Pakistani rockets continue to strike Taliban political and military targets in Afghanistan, with the UN reporting at least 66,000 people displaced and dozens of civilians killed. Pakistan also faces anger from its own Shia community following the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US and Israeli attacks against Iran.
Built around 1526, the protected structure is at the center of a legal dispute that has caused violence: Hindu petitioners claim it was built on top of a Shiva temple. The Archaeological Survey of India states that it has no documents on the state of the site prior to construction. The Central Information Commission has rejected the appeal.
The chapel and ecclesiastical buildings of the archbishopric in Erbil hit by missiles and drones. Chaldean woman in Baghdad arrested for celebrating Khamenei's killing, faces four years in prison. Iraqi scholar tells AsiaNews: the country risks becoming an arena for external powers to “settle scores”. Institutional crisis fuels fears, emergency government needed.
Today's headlines: China lowers its GDP growth target for 2026 to below 5% for the first time. Nepal goes to the polls, results announced for tomorrow. Hong Kong court does not admit Taiwanese academic as witness in Tiananmen Square vigil trial. Two unpublished novels by Nobel Prize winner Kenzaburo Oe discovered in Japan.
According to an estimate released in December and immediately withdrawn, 250,000 people have returned from the war in Ukraine and are now looking for work. For them, the TV channel Rossija-1 airs the program Budem Žit, “We Will Live Again.” There is a risk of a repeat of the situation in the 1980s, when the “Afghans” were a long-standing unresolved problem in Moscow.
Attieh Fard, a political leader and lawyer who has lived in the United Kingdom for many years, spoke to AsiaNews about a country willing to accept war to end the clerical regime, its torture and killings. The nomination of Mojtaba Khamenei is a source of concern as some see him as "worse than his father”, Ali Khamenei. The lack of external support for the popular uprisings and the need to protect the borders are important issues.
