LONDON, 05 December, 2020, (TON): After one week of intense trade negotiations in London, the chief negotiators from Britain and the European Union (EU) agreed Friday to "pause the talks" due to "significant divergences."

Releasing identical statements on Twitter, Britain's chief Brexit negotiator David Frost and his EU counterpart Michel Barnier said they agreed that "the conditions for an agreement are not met, due to significant divergences on level playing field, governance and fisheries."

The two sides "agreed to pause the talks in order to brief their Principals on the state of play of the negotiations," said the statement.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson "will discuss the state of play tomorrow afternoon," it said.

Britain and the EU resumed face-to-face talks in London on Saturday after an EU negotiator tested positive for coronavirus earlier in November.

The negotiations are at a crucial stage as time is running out for both sides to secure a deal before the Brexit transition period expires at the end of the year.

Failure to reach a free trade agreement with the EU means bilateral trade will fall back on World Trade Organization (WTO) rules in 2021.

Trade agreements that the UK is part of as an EU member state will no longer apply if there’s a no-deal Brexit. The UK government is working on new agreements to replace EU trade agreements after Brexit.

The UK and the EU are negotiating a trade agreement to start on 1 January 2021. Any trade agreement will aim to eliminate tariffs and reduce other trade barriers coming into force.

KABUL, 05 December, 2020, (TON): Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani on Saturday inaugurated the first meeting of the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) after the establishment of the council a few months ago.

Addressing the meeting Ghani told the 48-member meeting of the HCNR that "We held this historic meeting today as the peace talks have entered its second phase. Today's meeting passes a good message to Afghans and to the international community."

The meeting came as the Afghan government delegation and Taliban representatives have made progress in the ongoing peace talks in Doha, capital of Gulf state of Qatar.

The two sides agreed on a draft topic for the agenda and will soon kick off direct peace negotiations, according to local media reports.

"Entering the process into the second round was a success. No one should be seeking their own interest in peace talks," Ghani added.

Chairman of the HCNR Abdullah Abdullah told the participants that Afghan people were in dire need of political unity more than ever and need an urgent inclusive ceasefire.

"Everyone should focus on peace... There is a need for regional cooperation for Afghan peace and reconciliation process," Abdullah said.

He assured that the Afghan government negotiators, who are holding peace negotiations with the Taliban in Qatar, were representing "the whole nation and they were doing well in their mission of the peace process."

The comments came as the armed insurgency was intensified recently. Taliban were ousted from power in 2001 by U.S.-led forces. A U.S.-backed government has held power in Afghanistan since then, although the Taliban have control over wide areas of the country.

More than 35,000 Afghan civilians have died and about 65,000 have been injured as a result of armed conflict in Afghanistan since January 2009, according to figures of the UN mission in the country.

BEIJING, 05 December, 2020, (Media Report):  At least 18 people have died after being trapped in a mine in China’s southwestern city of Chongqing, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday, the region’s second such accident in just over two months.

The dead were among 24 people trapped underground by excessive levels of carbon monoxide gas at the Diaoshuidong coal mine, the agency said, adding that one survivor had been rescued while search efforts continue.

Friday’s incident, which occurred at about 5pm (09:00 GMT) in a mine shut for more than two months as the company dismantled underground equipment, is being investigated, it added.

China’s mines are among the worlds deadliest, with 16 deaths reported in late September after high levels of carbon monoxide trapped miners at the Songzao coal mine in Chongqing.

Diaoshuidong, built in 1975 and run since 1998 as a private enterprise, is a high-gas mine with an annual capacity of 120,000 tonnes of coal, Xinhua said.

In 2013, three people were killed and two injured in a hydrogen sulphide poisoning incident at the mine, it added.

WASHINGTON, 05 December, 2020, (TON):  The U.S. State Department said on Friday it has ended five cultural exchange programs with China, calling them “soft power propaganda tools.”

The Department said it had “terminated” the Policymakers Educational China Trip Program, the U.S.-China Friendship Program, the U.S.-China Leadership Exchange Program, the U.S.-China Transpacific Exchange Program and the Hong Kong Educational and Cultural Program.

It said that the programs had been set up under the auspices of the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act - a 1961 law signed by President John F. Kennedy and aimed at boosting academic and cultural exchanges with foreign countries.

“While other programs funded under the auspices of the MECEA are mutually beneficial, the five programs in question are fully funded and operated by the (Chinese) government as soft power propaganda tools,” the statement said.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the move. Attempts to reach representatives for the programs singled out by the State Department were not immediately successful.

Washington and Beijing are in clash on several issues, ranging from trade, technology and the coronavirus pandemic to US support for Taiwan as well as China’s claims in the South China Sea and its crackdown in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

NEW YORK, 05 December, 2020, (TON):  Farmers in India have the right to demonstrate peacefully and authorities should allow them, according to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

"We want to see people have a voice in their lives," Dujarric said on Friday.

"What I would say to you is what I've said to others when raising these issues is that people have a right to demonstrate peacefully, and authorities need to let them do so," he added.

The spokesperson's remarks came as farmers have been sitting on protest for the last nine days at the Delhi-Haryana and Delhi-Uttar Pradesh borders.

India's parliament passed three controversial agriculture bills aimed at liberalizing the country's farm sector. They were subsequently signed into law, sparking farmers' protests across the country.

The government argued that the new laws will give freedom to farmers to sell their produce outside regulated markets and enter into contracts with buyers at a pre-agreed price.

Indian farmers have held huge rallies across the country in the past few years to protest against the government's "neglect" of the agriculture sector amid increasing privatization.

More than half of India's farmers are reportedly in debt, with 20,638 committing suicide in 2018 and 2019, according to India's National Crime Records Bureau.

WASHINGTON, 05 December, 2020, (TON): President Donald Trump has ordered nearly all American troops to withdraw from Somalia, U.S. officials said on Friday, part of a global pullback by the Republican president before he leaves office next month that will also see him drawdown forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The United States has about 700 troops in Somalia focused on helping local forces defeat the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgency.

In a statement, the Pentagon sought to play down the implications of a withdrawal that experts have said could undermine security in Somalia.

“While a change in force posture, this action is not a change in U.S. policy,” the Pentagon said.

The United States already pulled out of Somalia’s cities of Bossaso and Galkayo earlier this year. As of last month, U.S. troops were still in the southern port city of Kismayo, Baledogle airbase in the Lower Shabelle region, and in the capital Mogadishu.

A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said nearly all U.S. forces would leave Somalia, although some would remain in Mogadishu.

Somalia has been riven by civil war since the early 1990s, but over the past decade an African Union-backed peacekeeping force and U.S. troops have clawed back control of Mogadishu and large swathes of the country from al Shabaab.

For the better part of two decades, U.S. military operations in Somalia have been shrouded in secrecy. The American-led operation in Somalia began when U.S. Marines hit the Mogadishu beaches in December 1992.

RIYADH, 05 December, 2020, (TON): The remarks come just hours after counterpart from mediator Kuwait described ongoing crisis talks as ‘fruitful’.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister has expressed hopefulness that Qatar and Saudi Arabia are close to an agreement to end a dispute that has caused uneven relationship among Gulf neighbours for more than three years.

Speaking to Italy’s annual Mediterranean Dialogues on Friday Prince Faisal bin Farhan said “We’ve made significant progress in the last few days.”

“We hope that this progress can lead to a final agreement which looks in reach, and I can say that I am somewhat optimistic that we are close to finalising an agreement between all the nations in the dispute to come to a resolution that we think will be satisfactory to all,” the prince said.

However, the other three nations Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, boycotting Qatar did not immediately admitted any progress on agreement.

Prince Faisal’s remarks came just hours after the top diplomat from mediator nation Kuwait described the ongoing talks over the crisis as “constructive and fruitful.”

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser al-Sabah said on Friday there was progress in resolving the dispute but stopped short of announcing any breakthrough in the dispute.

Following the statement, Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani thanked Kuwait for its mediation.

Earlier on Friday, Al Thani also said there has been movement on resolving the diplomatic dispute.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, he hoped any agreement between Qatar and the boycotting countries would be made on a “foundation that is lasting”.

“We are very hopeful that the dispute between the Saudis and the Qataris can be resolved,” Pompeo added. “We’re going to keep working to facilitate conversations and dialogues.”

U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner had held talks in Doha on Wednesday following a visit to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar in June 2017, accusing Doha of sponsoring terrorism. Qatar has repeatedly denied the accusations saying as baseless.

ISLAMABAD, 5 December 2020, (TON): In response of letter sent by the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the European Union Air Safety Agency (EASA) on Thursday told the flag carrier that since the CAA had not taken any steps to address the licensing system, the ban will remain in effect, The Express Tribune reported. It said the CAA needed to under a safety audit, adding that the ban can only be lifted if the Pakistani aviation regulatory body cleared the audit. Following the EASA's move, the UK Civil Aviation Authority also withdrew PIA's permit to operate from the Birmingham, London and Manchester airports.

In June this year, the EASA had suspended PIA flights operations in Europe for six months in the wake of the grounding of 262 Pakistani pilots whose licenses were termed "dubious" by Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan. Pakistani authorities acknowledged that nearly a third of Pakistani pilots, 260 out of 860, had cheated on their pilot’s exams.

Abdullah Hafeez, a spokesman for Pakistan International Airlines, however, said  that the EU’s Aviation Safety Agency informed them about its decision to extend the ban after analyzing a report about additional steps taken by PIA to enhance safety measures.  The EU agency declined comment on the statement issued by Hafeez that agency praised PIA for taking additional safety steps but have retain the ban remain in effect until Pakistan resolves an issue related to issuing pilot licenses. 

DAKHA, 5 December 2020, (TON): The newly-appointed Pakistani High Commissioner Imran Ahmed Siddiqui call on Thursday Bangladesh Prime Minister at Ganabhaban, the official residence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The diplomat has conveyed the good wishes of Pakistani Prime Minister to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also greeted the Pakistani Prime Minister.

Imran Ahmed Siddiqui highlighted that Pakistan eagerly wants to bolster an excellent diplomatic relationship with Bangladesh. Pakistan’s government desires to move forward with strong commitment to participate in bilateral and regional forums in order to build good relationship between the two countries. The Pakistani High Commissioner highlighted importance of cooperation between the two governments and stressed on mobilization of the Foreign Office Consulates in this regard.

The Diplomat of Pakistan has expressed his country’s ambition to strengthen a brotherly relation between Bangladesh and Pakistan. He has also commented about the excellent leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the international arena.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina drew attention to dark history of the 1971 and emphasized the importance of regional fraternity.

The significance of the book “Secret Documents of Intelligence Branch on the Father of Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman” was highlighted which cover historical incidents from 1948 to 1971. The book is based on the files of the Pakistani Intelligence Reports.  

SRINAGAR, 4 December 2020, (TON): Indian intelligence agencies planned operation in restive Anantnag district shot and seriously injured Anees ul-Islam Ganaie son of son of Farooq Ahmed Ganaie, a candidate of Apni Party on Friday.

The aim behind the operation was to deploy additional military battalions for District Development Councils' (DDCs) elections in Anantnag and other districts.

As per the details, Anees ul-Islam who is contesting from Sagam Kokernag was shot in his hand but was rushed to a hospital in Srinagar where doctors pronounced his condition out of danger and stable. He was fired upon by unidentified person in his constituency where third phase of the DDC elections are underway.