Uyghur repression: UN human rights chief to visit Xinjiang in May

Today's headlines: Christian activist demanding investigation into Xuzhou chained woman's case arrested in China; South Korea seizes North Korean fishing boat despite North's military intervention; More than 7,000 Russian tourists stranded in Thailand;. Kazakhstan takes advantage of Western sanctions against Russia; The Indian government repatriates 17,100 nationals from Ukraine.

UN-CHINA

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights will visit China in May. In her announcement yesterday, Michelle Bachelet explained that the tour will also stop in Xinjiang, where activists and independent experts say the Chinese government is holding one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking minorities of the Islamic faith in concentration and labour camps.

CHINA

Police in Zaozhuang (Shandong) arrested a Christian activist investigating the case of a woman found chained in a hut in Xuzhou (Jiangsu). ChinaAid yesterday reported that  Li Yu had not been heard from for more than 10 days. He had asked the authorities to launch a formal investigation into the woman's treatment.

KOREA

Yesterday, on the eve of South Korea's presidential election, Seoul seized a North Korean fishing boat that had trespassed into South Korean territorial waters. In carrying out the operation, the South's security forces fired warning shots at a Pyongyang military ship trying to intervene.

THAILAND-RUSSIA

More than 7,000 Russian tourists are stranded in Thailand. Due to Western sanctions for their country's invasion of Ukraine, they are unable to find flights and access their bank accounts to return home.

KAZAKHSTAN

Sanctions by the US and its allies on Russia for its aggression against Ukraine have encouraged an increase in Kazakh exports via the Caspian Sea. Products that previously passed through Russian territory are now moving from the Kazakh ports of Aktau and Kuryk to Azerbaijan, and then overland to the Georgian coast on the Black Sea.

SAUDI ARABIA

The US government yesterday asked the Saudi government to review cases involving "prisoners of conscience" and to allow women's rights activists to travel abroad. Washington's request to its Middle Eastern ally comes after periods of tension over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the war in Yemen and oil production.

INDIA-UKRAINE

Yesterday, the last large group of Indian citizens was evacuated from the war front and taken to the western border of Ukraine. The students were in Sumy, a town under constant attack by the Russian army. So far, with 83 flights, the Delhi authorities have brought back 17,100 compatriots from Ukraine.

• AsiaToday