MALAYSIA
The National Council for Islamic Religious Affairs of Malaysia stated that the teachings and ideology of Global Ikhwan Services and Business (GISB Holdings) are distant and deviant from Islamic ones. The conglomerate is under investigation for child abuse and money laundering and for using ‘elements of slavery’ to run its business. In September, the authorities had rescued about 600 children allegedly abused.
SRI LANKA
The left-wing coalition of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake won the parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka. By early afternoon the National People's Power had won 114 out of 225 seats and was leading in all the constituencies not yet counted. The turnout was about 65%.
INDIA
The Maharashtra police announced that they have initiated proceedings against those who have sold (including online) products depicting Lawrence Bishnoi, a notorious Indian gangster in jail for 10 years and now implicated in a series of cases also in Canada because of the killing of a Sikh activist allegedly by his gang. The authorities claim that this makes criminal activities fascinating.
SOUTH KOREA
The leader of South Korea's main opposition party, Lee Jae-myung, was sentenced to a one-year prison term for violating election law. 'I will appeal. Based on the basic facts, it is a difficult sentence to accept,' said Lee, who risks losing his parliamentary seat and the chance to run for president in the next five years.
VATICAN-ISRAEL
Pope Francis received a group of former Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the brutal attack on 7 October 2023 at the Vatican yesterday. Two children were also present at the meeting. Many carried a placard with the faces and names of family members still imprisoned or missing. The pontiff expressed his closeness witnessed by his constant appeals for the release of the hostages and the cease-fire in Gaza.
MIDDLE EAST
In recent days the United Nations has brought attention to Israel's violations of a ceasefire agreement with Syria for the occupation of the Golan Heights dating back to 1974. Satellite images showed that the Jewish state has built trenches and embankments along the common border, called the Separation Area, entering the buffer zone. Israeli settlers and about 20,000 Syrians, mostly Druze, live in the region.
IRAN - RUSSIA
The credit cards of the Mir system, now rejected even by all neutral or friendly countries, will begin to function from 2025 on Iranian territory, as announced by the President of the Central Bank of Tehran, Reza Farzin, through the Shetab payment system that will also allow Iranians to access Russian banks.
TAJIKISTAN
According to research by Asia-Plus, Tajikistan's five-year development plan runs into a number of contradictions, such as the increase in food production and the simultaneous increase in imports of the same items to meet domestic demand, large expenditures on raw materials (cereals, vegetables, cotton) with processing difficulties due to lack of technology.
