NEW DELHI, 22 February, 2021 (TON): The climate change activist Disha Ravi’s case advanced as the Delhi police sought her custody for more than five days in connection with the toolkit on Monday.

Charges of conspiracy and sedition in the 'Toolkit' conspiracy who got arrested on 13 February from Bengaluru, the girl was brought before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma of the Patiala House Court at the end of her three-day judicial custody, amid high security.

In the last hearing, the police had told the court that her custody would be required on February 22 to confront her with co-accused Shantanu Muluk.

The Delhi Police have contended that the Google document tweeted by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg to back the farmers' protest and then deleted, was created by Ravi and two other activists Jacob and Muluk.

The famous 'Toolkit' is a series of guidelines suggesting how a particular aim can be achieved. Toolkits describe the plans of action explaining the topics at hand and offer suggestions that could be followed to achieve particular goals.

The Delhi Police further told the city court that Ravi Disha covered her track and deleted evidence like contents of the Toolkit and a WhatsApp group, which the public prosecutor emphasized, shows her "guilty mind".

During the three-hour-long bail hearing on 20 February, the police said that the 'Toolkit' was a sinister design to defame India and cause violence. However, the order on Ravi's bail application will be pronounced on Tuesday.

SUVA, 22 February, 2021 (TON): An emergency loan agreement has been penned by Fiji and Japan on Monday that will permit Fiji to get the 200 million Fijian dollars loan from Japan.

According to a statement from the Fijian government, during the signing ceremony, Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama said that the best way to build resilience over the long-term is to bring Fiji's pandemic hit economy fully back to life and this loan will allow the island nation to further strengthen its defenses against the pandemic, particularly its public health systems, media reported.

The loan comes with concessions such as a 0.01 percent interest rate and 15 years repayment period with 4 years grace period.

This agreement is the largest in Japan's loan history of aid and assistance to Fiji

As global economies got influenced by the past year’s tragedy, Fiji’s pandemic battered economy also contracted by 19 percent.

NEW YORK, 22 February, 2021 (TON): On Monday, the UNHCR called on for immediate rescue of the group of Rohingya refugees afloat in the boat in the Andaman Sea.

The refugees were without food and water and, many were ill and suffered dehydration.

The agency said some passengers had died, with fatalities rising over the weekend on a boat it said had left the coastal district of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh about 10 days ago and had experienced engine failure.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement, “In the absence of precise information as to the refugees’ location, we have alerted the authorities of the relevant maritime states of these reports and appealed for their swift assistance.”

The Rohingya,  a Muslim minority has suffered persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and many have fled in rickety boats, encountering often perilous journeys in the hope of reaching Malaysia and Indonesia.

“Immediate action is needed to save lives and prevent further tragedy,” it said, offering to support governments by providing humanitarian help and quarantine measures to those rescued.

The boat has been tracked to an area of the Andaman and Nicobar islands and was reported safe, but the condition of those aboard was not known, a senior Indian coast guard official told the media.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled a deadly crackdown by Myanmar’s security forces in 2017 and poured into neighboring Bangladesh, where about a million live in dire conditions in sprawling refugee camps, unable to work or leave without government permission.

KATHMANDU, 22 February, 2021 (TON): As the Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) was quoted saying that the country has found its most fearless prime minister to date, referring to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, the army of Nepal has clarified the misperceptions regarding the unproven comment circulating in social media.

"The country has found its most fearless prime minister in history so far, we take pride in this," has been shown as a direct statement made by CoAS Purna Chandra Thapa in the social media posts.

The information is not backed by any evidence, a fact-checking blog, Nepal Fact Check stated.

"We could not find any audio or video proof that would back this statement. Likewise, no news including such a statement by the army head can be traced in any media," states the fact-checking portal, adding, "Moreover, those who have posted this declaration have not specified when and where the CoAS said this."

"Therefore, we categorize this claim as unproven information."

Endorsing this, Nepal Army Spokesperson, Brigadier General Santosh Ballav Poudel, shared the full text of the speech given by CoAS Thapa at the opening of the "Inter-agency coordination in border security and management" seminar.

The CoAS had not made any such remark related to the prime minister, as proves the text of this speech. It may further be noted that the Prime Minister himself was attending this program, on 7 February, a day before the posts started becoming viral on social media.

While in another program, which took place later the same day, both CoAS and Prime Minister were present. However, CoAS Thapa was not scheduled to speak at all in this particular program.

The posts shared and re-shared by social media users have gathered multiple reactions but do not have a foundation from where they emerged. Meanwhile, this is not the first time that Oli supporters have resorted to disinformation to push their agenda.

BERLIN, 22 February, 2021 (TON): Ahead of a meeting of EU members, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Monday that the European Union (EU) may impose sanctions on Myanmar as a last resort after a military coup and a crackdown on the opposition in the country.

On his arrival in Brussels, Maas said that they are not prepared to stand by and watch.

“We will use all diplomatic channels to push for de-escalation in Myanmar but at the same time, as a last resort, prepare sanctions on the military regime in Myanmar.” He added.

The protests in the region have been at a hike since the Myanmar coup arrest took place on 1 February, 2021. The incident has been the center of attention for almost all the countries for there have been three weeks after seizing power, the junta in Myanmar has failed to stop daily protests and a civil disobedience movement calling for the reversal of the 1 February coup and release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

KINSHASA, 22 February, 2021 (TON): Gianni Infantino, President FIFA (International Football Federation) launched a project to organize a school championship in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This will be replicated at the African level, in the presence of President Felix Tshisekedi, current chairman of the African Union (AU).

"We launched today a project of a competition, a school championship here (in DRC) but we will replicate this throughout Africa from (the Congolese experience) because education, schools, and football must be in symbiosis," Gianni Infantino told media.

"We have a problem at the sporting level, but as Fifa has just allowed us to go back to the grassroots in schools, it allows us to have athletes who have a good level. It also allows our children to be physically strong," said Congolese Sports Minister Amos Mbayo.

The football giant has visited the country for the second time after its first visit in 2019 in Lubumbashi when the southeastern city was celebrating the 80^th anniversary of the Congolese club that won most titles in African football competitions.

CHATTOGRAM, 22 February, 2021 (TON): At the Chattogram’s Shah Amanat International Airport, on Monday the customs officials have recovered 17.4kg gold from an aircraft.

The gold was discovered on Biman Bangladesh’s flight BG-128 returning from Abu Dhabi on Monday morning, said Nurunnahar Lily, assistant commissioner of BCS Customs and Excise.

The official told the media that authorities carried out a search on a tip-off after the plane landed.

“We recovered 150 bars of gold, weighing 17.4 kilograms, after searching the air-conditioning panel above the passenger’s seat,” Lily said.

Authorities are yet to make any arrest over the matter and are crucially looking into who is connected with the smuggling of gold.

GUWAHATI, 22 February, 2021 (TON): On Monday, while addressing a massive public gathering at Silapathar in eastern Assam's Dhemaji district, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India's growth engine would be further boosted with the development of Assam and the northeastern region.

The Prime Minister said that the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' vision would be further strengthened with the 'Aatmanirbhar Assam' and northeast.

"To achieve the Atmanirbhar Bharat vision continuous endeavors are going on. Whenever I visit Assam, I get the fresh impetus and inspirations to do more for the northeastern region," Modi said after inaugurating and laying foundation stones of five mega projects worth Rs 3,000 crore in gas, oil, and education sectors.

"We are correcting the faults of the previous governments. If the policy is accurate, destiny would be perfect. Connectivity, health, education, and infrastructure developments were ignored by the previous governments."

Modi said that Assam's all-around development would make the development of India easier, as the government is trying to facilitate the people by trying to give engineering and medical education in local languages so that its benefit could be obtained by the poor students and learners residing in the far-flung areas.

With frequent addresses in the Assam region, many admired the PM for his great vision for the all-around development of the region has won the hearts of every person of the eight northeastern states.

KABUL, 22 February, 2021 (TON): On Monday, the Afghan parliament approved the current fiscal year’s budget.

The budget got approved when the majority voted after weeks of tensions between the two-state branches over the document.

The parliament rejected the budget’s draft twice since the fiscal budget year started on 1 December, 2021.

The MPs said, the lawmakers and the Finance Ministry officials agreed on Sunday on all the 19 disputed points, however; they still have to agree on the allocation of the budget for the High Council for National Reconciliation as well as over the reduction in the number of development projects.

The estimated budget for the fiscal year 1400 is over 473 billion Afs (nearly $6 billion), including 311 billion Afs ($4 billion) for the regular budget and 162 billion Afs ($2 billion) for the development budget. 

In the third and latest draft, 105 million Afs ($1.3 million) have been shifted to the regular budget from the development budget. 

Meanwhile, the regular budget, as usual, is twice as large as the development budget. 

Forty-six percent of the estimated amount is provided by internal sources, the budget document revealed.

AMMAN, 22 February, 2021 (TON): On Sunday, Jordon’s lower house parliament approved the budget that was described as the most difficult in the history of the kingdom.

A majority of MPs backed the draft budget law for 2021 and the budgets for independent public institutions as the country attempts to rebuild its economy from the pandemic.

With an estimated post-foreign aid deficit of 2.06 billion Jordanian dinars ($2.89 billion) or 6.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), compared with 2.16 billion dinars in 2020, the law was submitted to the MPs.  

Domestic revenues are estimated at around 7.8 billion dinars before foreign grants, which are expected to reach 577 million dinars, down from the 851 million dinars for 2020.

It is expected that the total value of the expenditure in the 2021 budget will reach 9.93 billion dinars or 31.2 percent of GDP, compared with 9.37 billion dinars or 30.6 percent of GDP in 2020.

Finance Minister Mohamad Al-Ississ said, inflation rates were projected to rise to “reasonable” this year, at 1.3 percent and that he expected a 6.5 percent growth in national exports with the world’s gradual recovery from the pandemic.

Al-Ississ had previously described the budget as “the most difficult for Jordan ever.”

However, according to the report of the World Bank, Jordan’s economy is expected to grow by 1.8 percent in 2021 and 2 percent in 2022.