New earthquake in Turkey and Syria. Quakes also felt in Lebanon and Israel

Today's headlines: Hong Kong wants to bar foreign lawyers in security trials; In India, the bodies of two Muslims found charred inside a car; Iran prepares to welcome a Taliban embassy; The Burmese junta awarded honorary titles to two nationalist monks; Moscow police bulletproof bodices will have sacred icons on them.

SYRIA - TURKEY

The tremors continue in the areas already hit by the earthquake just over a fortnight ago. The most recent one last night, with a magnitude of 6.3, had its epicentre in the southern Turkish province of Hatay and was also felt in Lebanon, Israel and parts of Iraq. The provisional toll is a dozen dead and several hundred injured. According to some sources, earthquake victims had taken refuge inside buildings because of the cold weather outside.

INDIA

The case of two Muslim men whose bodies were found charred inside a car in the state of Haryana is generating a stir and debate in India. Relatives of the victims say they were killed by right-wing Hindus who accused them of cow smuggling. Animal slaughter is illegal in some states including Haryana. In recent years, many Muslim cattle traders have been attacked by Hindu vigilantes who accused them of transporting beef.

IRAN - AFGHANISTAN

Iran is preparing to hand over the Afghan embassy in Teheran to the new Taliban authorities, after a letter from the Islamic Emirate's Foreign Ministry had designated Mohammad Afzal Haqqani as ambassador in Teheran. According to some sources, Iran did not initially accept the appointment. Only Pakistan and Russia host Taliban embassies on their territories.

HONG KONG

The city authorities have submitted a proposal to amend the Legislative Council regulations to ban foreign lawyers in cases involving the National Security Act, imposed by Beijing in 2020. The move comes after tycoon Jimmy Lai last week asked for clarification on whether he could be represented by his British lawyer in the trial that will take place in the autumn.

THAILAND

The death of a Uyghur asylum seeker in a Bangkok migrant centre has prompted human rights advocates to call for better treatment for some fifty refugees who have been detained for some nine years. Aziz Abdullah, 49, collapsed after being banned from going to hospital for weeks by the Thai authorities. He was part of a wave of more than 350 Uyghur asylum seekers who fled Xinjiang in 2013. China has repeatedly pressed for the Uyghur asylum seekers to be repatriated or prevented from reaching Turkey.

MYANMAR

In recent days, two nationalist Buddhist monks have been awarded the highest honorary title by the coup leader, General Min Aung Hlaing, in an attempt to instrumentalise religion in favour of the military coup. One of the two was U Wirathu, known for his hate speeches to the point that he had been dubbed the 'Buddhist Bin Laden' by Time magazine. He had been arrested by the previous government and released in October 2021.

RUSSIA

The Moscow police are purchasing bulletproof vest panels with sacred icons depicted on them, according to the procurement portal of the Ministry of the Interior, with an order for 111 'patrol' waistcoats with the Archangel Michael, St George 'the victor', Our Lady of Kazan and the texts of the relevant supplication prayers.

LITHUANIA

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople accepted the appeal of five Lithuanian Orthodox priests who had been reduced to the lay state by Metropolitan Innokentij of Vilnius, of the Moscow Patriarchate, because they had asked for separation from Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, restoring them to the clerical state, although without the consent of their bishop.

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