AFGHANISTAN
A suicide attack in front of the Foreign Ministry in Kabul yesterday left at least 20 people dead, a Taliban official estimated. The attack was claimed by Is-K, the local group affiliated with the Islamic State. The bomber had tried to enter the building but was stopped.
INDIA
India will purchase portable air defence missiles to be deployed along its border with China. The Defence Acquisition Council, headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, authorised the purchase of short-range missiles that can be carried by troops, like those sent to Ukraine by the US. The militarisation of the region continues after the June 2020 clashes in which some 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese soldiers died.
CHINA
China has stopped updating its daily reports on the number of Covid-19 cases since three days ago, creating a further information gap on the pandemic's progress. Yesterday, the World Health Organisation stressed the need to share information not on the number of cases but on the strains circulating.
MYANMAR
An air strike by the Burmese junta killed five ethnic Chin resistance fighters, including two women. Army jets dropped five bombs on Mt. Victoria, the headquarters of the Chin National Army, the armed wing of the Chin National Front (CNF), the first ethnic armed organisation to join the Government of National Unity. One of the bombs fell in the Indian state of Mizoram, which borders the state of Chin.
SYRIA - CANADA
In 2018, Hassan al-Kontar found himself stranded for months without a passport in Malaysia, at Kuala Lumpur airport. Syrian by birth, he was working in the United Arab Emirates and in 2011, when his work visa expired, he did not want to return to his country because war had just broken out. For years he remained stateless, but in recent days he obtained Canadian citizenship.
TURKMENISTAN - CHINA
Turkmen President Berdymukhamedov paid an official visit to China, meeting with Xi Jinping and signing several memoranda, including an agreement on media cooperation between Turkmenistan's state information agency and China's 'Xinhua', as well as with several publications and TV channels in Beijing.
GEORGIA
Compulsory military service, eliminated after Soviet times, has been reintroduced in Georgia, which the Ministry of Defence will implement from 2025 to 'form a strong war reserve, in light of recent events and Russia's war in Ukraine', commented Prime Minister Garibašvili.
