Today's news: Poverty in Lebanon tripled in a decade; Summit between leaders of South Korea, China and Japan on 26-27 May in Seoul, first trilateral talks in four years; Heavy pre-monsoon rains claim seven victims in Kerala; A centuries-old Armenian church reopens in Zakho, Iraq; Russian local government offers children a prize trip to ‘fascinating’ North Korea.
Moscow is pushing to extend the free trade area created in 2014 with Belarus and Kazakhstan and already extended to Armenia and Kyrgyzstan to all non-hostile former Soviet countries. But the Eurasian countries are gaining big economic benefits from geopolitical tensions. With the oil sector, in particular, now poised between traditional routes and new prospects of collaboration with Westerners.
Today's news: Record gold seizure at Hong Kong customs worth more than million; For the Thai premier, it is time for talks with the coup junta in Myanmar, which is starting to 'lose strength'; Beijing blocked a popular Tibetan-language blog; Meeting between the foreign ministries of Russia and China, Putin's visit to Xi Jinping on the agenda.
Today's news: reports of workplace abuse have doubled in South Korea in five years; Baghdad will send 10 million liters of fuel to the Gaza Strip; Public apology from a company in Malaysia for a shoe logo that resembles the word "Allah"; The Taliban have built a wall around the Eidgah mosque in Kandahar for fear of ISIS attacks: Moscow has slowed issuing work permits to migrants from Central Asia.
The number of Tajiks involved in the Moscow massacre is increasing, with arrests and verifications also by the Dushanbe authorities. Despite the clampdown on mosques, recruitment is taking place via social networks, among the most marginalised sections of the population. And the hostility that is forcing many migrants to return home could have repercussions on the country ruled by Rakhmon for thirty years.
The Isis cell in the region between Afghanistan and Central Asia sees Russia as the main support for its two worst enemies, the regimes in Kabul and Tehran. While in Tajikistan, President Rakhmon stigmatises the high number of Tajiks among the militia, but according to his opponents their radicalisation is the effect of his twenty years of repression.
