Other news of the day: Vietnam has asked Australia to recall thousands of commemorative coins. In Hong Kong they seized a commemorative statue of the events in Tiananmen Square. Five Indian soldiers have been killed in military operations in Kashmir. In Iraq, 400 former ISIS women are on hunger strike. Turkmen factory riots.
THAILAND
With less than 10 days to go before the presidential elections, the latest polls give the advantage to the opposition Pita Limjaroenrat, 42 years old, at the head of the progressive Move Forward Party, supported mainly by young people. With almost 30% of the preferences, she surpassed Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the candidate of the Pheu Thai party, the favorite until now against the government that emerged after the 2014 military coup.
VIETNAM – AUSTRALIA
The communist government of Vietnam has asked Australia to suspend the circulation of commemorative coins that reproduce the flag of South Vietnam, currently banned by Hanoi. The Royal Australian Mint last month issued 85,000 coins to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the withdrawal of Australian troops from South Vietnam, saying the design actually reproduces the service medal ribbons and not the Saigon flag. More than 60,000 Australian soldiers served in the Vietnam War, Canberra’s longest and most unpopular involvement in a conflict in the last century.
HONG KONG
Hong Kong police seized a statue – titled “Pillar of Shame” – reminiscent of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4, 1989. It is more than eight meters high and is made up of torn and twisted bodies, and for that reason the authorities consider it an “incitement to subversion”.
INDIA
The Indian authorities confirmed the death of five soldiers in a military operation in the Kashmir region, in dispute with neighboring Pakistan. India, which has fought secessionist forces for decades, launched a series of operations in the Rajouri area to counter what it sees as rogue terror groups, after five more soldiers were killed last month in an ambush.
IRAQ
Nearly 400 female members of the Islamic State currently being held in a security jail in Baghdad, are in hunger strike since April 24 to protest their imprisonment and conditions of detention. The group also includes citizens of Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Syria, France, Germany and the United States, and with them there would be a hundred children.
ARMENIA – AZERBAIJAN
Four-day negotiations with the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Mirzoyan and Bayramov, concluded in Washington. US Secretary of State Blinken stated that “following intensive and constructive consultations, significant progress has been made in resolving very difficult issues and ending the protracted conflict.”
TURKMENISTAN
In the municipality of Kyoneurgen, riots broke out in two factories, where hundreds of workers protested the lack of distribution of food products for several months in accordance with the subsidies that correspond to them, granted instead in other companies. The police tried in vain to quell the protests and arrested 15 people.
