EGYPT-GAZA
Just 15 kilometres from Rafah, the Gaza city crowded with Palestinians on which the threat of the Israeli offensive hangs, Sisi City, a new Egyptian city named after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, is being built. It was announced by businessman and leader of the Sinai militias Ibrahim al-Organi, who has been gossiped about because of the exorbitant sums his companies charge Palestinians fleeing the war to Egypt and aid trucks entering the enclave. Sisi City will be built on the site of al-Arjaa, a village south of Rafah adjacent to the Egyptian-Israeli border.
INDIA-CANADA
Three Indian citizens were arrested and charged in Canada for the killing of 45-year-old Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver last June. Superintendent Mandeep Mooker said the three suspects are Karan Brar, 22, Kamal Preet Singh, 22, and Karan Preet Singh, 28, all three residents of Edmontom. The Canadian police added that investigations are continuing, including ‘links to the Indian government’.
CHINA
China yesterday launched the Chang'e-6 lunar probe into orbit for a 53-day mission that is expected to collect material samples from the surface of the moon's hidden side for the first time. It is a new step in China's programme that aims to send a manned mission to the Moon by 2030. Scientists claim that the craters on the Moon's hidden side - invisible from Earth because it never catches the Sun's rays - are less covered by ancient lava flows, so its materials could help better understand how Earth's satellite was formed.
JAPAN-BRAZIL
At a summit in Brasilia, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed an agreement to strengthen efforts to combat climate change, including by enhancing the protection of the Amazon rainforest. The Green Partnership Initiative provides financial contributions and assistance for the regeneration of degraded agricultural land to prevent deforestation and promote sustainable agriculture.
CAMBODIA-SAUDI ARABIA
Dozens of Cambodian women trafficked to work as maids in Saudi Arabia are demanding that their embassy arrange for their return home. Cambodia's Ministry of Labour confirmed that 51 of the women are in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, 15 in the capital Riyadh and 12 in Dammam on the Persian Gulf coast.
RUSSIA-CENTRAL ASIA
After the recent expulsions of Tajik migrants from Russia and the gatherings at airports with the repatriation of many, Tajikistan's foreign ministry sent a protest note to the Russian ambassador in Dusanbe, complaining about ‘the numerous cases of strongly negative relations’ towards its compatriots. Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan also advise their citizens not to travel to Russia.
UZBEKISTAN
The oldest manuscript of the Koran, the Koran Usman or ‘Koran of Tashkent’, written in the 7th century on a buckskin for the Caliph Usman ibn Affan, is to undergo restoration by the Fund for the Development of Culture and Art of Uzbekistan, summoning a large number of international experts from Cambridge University, France and Turkey.
