NEW DELHI, 16 December 2020, (TON): As the farmers' protests enter the third week in the wake of their commitment to achieve their due rights, the Supreme Court is set to hear a plea from government side on removal of farmers from the Delhi borders.

Farm leaders continued to insist on a complete repeal of the new laws while the Centre has only offered amendments. Farmer leader Jagjeet Dallewal said, "The government is saying we won't repeal these laws, we are saying we will make you do it." "The fight has reached a stage where we are determined to win no matter what," he added.

"Disagreement has become a major crime in the BJP regime. They did not like opposition and democratic values. The farmers are agitating for the past 20 days and instead of listening to them, the government has adopted a stubborn attitude. Not only this, but the BJP has also launched a campaign to divide farmers and discredit the movement and defame it," Yadav said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Aligarh Muslim University students has also protested in their support for farmers. They have written to President Kovind about the ongoing farmers protests and sought his intervention to repeal the new farm laws.

ISLAMABAD, 16 December 2020, (TON): American business magazine Forbes has featured 4 Pakistani in Forbes 30 under 30 list for their hard work, dedication and innovative ideas.

The 4 Pakistanis under Forbes 30 under 30 list are Sana Khan, Asad J Malik, Danish Dhamani, & Faizan Bhatty were recognized

Forbes has been releasing North America 30 under 30 list for the past 10 years. The 10th Annual Forbes ‘30 under 30’ list includes 600 young entrepreneurs, activists, scientists and entertainers from around the world. This year, 4 Pakistanis also made it to the coveted list.

Meanwhile, US embassy Islamabad has congratulated them on their success. ‘‘Congratulations to 4 Pakistanis who have been featured in #Forbes 30 under 30 list! Sana Khan, Asad J Malik, Danish Dhamani, & Faizan Bhatti were recognized for their hard work, dedication and innovative ideas.’’

Among the four, Sana Khan was the only Pakistani girl on the Forbes 30 under 30 list.

AYODHYA, 16 December 2020, (TON): The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) will launch on 15 January 2021, a massive public outreach programme from Makar Sankranti to peoples’ fund the grand Ram temple project in Ayodhya.

VHP cadres have set a target to collect amount of 55 crore people throughout the country.

The drive which will commence will come to an end on 27 February touching some four lack villages.  In other words the drive will commence from Makar Sankranti  and end at Magh Poornima and birth anniversary of Sant Ravidas.

Meanwhile, VHP cadres have got printed large amount of coupons for Rs 10, Rs 100 and Rs 1,000 for the peoples’ funding drive.

VHP national spokesperson, Vinod Bansal  said, "We have learnt that some organizations have already started issuing coupons for Rs 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000. This is certainly not the official route for donations and is designed to dupe devotees. People, at present, can donate directly into the designated bank accounts." He added, "VHP has decided to reach out to all these communities and seek funds for temple construction. We want the message of Lord Ram to reach every household."

Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Hindus are struggling to built grand Ram temple project in Ayodhya but Nepal has challenged India that Ram’s birth place is in Nepal and not India, Nepal has also ear marked land for the construction of Ram Temple.

ISLAMABAD, 15 December 2020, (TON): Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) cleared 110 pilots out of the 141 whose licences to fly the aircrafts were suspended in the backdrop of the fake degrees controversy.  14 pilots had been declared unfit to fly.

The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed had taken up an appeal moved by PIA Chief Executive Officer Air Marshal Arshad Malik against a Sindh High Court order.

The information came when Justice Umar Ata Bandial asked what steps were taken by the airline to vet the suspended licences and whether the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was pushing the issue enough to get back the business by verifying the licences.

The issues of licenses surfaced in the wake of the tragic crash of a PIA plane in Karachi on 22 May, killing about 95 people.

It aroused widespread concerns about the safety of PIA, many countries of the world banned PIA flights.

MAKKAH, 15 December 2020, (TON): The Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia resumed the Umrah service from 4 October 2020.  Since then the administration of Holy Mosques commenced monitoring of temperatures of around four million Umrah pilgrims and visitors by using 25 thermal cameras that are installed at various entry gates of the Holy Mosque.

Hassan Al-Suwaihri, the Director of the Environmental Protection And Epidemic Control Department at the Grand Mosque, said that more than 100 employees have been trained to use thermal cameras to monitor the temperatures of the visitors of Islam’s holiest shrine as well as that of the presidency staff. 

Al-Suwaihri said that the number of passages at entry gates has been increased to ensure the physical distance among pilgrims as well to facilitate thermal cameras detect those with symptoms of coronavirus. These cameras can monitor temperatures from a distance of six meters with high accuracy and can distinguish the visitor who has symptoms of high temperature and put it in a special list to facilitate his identification before he enters the Grand Mosque.

Al-Suwaihri said that these services and efforts are under the supervision of the general administration of technical and service affairs under the agency for technical and service affairs. This is also under the constant follow-up of Muhammad Al-Jabri, deputy head of the presidency for technical and service affairs, in implementation of the directives of Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, head of the presidency, to enable the pilgrims and worshipers to perform their rituals with ease and comfort.

It is noteworthy that the presidency has made available 20 special sterilization equipment and they are spraying on vast areas of surfaces inside the Grand Mosque. They sterilize both the surface and the air simultaneously at a high speed and there are about 1.2 million micro-particles of sterilization that remain in the air for about two hours. The dry steam equipment helps remove all remnants from the surface so as not to affect the pilgrims and visitors, SG reported.

KHARTOUM, 15 December 2020, (TON): Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok on Monday reiterated Sudan's commitment to the leadership of the African Union in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) issue.

"Our official position continues to adhere to African Union's leadership in the Renaissance Dam issue," said Hamdok at a press conference in Khartoum.

Sudan and Ethiopia are on talks regarding Sudan's return to the GERD negotiating table after Ethiopian Irrigation Minister reached in Khartoum earlier in the day.

Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia have been negotiating under the African Union over technical and legal issues related to the filling and operation of the GERD.

Ethiopia, while earlier started building the GERD in 2011, expects to produce more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity from the project, however, Egypt and Sudan, downstream Nile Basin countries that rely on the river for its fresh water, are concerned that the dam might affect their water resources.

RIYADH, 15 December 2020, (TON): A commercial oil tanker which was reportedly hit by some external element off Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jeddah and perceived to have been targeted by an unidentified “external source” that caused an explosion with fire has been investigated. It was claimed by shipping company crew that vessel come under attack as a result foreign-backed Houthis insurgents’ attacks against Saudi Arabia’s years-long war in against Yemen.

In the yesterday statement, shipping company Hafnia said all 22 sailors on board the Singapore-flagged BW Rhine escaped without injury. The official statement said, “BW Rhine has been hit from an external source whilst discharging at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at approximately 00:40 local time on 14 December 2020 (21:40 GMT on Sunday), causing an explosion and subsequent fire onboard,” Hafnia said in the statement on its website.

The investigation also inspected oil leakage at the site of the blast but it was not found as the  oil levels on board are at the same level as before the incident.

The Western interest groups which deployed their Navies in the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia want to create a suspicion about threat of Houthis for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabian so that military presence remain in the Indian Ocean and the choke points and Riyadh keep them paying for intelligence inputs and protection.

NEW YORK, 14 December 2020, (TON): The Supreme Court refusal to hear Republicans lawsuit on Friday against the conduct of the elections in at least four states led to Electoral College voting today. However, uncertainty still prevails as street protests continue.

President Donald Trump's objections to the election results are a reality and may members from Democrats too consider it as “Fraud election 2020”. Even after the vote by the 538 members of the Electoral College which formalise Biden's election, anything may happen.

Joe Biden and Harris are assured of a victory with their 306 electors but under legal requirements, the state officials will send their results to Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the local chief judge and the nation's Archivist David Ferreiro, who will make them officially available to the public.

Finally, the next state is a meeting of the newly elected Congress on January 6 to formally count the electoral votes and certify the election. At this stage members of Congress have decided to object to the election result, questioning the legitimacy of Joe Biden's election because election 2020 was fraud.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH, 14 December, 2020, (TON): Azerbaijan has said four of its soldiers have been killed accusing Armenian-backed separatists of an ambush. The deaths would be major breach of the Nagorno-Karabakh cease-fire.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have traded blame for breaking the terms of a cease-fire in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The Azeri government said Sunday that four of its troops had been killed in Nagorno-Karabakh after a group of Armenian fighters ambushed its forces on November 26.

The deaths are the first to be reported during the conflict's cease-fire, which has lasted more than a month.

For its part, Armenia said that six separatist fighters were injured in clashes with Azerbaijan's troops after skirmishes broke out on Friday evening.

Responding to Armenian accusations, the Baku government said the clashes over the weekend had taken place in an area that fell under its control. It said its forces had carried out a military operation against enemy forces responsible for the deadly attacks on Azeri servicemen.

But Armenia said its forces we simply repelling attempted intrusions by Azerbaijan's forces into territories supposed to remain under the control of the rebel province's government.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted in September with clashes between Azerbaijan and separatists backed by Armenia over the mountainous region.

The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement was signed on 9 November by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin. Under the deal, Azerbaijan will hold on to areas of Nagorno-Karabakh that it has taken during the conflict. Armenia has also agreed to withdraw from several other adjacent areas over the next few weeks.

Russia has deployed nearly 2,000 peacekeepers to the troubled region for at least five years, to monitor the peace deal and to facilitate the return of refugees.

LONDON, 14 December, 2020, (TON): Although the UK and the EU have not yet reached a deal, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gave a short statement.

Von der Leyen said on Sunday that “Brexit trade talks with the U.K. will be extended beyond Sunday’s deadline, adding that “we think it is responsible at this point to go the extra mile.”

"We have accordingly mandated our negotiators to continue the talks and to see whether an agreement can even be reached at this late stage," she said.

Von der Leyen spoke with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson via telephone on Sunday before releasing a joint statement. Both have now mandated their negotiating teams to continue their work.

Johnson said the UK would not be the one to walk away from Brexit talks, but he still said Britain should prepare for a no-deal situation.

"We're going to keep talking. The UK certainly won't walk away from talks. ... The most likely thing now is we've got to get ready for WTO terms, Australia terms," Johnson said.

"Either way, whatever happens, the UK will do very, very well," he added.

Sunday's deadline was just the last in a series of such self-imposed cutoff dates, but time is running short, with a transition period scheduled to end on December 31.

EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said late Sunday that he would brief the bloc's ambassadors early Monday morning regarding the state of negotiations with the UK.

Media reports from the U.K. suggested there had been some progress in talks in recent days, despite the lack of a breakthrough. No new deadline for the discussions was set by the EU and U.K. leaders.

The U.K. left the EU in January but it agreed to keep the same standards and regulations until the end of the year, so both sides would have time to develop new trading arrangements.

However, this transition period ends in less than three weeks and there are serious concerns that they will not have a new agreement ready by then. Failure to get an agreement in the coming weeks, a so-called no-deal Brexit, could push up taxes and costs for exporters on both sides.

Without a deal, the UK would have to trade with the EU under World Trade Organization rules.