KABUL, 10 July 2021, (TON): The Taliban have captured major border crossings with Iran and Turkmenistan in a sweeping offensive across northern Afghanistan.

Taliban say they seized two key border towns, Islam Qala near Iran, and Torghundi bordering Turkmenistan.

Video footage appeared to show Taliban forces taking down the Afghan flag from the roof of a border customs office.

The Taliban are rapidly retaking land across Afghanistan as the US-led mission removes the last of its troops.

Taliban officials say their fighters have taken control of 85% of territory in Afghanistan. A claim impossible to independently verify and disputed by the government.

Other estimates have put the amount of territory the Taliban controls at more than a third of the country's 400 districts, including an arc of land from the Iranian border in the west to the frontier with China on the other side of the country.

The Americans earlier this week quietly departed from Bagram airfield, a sprawling base that was the centre of US operations in Afghanistan and once held tens of thousands of troops.

Afghan officials acknowledged the loss of the Islam Qala and Torghundi border crossings, both in Herat province.

WASHINGTON, 09 July 2021, (TON): The Biden administration is set to add more than 10 Chinese companies to its economic blacklist for alleged human rights abuses and high-tech surveillance in Xinjiang.

The US Commerce Department action follows the addition of five other companies and other Chinese entities to the blacklist over allegations of forced labour in the far western region of China.

The sources said “the additions to Commerce Department’s Entity List are part of the Biden administration’s efforts to hold China accountable for human rights violations.”

China dismisses accusations of genocide and forced labour in Xinjiang and says its policies are necessary to stamp out separatists and religious extremists, who plotted attacks and stirred up tension between mostly Muslim ethnic Uighurs and Han, China’s largest ethnic group.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

One of the sources said the department plans to add 14 Chinese companies to the Entity List for reported abuses in Xinjiang.

MALE, 09 July 2021, (TON): The Parliament, cancelled the vote on the content Parliament approves Niyazy for appointment as next Auditor General Parliament approves Niyazy for appointment as next Auditor Generalious government bill amend the Penal Code to criminalize acts of hate, and sent it back to the Judiciary Committee.

The Parliament was set to vote on the passage of the bill this Thursday.

During the debate on the committee report, many MDP parliamentarians said that Thulhaadhoo MP Hisaan Hussain, who sponsored the bill, was receiving death threats, and expressed concern the government hasn’t spoken in her defense.

Deputy Speaker, North Galolhu MP Eva Abdulla announced the MDP parliamentary group has decided to cancel the vote and send the bill back to the committee.

MDP parliamentary group leader, Central Henveiru MP Ali Azim presented a motion to send the bill back to the committee. The motion was seconded by Ungoofaaru MP Mohamed Waheed.

39 parliamentarians voted in favor of the motion, while three votes against, and two abstained.

The bill declares accusing a specific person of violating Islam or standing against Islam in public, inciting hatred against a specific person within the community by citing Islamic faith, and accusing, describing or taking part in describing a Muslim as a kafir in public are as acts of hate.

Judiciary Committee made several changes to the bill during its review.

ISLAMABAD, 09 July 2021, (TON): Balochistan Governor retired Justice Amanullah Khan Yasinzai resigned from his position, more than two months after Prime Minister Imran Khan asked him to step down.

His resignation was sent to President Arif Alvi, who accepted it.

According to a statement issued by the Presidency “the president also appointed PTI's Syed Zahoor Ahmed Agha as the new Balochistan governor.”

Meanwhile, the prime minister appointed Jamhoori Watan Party chief and MNA Nawabzada Shahzain Bugti as his Special Assistant on Reconciliation and Harmony in Balochistan.

A notification to this effect was issued by the Cabinet Division.

In April, Prime Minister Imran had requested Yasinzai to resign, saying he intended to appoint a new governor in view of the "transformed political challenges" facing Pakistan.

LONDON, 09 July 2021, (TON): Prime Minister Boris Johnson has confirmed that most British troops have left Afghanistan, almost 20 years after the UK and other Western countries sent troops into the country to engage in what they described as a “war on terror”.

Johnson stressed that the threat posed by al-Qaeda to the UK has substantially diminished, but he sidestepped questions about whether the hasty military exodus by his country and its NATO allies risks undoing the work of nearly two decades or leaves Afghanistan vulnerable to the Taliban, which has made rapid advances in many northern districts.

The prime minister declined to give details about the troop withdrawal, citing security reasons.

But he said “all British troops assigned to NATO’s mission in Afghanistan are now returning home, most of our personnel have already left.”

Johnson said “we must be realistic about our ability alone to influence the course of events. It will take combined efforts of many nations, including Afghanistan’s neighbours, to help the Afghan people to build their future.”

But the threat that brought us to Afghanistan in the first place has been greatly diminished by the valour and by the sacrifice of the armed forces of Britain and many other countries.

COLOMBO, 09 July 2021, (TON): The Sri Lankan Government is to raise concerns with the United States over an updated travel advise which maintains that there is a threat of terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka.

Foreign Ministry sources told Daily Mirror the concerns will be raised with the US Embassy in Sri Lanka and with the State Department through the Sri Lankan mission in Washington.

Sri Lanka is concerned that the updated travel advise issued, continues to maintain that terrorists may attack with little or no warning in Sri Lanka.,

 In the updated travel advise, Americans had been told to reconsider travel to Sri Lanka because of Covid and the “threat of terrorism”.

 The US State Department said that that terrorists may attack with little or no warning in Sri Lanka, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets, shopping malls and government facilities.

 Following an earlier update in May when the terror warning was maintained, the US Embassy in Sri Lanka had clarified that the travel advisory issued at the time had been solely due to the prevailing COVID-19 situation in Sri Lanka and that the terrorist threat level was maintained as earlier and not changed.

ABUJA, 09 July 2021, (TON): Residents of the Nigerian city of Damishi took to the streets to protest lack of security and regular abductions in the northern Kaduna state.

One of the protesters said that at least 16 people had been kidnapped the previous day.

Their disappearance came just two days after a group of gunmen stormed the Bethel Baptist High School and abducted 121 students in Nigeria's northwest.

Habib Lukeman said "people are kidnapped inside town, not inside the bush. We are still mourning the Bethel school students and now this happened. What is happening? We want the Kaduna state governor to talk to us. We don't want bad government again, nobody wants bad government, we don't want bad government, we don't want them. They should bring back our children.”

As the protesters staged their rally, parents of some of the kidnapped students gathered at the Bethel Baptist High School.

They've been coming there since Monday, the day their children were abducted, to pray and demand justice.

NAYPYITAW, 09 July 2021, (TON): According to local sources “when members of the military council were unable to find a student union member in Yangon’s Hlegu Township on Tuesday, they arrested his 50-year-old father instead.”

The junta’s armed forces detained at least 10 people that night, after three people accused of being military informants were shot and injured in the preceding days. 

Among those arrested was a monk from the Ingyin Myaing monastery and a patron from Hlegu’s National League for Democracy (NLD) chapter.

At the time of reporting, it was not known where those arrested were being detained; their families were reportedly unable to make contact with them.

The troops came looking for them in plainclothes just the other day but they couldn’t find them, so they came back with a dozen military vehicles this morning and took them. We still don’t know why they were arrested, though.

Further arrests were reportedly made, with the military tightening security that morning.

Another Hlegu local said “they’re patrolling the town out of uniform. We saw some security forces on the Hlegu bridge and there are even plainclothes security forces in the tea shops.”

Shootings of those perceived to be military informers, collaborators with the coup council, or members of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) have been targeted for attack by unidentified perpetrators across the country.

MALE, 09 July 2021, (TON): The Parliament, approved Assistant Auditor General Hussain Niyazy for appointment as the next Auditor General.

Niyazy gained the backing of the Parliament with the unanimous consensus of 63 parliamentarians at the sitting afternoon.

Niyazy has served as Assistant Auditor General since December 20, 2011. He heads the Financial Audit Division which manages the financial audits of state-owned enterprises.

He has over 15 years of experience working for the Auditor General’s Office.

He was nominated for the position of Auditor General after Hassan Ziyath resigned from the position in May, after it came to light that he was named on the list of suspected beneficiaries of funds stolen from MMPRC.

Ziyath ran as a PPM candidate for the Hulhu-Henveiru seat in the 18 parliamentary assembly. Several other PPM candidates who ran in the 2014 election have also been named in the list.

BAGHDAD, 09 July 2021, (TON): US and Iraq officials said that US diplomats and troops in Iraq and Syria were targeted in three rocket and drone attacks in the past 24 hours, including at least 14 rockets hitting an Iraqi air base hosting US forces, wounding two American service members.

While there were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks, part of a wave targeting US troops or areas where they are based in Iraq and Syria, analysts believed they were part of a campaign by Iranian-backed militias.

Iraqi militia groups aligned with Iran vowed to retaliate after US strikes on the Iraqi-Syrian border killed four of their members last month.

Two people were slightly wounded in the rocket attack on the Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq, said coalition spokesman US Army Colonel Wayne Marotto. The rockets landed on the base and its perimeter. He said earlier that three people were wounded.

US officials said “the two personnel injured were US service members. One suffered a concussion and the other had minor cuts, one of the officials added.”

Two rockets were fired at the US Embassy inside Baghdad’s Green Zone, Iraqi security sources said.

The embassy’s anti-rocket system diverted one of the rockets, said one of the sources, a security official whose office is inside the Green Zone. The second rocket fell near the zone’s perimeter, security officials said.

Sirens blared from the embassy compound inside the zone, which houses government buildings and foreign missions.