WASHINGTON, 22 February, 2021 (TON): Taking into notice the conditions in Myanmar, U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken said on Sunday that the United States will keep up "firm action" against Myanmar authorities violently cracking down on opponents of a military coup.

More than two weeks of daily protests and a civil disobedience movement demanding the reversal of the 1 February coup, Myanmar's security forces are unable to stop the demonstrations.

"The United States will continue to take firm action against those who perpetrate violence against the people of Burma as they demand the restoration of their democratically elected government," Blinken said.

"We stand with the people of Burma," he added.

After the United States imposed sanctions on the acting president of Myanmar, also known as Burma, and several military officers, Blinken’s assurance came 10 days later.

President Joe Biden approved sanctions on those responsible for the ouster of the Southeast Asian nation's civilian-led government, including the defense minister and three companies in the jade and gems sector.

"If there is more violence against peaceful protesters, the Burmese military will find that today's sanctions are just the first," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned at the time of the Feb 11 sanctions.

Besides, the official also updated sanctions on Myanmar's top two military officials, accusing them of playing a leading role in the coup.

RIYADH, 22 February, 2021 (TON): Kingdom is working to protect and promote human rights around the world as it launched new human rights training programs, the Saudi Human Rights Commission (HRC) president said on Sunday.

As the HRC and Alwaleed Philanthropies launched a series of training programs and seminars as part of an MoU signed by both parties in the presence of Princess Lamia bint Majed Saud Al-Saud, secretary-general and member of the board of trustees at Alwaleed Philanthropies, Dr. Awwad bin Saleh Al-Awwad added that human rights are the responsibility of all sectors of the state, institutions, and individuals.

The HRC is ready to cooperate with all local, regional and international establishments working in the field of human rights, Al-Awwad said.

He further added that the commission is aiming to integrate human rights methodology into the sector, strengthen interaction with human rights mechanisms and build capabilities for specialist workers.

The training programs will be held over two days and will tackle international and local laws related to human rights, the obligation of the state toward human rights, concepts and terminology, and the protection of rights at the national level and also will cover the work of UN institutions, treaties and protocols, and how they interact with the Kingdom.

It is likely to be seen that the human rights training programs will boost the capabilities of workers in the field of human rights and charity work.

TRIPOLI, 22 February, 2021 (TON): On Sunday, Fathi Bashagha the interior minister of Libya’s unity government survived an assassination attempt on a highway near the capital Tripoli, an official from his inner circle told the media.

Official sources indicate that his convoy “was fired on from an armored car while he was on the highway.

In return, his police escort then returned fire. Two of the assailants were arrested and a third is in hospital. However, the minister is fine.

While returning from a routine visit to a new security unit overseen by his department, the incident happened..

The 58-year-old has served as interior minister in the Government of National Accord since 2018 and has staked his reputation on battling corruption.

Libya has been into violence since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed the dictator, Muammar Gaddafi.

Two rival administrations, backed by an array of militias and foreign powers, have vied for control of the oil-rich country.

It is seen that Bashagha is the favorite to lead a new interim government under UN-led peace efforts following an October ceasefire last year.

SRINAGAR, 22 February, 2021 (TON): On Monday, the security forces detected an IED (Improvised Detective Device) near the railway crossing in the Nowgam area of Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway.

During patrolling at Hamzapora village, two IEDs weighing one kg each were noticed by the security personnel.

Police said IEDs detected on the national highway by the patrolling party of the security forces were quickly defused by the bomb disposal squad.

"Movement of traffic has been halted in the area. Bomb disposal squad has been deployed to defuse the IED," police sources said.

Both the IEDs were planted on a link road adjacent to the highway.

Although the rail service remained suspended for 11 months due to pandemic, the service between Banihal in the Jammu division and Baramulla in Kashmir division were resumed earlier in the day.

CAIRO, 22 February, 2021 (TON): The reports regarding the resumption of air traffic between Russia and the Egyptian tourist resorts in Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada have been denied by the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation.

“The ministry’s agencies have not received any information from Russia regarding the resumption of chartered air traffic to the Egyptian tourist resorts in Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada,” Minister of Civil Aviation Mohammed Manar said.

He added that there have been no contacts since the Russian inspection and security committee left the Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh airports at the beginning of February.

At the end of last March, Manar said that the airlines submitted a request to the Civil Aviation Authority to approve organizing flights to the airports of Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada.
Dmitry Gorin revealed that no official information had yet been received from either Russia or Egypt regarding the opening of a flight program from Russian cities to Egyptian resorts in Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh.

“We have not received official information from the Russian or Egyptian side. At the present time, flights to Cairo continue according to an extended schedule,” Gorin Vice President of the Russian Tour Operators Association told.

Egyptian Minister of Tourism Khaled Al-Anani said that the news circulating was “nothing but newspaper talk” and that no decision had been made regarding the return of Russian tourism yet.

However, the press reports claimed that after five years Russia decided to resume its flights to the Egyptian resorts in Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada.

NEW DELHI, 22 February, 2021 (TON): On Sunday, PM Modi asked all the BJP workers and leaders to work relentlessly to achieve the goal of  ‘Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas’.

“In his address to BJP office bearers, Prime Minister Narendra Modiji said the BJP is not just working for political power but ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ and the party’s organization must continue to work relentlessly towards that goal,” BJP General Secretary Bhupendra Yadav.

Yadav also said that the PM suggested, while working for expanding the organization, BJP workers must work with a motto “nation first”.

Apart from national office-bearers, state in-charges and co-in charges, the party’s state unit Presidents and state General Secretaries (organizations) were present in the meeting. BJP chief J.P. Nadda chaired the meeting.

“The BJP in its political resolution has committed itself to uproot the fascist and undemocratic government of Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal. The party and its NDA allies have huge ground support in all states headed for polls this year,” Yadav said.

In the same meeting the very day, BJP members took a dig at the Congress and stressed that the party is to reach out to the farmers to resolve the tension and to bust the myths spread by the opposition.

KABUL, 22 February, 2021 (TON): As the calls for the establishment of a temporary setup began momentum across the country, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani vowed to stop formulating the Afghan provincial government.

He said while talking to the deceased official’s family that “Be assured that as long as I am alive, they will not see the formation of an interim government. I am not like those willows that bend with the wind.”

 He argued that in such a scenario, Afghanistan could face a similarly bloody and chaotic situation like the 1990s when an interim government replaced the then Moscow-backed administration.

As Ghani has said that he will end his term in 2025, therefore there has been much conversation on the need for a transitional government within Afghanistan, with Russia which had hosted talks between the Taliban and non-state Afghan actors twice in recent years becoming the latest country to endorse the move.

“Moscow prefers that all parties to the conflict in Afghanistan agree on the establishment of an inclusive and transitional coalition government,” Russia’s Special Envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said last week.

The Afghan President’s latest comments follow his talks with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Western leaders, and senior officials from the newly installed US administration led by President Joe Biden in recent weeks.

Under the controversial accord that U.S. will withdraw its troops from the territory, Ghani has freed thousands of Taliban inmates who had been detained by the government and has engaged in peace talks with the group in Doha, Qatar.

However, in a significant U-turn last week, NATO said that foreign troops would only be withdrawn from the country “when the time was right.”

 Experts believe that Ghani might give up his seat of power sooner than later for talks with Taliban have to be revived. That is why he does not want a government, however; the provincial government would serve to be crucial in Intra Afghan talks.

COLOMBO, 22 February 2021, (TON): On the invitation of Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Imran Khan will undertake a two-day official visit to Sri Lanka from 23 February 2021. This will be his first visit to Sri Lanka after assuming office.

The Prime Minister will be accompanied by a high-level delegation, including members of the Cabinet and senior officials.

The Prime Minister’s program includes meetings with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Prime Minister will also lead the delegation-level talks, covering all areas of cooperation between the two countries including trade and investment, health and education, agriculture and science & technology, defence and security, and culture and tourism. Besides bilateral matters, views will be exchanged on key regional and international issues.

During the visit, the reconstitution of the Sri Lanka-Pakistan Parliamentary Friendship Association will be also announced to further promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries.

The Prime Minister will also participate in a joint ‘Trade and Investment Conference’ aimed at promoting trade and investment between the two countries. A number of MoUs to enhance bilateral cooperation will be signed during the visit.

Pakistan and Sri Lanka have maintained close, cordial and mutually supportive relations since 1948. The two countries share commonality of views on a wide range of international and regional issues. Both sides also work closely at the international and regional fora including the United Nations and SAARC.

BEIJING, 22 February, 2021 (TON): The U.S. and China could work together on issues like climate change and the pandemic if they repaired their damaged bilateral relationship says Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi on Monday.

Beijing stood ready to reopen constructive dialogue with Washington after relations between the two countries sank to their lowest in decades under former President Donald Trump, said Wang.

He urged Washington to respect China’s interests, and remove tariffs on Chinese goods and abandon what he said was an irrational suppression of the Chinese tech sector; steps he said would create the “necessary conditions” for cooperation.

 “Over the past few years, the United States basically cut off bilateral dialogue at all levels,” Wang said.

“We stand ready to have candid communication with the U.S. side, and engage in dialogues aimed at solving problems.”

However, the recent call between the Chinese state leader President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden is viewed as a positive step. Multiple fronts including trade, accusations of human rights crimes against the Uighur Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region, and Beijing’s territorial claims in the resource-rich South China Sea have been reasons for the clash between the two.

DHAKA, 22 February, 2021 (TON): PM Sheikh Hasina emphasized preventing languages from becoming extinct to retain diversity.

“Language is an important thing for all the nations and it is easy for us to learn in our mother language. But unfortunately, many languages are getting lost,” she said.

She said at the International Mother Language Award ceremony in Dhaka via video conferencing on Sunday, the Language Martyrs Day and International Mother Language Day, “It is very much necessary to preserve, practice and nourish the diversity of language across the world.”

Deputy Education Minister Mohibul Hassan Chowdhoury Nowfel, Bangla Academy Director General Habibullah Sirajee, and Jinnat Imtiaz Ali, director-general of International Mother Language Institute, among others, attended the ceremony.

While paying tribute to the 1952 Language Movement martyrs, she honored the language lovers worldwide and said, “We need to learn other languages for international communications. But we must learn our mother language.”

The prime minister described the efforts of her government to preserve the languages of small ethnic groups in Bangladesh and their education in their mother tongue and also recalled the efforts of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his contribution to the Language Movement that ushered the way to freedom in 1971.

On the very day, three people and an organization received the first International Mother Language Award for their contribution to the preservation and promotion of mother language nationally and internationally at the program.