PYONGYANG, January 20, 2021, TON: In December 2020, a new “anti-reactionary law” was imposed and this week the media reported new details regarding the law.

The local media cited the explanatory material for the law and said that the parents will be charged on behalf of the children violating the ban, up to 15 years of imprisonment for being caught with media from South Korea, and punishments for production, distribution of adult content, use of unregistered televisions, radios, computers, foreign cell-phones and/or other electronic devices.

Reports state that written remarks by Kim, the leader has criticized the common practice in the South of using terms such as “oppa” (older brother) and “dong-saeng” (younger sister, brother) to refer to non-relatives.

Importing banned material from South Korea leads to life sentence, while those caught importing large amounts of content from the U.S. or Japan could face death.

The new law apparently increased some penalties and tightened limitations in the government’s war on external information, said Sokeel Park of Liberty in North Korea, which supports defectors.

The access to information concerning the border trade with China, has quickly changed the pattern that only allows state media to focus on making the leader Kim Jong prominent said Tae Yong-ho, the first North Korean defector to be elected as a South Korean lawmaker.

WASHINGTON 20 January, 2021, TON: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday that China has committed genocide in its repression of the Uighurs and other Muslim people.

Anotony Blinken, Joe Biden’s choice for secretary of state said he agrees with his statement.

Human rights groups believe that up to a million Uighurs have been detained and arrested by China over the past years which the state define as re-education camps.

The media suggest that Uighurs are being manipulated for forced labor.

In a statement Mike Pompeo said that he believed the genocide is ongoing and that people are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uighurs by the Chinese party state.   

China has committed genocide in its repression of the Uighurs and other mainly Muslim peoples, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday in his last day at office as part of the Trump administration.

Although the statement puts pressure on China, it does not introduce any fresh penalties.

The same day, Mr. Blinken was asked about Pompeo’s remarks, to which he adhered to and said, “On the Uighurs I think we're very much in agreement. And the forcing of men, women and children into concentration camps, trying to, in effect, re-educate them to be adherents to the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party, all of that speaks to an effort to commit genocide."

He added: Mr. Biden's team made a similar allegation last August, saying the Uighurs had suffered "unspeakable oppression at the hands of China's authoritarian government".

This may be a final gift to China by the Trump administration, although the Xinjiang issue may not be a priority issue, rather a concrete policy stands on Xinjiang by the Biden team.

KHARTOUM, 19 January 2021, (TON): The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is working exhaustively with Sudan to build the conditions for broad debt relief.

The move comes after Sudan’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism was dropped after nearly 30 years.

IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva said that the organization will assess progress on a staff-monitored programme in March 2021.

In an online news conference, she told the media that she was encouraged by the staunch support from the United States, the United Kingdom and other member countries for facilitating debt relief to Sudan under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative and by the determination of the Sudanese authorities.

“We do hope as swiftly as possible to present to the membership a strong case on Sudan for HIPC so that country can reintegrate with the international community,” Georgieva said. “I expect that in March we will have more to tell you.”

IMF’s largest shareholder, the US passed legislation in the Congress in December 2020. This move led the endfing of Sudan’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism which had weighed on the country’s economy and limited its ability to receive aid for almost 30 years.

Under the US legislation, Washington will be authorizing $111m to pay off part of Sudan’s bilateral debt, and $120m to help pay off its debt to the IMF while making another $700m available until September 2022, which will allow it to clear $1bn in arrears to the World Bank.

KAMPALA, 19 January 2021, TON: Uganda’s government spokesperson, Ofwono Opondo, on Tuesday, accused the United States for trying to overthrow last week’s presidential elections when the security personnel blocked the US ambassador, Natalie E. Brown from reaching out to the opposition leader Bobi WiWine, who has been house arrested since Thursday for casting his ballot in the country’s presidential elections.

The ambassador wanted to check on his health and safety said the mission. Ofwono Opondo told the media that she has been trying to meddle in country’s internal politics, particularly elections to subvert the elections and the will of the people.

The embassy said that the vote was befouled by harassment of opposition candidates, media and activist suppression and a nationwide internet was shutdown.

It said that the unlawful actions and the effective house arrest of a presidential candidate continued a worrying trend on the course of Uganda’s democracy.

The United States and the European Union did not deploy observer missions for the polls over denial of accreditations and failure by Ugandan authorities to implement recommendations by past missions.

While, Wine and his National Unity Platform (NUP) have rejected the results and said they were planning a court challenge.

On Monday security forces prevented the party’s offices in the capital, a move the party said, is complicating their efforts to collect and put together evidence of irregularities committed during the election at his residence, prompting the mission to call his house arrest a “worrying” sign.

ZURICH, 19 January 2021,(TON): Voters reject a proposal in a planned 7 March 2021 referendum to ban full face coverings such as Burqas and Niqabs, the Swiss government recommended on Tuesday saying the move would hinder the tourism in the country. 

According to Switzerland’s democracy, a popular vote of more than 100,000 signatures is required to have a proposal to change the constitution.

Back in 2009, the Swiss voters supported the proposal to ban the construction of new minarets.

Full face coverings were already banned in regional votes by the Swiss cantons of St. Gallen and Ticino, but the Swiss government said following through with a nationwide constitutional ban was a bad idea.

The government said in a statement that very few people in Switzerland wear a full facial covering and a nationwide ban would undermine the sovereignty of the cantons, damage tourism and be unhelpful for certain groups of women.

The statement added that most women who wear full face coverings are tourists who spend a short time in the country.

Reports say that France and Denmark have also banned facial coverings, citing efforts to uphold secular values and combat discrimination against women..

Egerkinger Komitee, a group behind the burqa ban proposal includes the members from the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), was also behind the new minarets ban and gained 60% approval of voters.

A counter-proposal has been made by the government to the facial covering ban that would come into force if voters reject the initial proposal on March 7. This would require women wearing a facial covering to reveal their face if necessary for identification at administrative offices or on public transport.

TUNIS, 19 January 2021, (TON): Army has been deployed in Tunis after protesters burned down a regional national security headquarters near the Algerian border to challenge hike in prices and taxes continued nationwide. As a result of the protests over moribund economy, police in Tunisia say they have arrested more than 600 people as a fourth night of violent protests.

Crowds of young demonstrators gathered again in Tunis, the centre of the capital, throwing stones and petrol bombs at the police.

Security forces responded with tear gas and water cannon.

Third of Tunisia’s young population is unemployed as the country had been facing severe economic crisis which got worsen during the pandemic. 

The latest unrest has come after exactly 10 years since the Tunisian revolution ushered in democracy and instigated the Arab Spring revolts across the region and led to disappointments regarding jobs and opportunities.

The clashes were reported on Monday outside Tunis in the cities of Kasserine, Gafsa, Sousse and Monastir.

The interior ministry spokesperson, Khalid Hayouni said that the majority arrested were the minors who had been detained over acts of vandalism and looting.

"This has nothing to do with protest movements that are guaranteed by the law and the constitution," Mr. Hayouni said. "Protests take place in broad daylight without any criminal acts involved."

MANIPUR, 18 January 2021, (TON): Editor-in-chief of “Frontier Manipur”, Sadokpam Dhiren has been charged under the sedition law, of “supporting a terrorist organisation” under the amended “Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act”.

The FIR lodged in the Police Station said, Frontier Manipur openly endorsed revolutionary ideologies and activities and expressed shock at the deteriorating character of the armed revolutionaries of Manipur in the last decade by publishing an article under the headline “Revolutionary journey in a mess”, M Joy Luwang.

The FIR said the author openly endorsed revolutionary ideologies and activities and expressed shock at the deteriorating character of the armed revolutionaries of Manipur in the last decade, who compromised against the Union government. The article called the rule of law of the Union government and Centre as colonial law.

RIYADH, 18 January 2021, (TON): Earlier announcement of Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud that Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will reopen its embassy in Qatar in the coming days has been materialized. Saudi Arabia has formally issued orders to its diplomats and staff at Embassy to carryout necessary preparations to move to Doha to restore full diplomatic relations with Qatar.

Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies; the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a diplomatic, trade and travel embargo on Qatar in June 2017 that included closing airspace to the country over some of its activities that are detrimental to security of the region. These countries released a list of 13 demands including shutting down the Doha-based Al Jazeera Media Network to be executed by Qatar for the blockade to end.

In the recent meeting earlier in the month in the Saudi desert city of Al-Ula between Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other stakeholder at the forum of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), an agreement was reached that ended a three-year-old dispute between four Arab countries and Qatar. Three of the Gulf Cooperation Council members; Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain agreed to lift the restrictions.

KHARTOUM, 16 January 2021, (TON):  Sudanese authorities on Saturday imposed a round-the-clock curfew in the entire West Darfur province after foreign forces generated tribal clashes between Arabs and non-Arabs that killed at least 32 people and wounded at least 54 others.

Governor Mohammed Abdalla al-Douma said the curfew began Saturday and would last until further notice, and includes the closure of all markets and a ban on gatherings across the province. Al-Douma also granted security forces and soldiers a mandate to use force to control the situation. 

The violence comes two weeks after the U.N. Security Council ended the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force’s mandate in the Darfur region, following pressure from Sudan’s transitional government, Russia and other African nations. The Darfur region remains scarred by war after a rebellion in the early 2000s was brutally suppressed.

The clashes erupted Friday in Genena, West Darfur’s provincial capital, when a man was killed at a market in the Krinding camp for internally displaced people.  

The clashes resulted after the uprising led the military and supported by foreign that overthrow longtime legitimate government of Omar al-Bashir in April 2019. A military-civilian government backed by foreign nations is now in power while Omar al-Bashir is facing serious charges.

KATHMANDU, 16 January 2021, (TON): Nepal does not accept interference in its domestic politics as it is capable of handling its internal problems, Nepalese Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali said on Saturday.

Nepalese foreign minister said, “We never accept interference in our domestic politics. We are able to settle our own problems. As a close neighbour, there may be some concerns or questions but we never accept interference.”

Nepal plunged into a political turmoil following Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli’s sudden decision to dissolve parliament and call for fresh elections in view of internal feud in the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP).

As the crisis deepened, China rushed a high-level team headed by Vice Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Guo Yezhou to Kathmandu to hold talks with the rival factions within the NCP after the Chinese ambassador in the country failed to sort out differences. The team held talks with almost all top Nepalese leaders but had to return empty handed. The Chinese meddling in Nepalese political developments triggered strong criticism within Nepal due to US and Indian pressure.

Nepalese Foreign Minister Gyawali said Nepal’s relations with both India and China are excellent and that it never compares ties with each other.

Nepalese foreign minister justified Oli’s decision to dissolve parliament saying he followed the democratic principle of seeking fresh mandate from the people whose decisions are supreme in a democracy. He said, “In democracy, people are the final authority to decide on who will govern. I think dissolution of the parliament is a reflection of the internal issue. It is not wise to blame anybody.”