NEW YORK, 19 June 2021, (TON): The UN General Assembly has stopped short of calling for a global arms embargo against Myanmar’s military, even as it took the rare step of urging member states to prevent the flow of arms into the violence-wracked country following the February 1 coup.

The resolution condemning the coup also demands that the military immediately stop all violence against peaceful demonstrators, who continue to take to the streets every day, which also marks the birthday of the country’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

It was approved by 119 countries, with 36 abstaining including China, Myanmar’s main ally. Only one country, Belarus, voted against it. It was sponsored by some 60 countries.

Turkey’s Volkan Bozkir president of the 75th UN General Assembly said in a statement “we must advocate for the protection of all fundamental human rights, including freedom of expression, access to information and peaceful assembly which have been repeatedly infringed upon by the military in Myanmar”.

At the meeting, UN special envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener also warned the 193-member body that the risk of a large-scale civil war is real in the country.

“Time is of the essence. The opportunity to reverse the military takeover is narrowing” Schraner Burgener said after the General Assembly adopted the non-binding resolution.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees are currently fleeing from violence in the country following clashes between the military and ethnic groups.

The vote came on the same day that the Security Council was holding informal talks on the situation in the Southeast Asian nation, where the military deposed Aung San Suu Kyi in February.

The resolution was not passed by consensus, as had been hoped, but rather through a vote, forcing all 193 UN countries to reveal their views.

ISLAMABAD, 19 June 2021, (TON): The diplomatic spat between Pakistani and Afghan national security advisers (NSA) is not subsiding as the latest diatribe by Hamdullah Mohib on Friday prompted Foreign Office to call his statement a deliberate attempt to nullify the peace efforts.

This is the second time Pakistan had to issue a strong rejoinder to the Afghan NSA in recent weeks and comes at a time when Afghan peace process hangs in balance.

The latest war of words was triggered by Mohib’s tweet, accusing Pakistan of interfering in the internal matters of Afghanistan while referring to the recent interview of Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to an Afghan television.

Qureshi in his interview said Afghan Taliban alone could not be held responsible for the violence in Afghanistan as he pointed fingers to other players including ‘spoilers’ who did not wish peace to return to the war-torn country.

The Afghan NSA earlier hurled similar allegations against Pakistan, calling Afghan Taliban as Pakistan’s proxy. He even termed Pakistan a brothel house. Islamabad lodged a strong protest with the Afghan government and decided to sever all official links with the Afghan NSA.

Officials believe that the Afghan NSA represents elements who do not want peace in Afghanistan.

According to a statement issued by Foreign Office “we strongly condemn the baseless insinuations by the Afghan National Security Advisor (NSA), Hamdullah Mohib, alleging Pakistan’s involvement in the internal affairs of Afghanistan.”

The FO statement said “Pakistan’s role in the Afghan peace process had been widely acknowledged by the international community.”

NEW DELHI, 19 June 2021, (TON): Law Ministry said “six new judges were appointed to the Madhya Pradesh High Çourt.”

A separate notification issued by the Department of Justice said “an additional judge was also appointed to the Gauhati High Court.”

The notification said that Anil Verma, Arun Kumar Sharma, Satyendra Kumar Singh, Sunita Yadav, Deepak Kumar Agarwal and Rajendra Kumar (Verma) will be judges of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, in that order of seniority, with effect from the date they assume charge of their respective offices.

All the six elevated as judges are from the judicial services.

According to the data available on the website of the Department of Justice, as on 1 June, while the sanctioned strength of the Madhya Pradesh High Court was 53, it was functioning with 24 judges, a shortfall of 29.

KABUL, 19 June 2021, (TON): An Afghan interpreter saved Matthew Zeller’s life when he served in Afghanistan as an Army Captain, now Zeller is urging President Joe Biden to move quickly and help remove the interpreters and their families from Afghanistan before they’re killed by the Taliban.

“Crimes against humanity will be committed, and they’ll be broadcast live for the world to see” said the co-founder of “No One Left Behind,” an organization that helps get special visas for interpreters from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Zeller told media “Their blood is going to be on our hands if we don’t take care of them now, we have to do this, it’s a ‘never again’ moment in the making”.

Zeller said that President Biden has set a Sept. 11 deadline to remove all troops from Afghanistan. That puts an 85-day clock on getting interpreters out of the country safely. The White House did not immediately return CNBC’s request for comment.

Zeller said “the News with Shepard Smith” that there is historical precedent for a mass evacuation along these lines, saying the U.S. evacuated tens of thousands of civilians from war zones following the Vietnam War and in the late 1990s.

He said “we’ve got a pretty good history of keeping our promise when asked to.”

As of September 2019, roughly 18,000 Afghans are waiting for special immigrant visas. It takes 996 days, on average, for the State Department to process each one.

DHAKA, 19 June 2021, (TON): A sexagenarian with comorbidity, including diabetes, Samad required high flow oxygen, which is available in Rangpur.

But he had to stay back in Thakurgaon as no bed at the Intensive Care Unit was available in Rangpur with his oxygen saturation dropping below 90, a worrying level, for the past four days.

Samad’s daughter Sharmin Samad said “he became quite feeble as he could not eat properly, also, he is not in a condition to travel to Dhaka for better treatment.”

According to the government data, 47 among the 93 samples tested in Thakurgaon came back positive, yielding a positivity rate of 50.53 percent.

Samad’s case is not different to the others, with the districts bordering India have been seeing a rapid surge in COVID-19 cases for quite a few days amid worries over the spread of a highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus.

Although the authorities decided to provide more general bed facilities, district hospitals are yet to have enough ICUs for the COVID-19 patients, are still unprepared to combat a COVID-19 surge more than a year after the pandemic began.

According to the Directorate General of Health Services “as many as 37 out of the 64 districts in Bangladesh have no ICU facilities for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.”

WASHINGTON, 19 June 2021, (TON): According to a defense official “The Pentagon is pulling missile defense systems and other military hardware and personnel from Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East, as it realigns its mission and forces to confront China and Russia.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin instructed the commander of US Central Command, which oversees the region, to remove the forces this summer.

Pentagon spokeswoman Cmdr said “Some of the military capabilities and platforms will be returned to the United States for much needed maintenance and repair.”

Jessica McNulty, while other assets will be redeployed to other regions.

McNulty said in a statement "this decision was made in close coordination with host nations and with a clear eye on preserving our ability to meet our security commitments. It's about maintaining some of our high demand, low density assets so they are ready for future requirements in the event of a contingency."

The Wall Street Journal was first to report the troop movements.

The US bolstered its military footprint in Saudi Arabia following a September 2019 attack on the country's oil facilities, attributed to Iran, that disrupted the global oil supply. In the wake of the attack, the US sent thousands of troops into the country, as well as two Patriot missile batteries and one Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) system.

The US also sent Patriot missile batteries into Iraq to defend US forces following the killing of Qasem Soleimani and the subsequent threats from Iran.

The withdrawal of forces from the Middle East would primarily affect these and other air defense assets, the statement said, including Patriot missile batteries.

The US had deployed Patriot missiles to Saudi Arabia and Iraq to counter the threat posed by Iran and its proxies in the region, including in Iraq and Yemen. Patriot missiles are effective at intercepting ballistic missiles, including the type of short-range ballistic missiles that have been fired from Yemen in recent years. But the missiles are far less effective at detecting and intercepting drones and cruise missiles flying at low altitudes.

KATHMANDU, 19 June 2021, (TON): The government is to resume flights to countries with a large number of Nepali migrant workers.

A meeting of the COVID-19 Crisis Management Committee chaired by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli today at the official residence of the Prime Minister in Baluwatar decided to resume flights to Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Japan and Malaysia.

The meeting also decided to resume flights in a way that not more than 2,000 passengers arrive from these countries in a week.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Taranath Adhikari said that the decision recommended by the CCMC would come into effect once the ministry receive it in written form after the Cabinet approves it.

THIMPHU, 19 June 2021, (TON): The government has provided more than Nu 1.2 bn as Cottage and Small Industries (CSI) loans to the people. Finance Minister Namagay Tshering said this while responding to a question from Jomotshangkha Martshala constituency’s MP, Norbu Wangzom at the National Assembly’s question hour.

The Finance Minister said the government provided more loans in the agriculture sector.

Finance Minister said “since the establishment of the CSI bank, within just sixteen months we have given Nu 1.2 bn as loans. From this, we can see how much funds we have provided to the people and the number of employment and business opportunities we have created. If we categorize the loans for agriculture, we have provided more than Nu 500 M. Likewise, Nu 461 million for livestock development, Nu 200 M for manufacturing and production sector, Nu 98 M for the service sector and Nu 33 M for restarting businesses.”

In addition, Tshering Chhoden, MP from Khar Yurung constituency in Pema Gatshel raised the issue of how women aspiring for textile initiatives have not been received well in availing loans from CSI banks.

Finance Minister said that the CSI banks and the National Credit Guarantee Scheme (NCGS)  has been established to monitor loans in productive areas which generate more employment opportunities. It is not like the manufacturing and production sector did not get loans. We have provided Nu 200 M adequately. Of which the textile category was provided with Nu 53 M consisting of 339 applicants.

NEW DELHI, 19 June 2021, (TON): With the security forces continuing to have an upper hand in Jammu & Kashmir and the state appearing to reap a safety dividend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to hold a meeting of all political parties in the state on June 24.

Official sources said “the plan for the meeting is under consideration and has been tentatively scheduled. The meeting will be seen as a bid to move the political process in the UT after a gradual easing of restrictions on internet and detention of political leaders. The agenda ahead includes delimitation and holding of elections and the installation of a government.

Home minister Amit Shah reviewed the situation in UT, sparking speculation about a possible political initiative. J&K LG Manoj Sinha attended the review held amid a steady decline in terrorist incidents, local recruitment and infiltration this year: gains which would not have looked possible until recently and which have enabled the administration to push the coverage of central schemes to 90% and vaccination coverage to 76% of the population aged 45 years and above.

Shah noted the improved security scenario and the expanded reach of central schemes, and stressed the need to speed up implementation of the PM’s development package and other industrial projects.

ISLAMABAD, 19 June 2021, (TON): Inter-Services Public Relations said that British High Commissioner Christian Turner Chief acknowledged Pakistan’s continuous efforts for peace and stability in the region.

According to ISPR, Turner pledged to further enhance bilateral relations between Pakistan and the UK, in a meeting with Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

The two discussed matters of mutual interest, the regional security situation including the recent developments in the Afghan peace process and collaboration in the fight against COVID-19

During the meeting, Gen Bajwa said that Pakistan values UK’s balanced role in global and regional affairs.

Gen Bajwa further said “we look forward to optimise the strategic potential of our relationship based on convergences, the statement further quoted.