leaders as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered a 'law enforcement operation to restore constitutional order' after accusing the TPLF of waging a rebellion against Addis Ababa.

Aid agencies have lamented their inability to access some parts of the region as food stocks for the displaced and refugees and medical supplies for hospitals run low.

DHAKA/WASHINGTON, 25 February, 2021 (TON): In order to create a conducive environment for the repatriation of the refugees from Bangladesh, the foreign minister of Bangladesh AK Abdul Momen suggested the US to appoint a special envoy on Rohingya to press Myanmar.

The government said in a statement on Wednesday, the foreign minister made the recommendation during a phone conversation with Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, in Washington on Tuesday.

Momen thanked the US government for its humanitarian and political support to Bangladesh to cope with the Rohingya exodus.

He emphasized that the US should take the lead, and bring the international community together to put enough political pressure on Myanmar to create the condition for sustainable return of the Rohingya and also thanked the US government for imposing sanctions on some Myanmar individuals

Secretary Blinken assured his country’s support for Bangladesh on the Rohingya issue and appreciated Bangladesh for sheltering over one million Rohingya refugees and showed his government’s full understanding of the tremendous pressure the crisis has created on the government and the people of Bangladesh.

Ned Price, the spokesperson for the US Department of State, said in a statement that Momen and Blinken discussed Myanmar, a durable solution to the Rohingya refugee crisis, and the importance of respect for labor and human rights.

Blinken congratulated Momen on Bangladesh’s 50th anniversary of independence in 2021, and both leaders expressed the desire for closer collaboration to address challenges in South Asia and the greater Indo-Pacific region.

During the successful bilateral talks, ways to deepen economic, counterterrorism, and defense cooperation, and work together to address common challenges such as climate change were discussed by the two.

LUCKNOW, 24 February 2021, (TON):  The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Bill, 2021 have been passed by the Legislative Assembly on 24 February 2021. Now under the Unlawful Conversion bill, offenders can land in jail for up to five years awarded penalty of Rs 15,000 for forceful religious conversion. For conversions of minors and women of the SC/ST community, beside imprisonment, there will enhanced penalty of Rs 25,000.

 In January 2021, the Supreme Court of India declined to stay the provisions of an Uttar Pradesh Ordinance and a Uttarakhand law, brought to checking unlawful religious conversions for inter-faith marriages. A bench headed by Chief Justice S. A. Bobde agreed to examine the validity of legislation, 'The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020' and the 'Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2018', and issued notice to the two-state governments. The Supreme Court of India has sought a response within four weeks.

GENEVA, 24 February, 2021 (TON): On Wednesday, the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirms marking the latest international re-engagement, that the U.S. will seek election to the U.N. Human Rights Council later this year.

President Joseph Biden’s administration would work to eliminate what he called the Geneva forum’s “disproportionate focus” on U.S. ally Israel, Blinken said while addressing the council by recorded video.

“I’m pleased to announce the United States will seek election to the Human Rights Council for the 2022-24 term. We humbly ask for the support of all U.N. member states in our bid to return to a seat in this body,” Blinken said.

“As the United States re-engages, we urge the Human Rights Council to look at how it conducts its business. That includes its disproportionate focus on Israel,” Blinken said.

Annual elections for three-year membership on the 47-member council are due to be held at the U.N. General Assembly in October. Britain, China, and Russia are among current members.

As it is known that under former President Donald Trump’s administration, the United States quit the council in June 2018 but the Biden government returned as an observer earlier this month.