Pakistani Taliban announce ceasefire with Islamabad

The other news of the day: Myanmar junta torched hundreds of homes last week, Sri Lanka hopes to attract foreign investment, supermarkets are stormed in Uzbekistan, Timor Leste inks agreements with China, Hong Kong students hide figurines of the “democracy goddess”.

PAKISTAN

Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) announced a ceasefire with the Pakistani government. The two sides held talks in Kabul, which are still ongoing, thanks to the mediation of a jirga, an assembly of leaders, and Afghan Taliban. The current truce will be extended until further notice. The TTP’s opposition to Pakistan's security forces is aimed at taking over border areas with Afghanistan and impose Shari'a.

UZBEKISTAN

In Fergana, a city in eastern Uzbekistan, a huge crowd stormed a supermarket and emptied bread shelves after bread prices shot up on Wednesday from 1,500 soms to 3,000 soms.

RUSSIA

The last Sandero Stepway cars by Renault left the Avtovaz assembly line in Moscow. The carmaker also shut down its Mazda Sollers factory in Vladivostok, making all workers redundant. In March, 41,000 lightweight cars were manufactured in Russia, 72 per cent fewer than the previous year, back to the levels of the Soviet Union.

HONG KONG

This week students at Hong Kong University hid figurines of the “democracy goddess” on the university's campus to mark the anniversary of Tiananmen Square, defying Beijing's crackdown, which banned the annual vigil and closed the museum dedicated to the massacre of 4 June 1989.

CHINA – TIMOR LESTE

The government of Timor Leste signed a number of agreements with China yesterday as Foreign Minister Wang Yi completed a 10-day tour of the Pacific. The deals between the two countries cover technical and economic cooperation, media partnership and the sending of a Chinese medical team to the country. Military and security issues were excluded.

MYANMAR

Last week Myanmar troops set fire to hundreds of homes during a three-day raid in the Sagaing region. The villages of Kinn, Upper Kinn and Ke Taung were the most affected. The junta blames the fires on the resistance led by the People's Defence Forces, which it deems a bunch of "terrorists".

SRI LANKA

Sri Lanka hopes to get a billion dollars in foreign investment following two proposals to build renewable energy plants on the island nation, this according to Renuka Weerakone, general manager of the Board of Investment, which is evaluating at least 49 investment projects from different countries. Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.

• pakistan
• uzbekistan
• russia
• hong kong
• china
• timor leste
• myanmar
• sri lanka