The former East Pakistan is watching the election process closely. Especially with regard to the presence of migrants, of Muslim faith, in India. For now, Dhaka is trying to maintain a certain balance between Delhi's pressure and Beijing's influence, explains Fr Sergio Targa, a Xaverian missionary in Bangladesh since 1992, now in Italy.
Coinciding with the 13 April attack, the police chief launched a 'campaign' against 'violations of the hijab law'. From prison, Nobel Peace Laureate Mohammadi speaks of a 'generalised assault' of rape, abuse, torture. The authorities 'mute' the phones of those protesting. Strikes in universities, feminicides also on the rise.
The events took place under the auspices of the Türksoy, established in 1993. The occasion also commemorated the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Turkmen poet and spiritual leader Magtymguly Pyragy. The stage in Arkadag, the new smart-city just built in honour of the former president and 'father of the fatherland'.
Today's headlines: Extreme heat in South Asia and Southeast Asia force the authorities to close schools. Indian Prime Minister Modi said that he has invited Pope Francis to India. South Korea's GDP is up. Turkmenistan restricts the public expression of religion. Russia's state-owned company Gazprom is set to sponsor a Hungarian football club.
Four people have been arrested recently in Germany, including a close aide to a leading member of the Alternative für Deutschland party who is running for re-election to the European Parliament. Joint research programmes between German universities and Chinese institutes connected to the country’s military have come in for closer scrutiny. For a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, China is the victim of “defamation”.
While the country is getting ready to welcome Pope Francis in September, amendments have been proposed to assert the country’s Christian identity. For the Catholic Bishops' Conference, this is a “dangerous” step that “obscures and even erases our unique Melanesian identity [. . .] rather than acknowledge, celebrate and perfect it through the Gospel”. The backers of the constitutional changes are the same groups that got the King James Bible inside parliament in 2015, promising “blessings and riches”.
