INDIA
Despite making up about 80 percent of the country's population, among Indians who migrate, Hindus make up only 41 percent. The figure emerges from a new Pew Research Center study on the religious composition of migrants around the world. In contrast, about 15 percent of people living in India are Muslim, compared to 33 percent of those born in India and now living elsewhere. Christians make up only about 2 percent of India's population, but 16 percent of those who have left India are Christians.
ISRAEL-PALESTINE-GAZA
The bodies of six more dead hostages in Gaza have been recovered in recent hours by Israeli troops, according to the families. An official communication from the Israeli government is awaited. Kibbutz Nir Oz, from which one of the victims came, says this development is “the clearest proof of the importance of an agreement that will return our boys and girls as soon as possible, before it is too late.”
PAKISTAN-GREAT BRITAIN
Incarcerated former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has submitted his candidacy for chancellor of Oxford University. The decision by Khan, a graduate of the prestigious British university, was announced by Sayed Bukhari, London-based spokesman for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. Chris Patten, last British governor of Hong Kong, announced in February his resignation from the post of chancellor of Oxford. A vote on nominations is scheduled for late October.
AFGHANISTAN-PHILIPPINES-UNITED STATES.
The Philippines will allow a “limited number” of Afghans to remain in the country temporarily pending completion of procedures for possible resettlement in the United States. In making the announcement, the Foreign Ministry did not provide any timetable or the number of people who will be allowed to transit the country. Under the agreement, Washington will support “necessary services.” Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez had said last year that there were about 50,000 visa applicants, including the families of those who had worked for the U.S.-backed government that was toppled by the Taliban.
JAPAN
The operator of the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant said it plans to begin on Aug. 22 an experimental retrieval of a portion of debris containing melted nuclear fuel from one of its three reactors affected by the meltdown in the 2011 accident. The removal of radioactive debris is considered one of the most challenging activities in the plant's decommissioning. It is not yet clear how the approximately 880 tons of debris will be removed from reactors No. 1, 2 and 3, which suffered meltdowns, and where the recovered debris will be stored until disposal.
BELARUS-UKRAINE
President Aleksandr Lukashenko said that Belarus has deployed one-third of its armies to the border with Ukraine, as “Kiev keeps more than 120,000 soldiers near our borders, and more are coming,” warning that the Minsk army could begin an attack together with the Russians from the Gomel area, “given the continued escalation of the Ukrainians.”
ARMENIA
Sunday, Aug. 18, the Armenian Apostolic Church celebrated the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, one of the five major celebrations in the Armenian liturgical calendar, in which bunches of grapes are blessed in churches then distributed to the faithful, commemorating the gift of the apostle Bartholomew, who is said to have brought grapes picked in the Garden of Gethsemane from Mary's empty tomb to Armenia.
