Today's headlines: Emirates, maxi seizure of 13 tonnes of Captagon worth over a billion dollars; A 10-year-old boy in Hong Kong arrested for armed robbery, luxury watches worth nearly 650,000 euros in the loot; Tharman Shanmugaratnam sworn in as Singapore's ninth president; Border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan reopened, but tension remains between the parties; Lavrov: 'Russia and China withdraw from UN sanctions on Pyongyang over nuclear programme'.

In Dushanbe, transport ministers are discussing an agreement to facilitate the overland movement of goods and people. But border disputes and conflicting interests between individual countries make this path fraught with obstacles. The major project of a China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan corridor competes with the East-West lines through Kazakhstan.

The denunciation of 200 activists from the five countries of the region gathered in Almaty thirty years after the independence of the ex-Soviet republics. In the face of the heavy economic crisis resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the social consequences of climate change, repression against any critical voice of governments is growing.

Today's headlines: students arrested for attempted assault on Japanese embassy in Seoul released, further investigation under consideration; Attempts at rapprochement, and border agreement, between Xi and Modi at BRICS summit; Vietnamese youth traffickedin Laos under pretext of jobs; 22-year-old ex-soldier tours Taiwan island for a month warning of imminent risk of war with China; The flight of Russians over war in Ukraine reaches record numbers, more than a million in one year.

Today's headlines: Xi Jinping's BRICS summit kicks off in Johannesburg, Putin joins remotely; Israeli security forces killed a 17-year-old Palestinian boy; Philippines and Australia conduct a joint military exercise in the South China Sea to counter Beijing; Pakistani prime minister visits Jaranwala's Christians where churches and homes of over 200,000 damaged; Taipei calls political foul over Chinese customs block mango on its imports.

In Putin's mind, the flight of the Americans from the Afghan capital triggered the spring of the 'great revenge'. Russia now regularly invites Kabul's representatives to Moscow for consultations, despite the fact that the Taliban are still considered an unwelcome 'terrorist organisation'. And the other former Soviet countries are also in solidarity with the Kremlin in officially condemning the Afghan government, at the same time considering it a necessary partner.