ASIA TODAY Afghanistan, 170 factories closed due to lack of electricity

Other news of the day: the number of deaths in the attack on the mosque rose to 87. An extremist recruiting Rohingya militants has been arrested in Bangladesh. In Indonesia, a former leprosy patient builds prostheses for other lepers. In China, a woman learned 10 dialects to help her compatriots. In Syria, dumpsites have become the only source of livelihood for some families.

AFGHANISTAN

At least 170 factories in the industrial city of Shorandam, in the southern province of Kandahar, have been forced to close in recent months due to repeated power outages. The owners complain about the lack of electricity and say they may be forced to close for good due to production levels that are too low.

PAKISTAN

The body count for yesterday’s suicide bombing at the Peshawar mosque has risen to 87. Pakistani Taliban (TTP) official media distanced itself from the attack after initial claims by some organization commanders. The TTP’s code of conduct, they affirmed, does not allow attacking mosques but only law enforcement, because their battle is against the Pakistani state. It is estimated that there were between 300 and 400 police officers at the scene.

BANGLADESH – MYANMAR

Dhaka anti-terror unit arrested an extremist trained in Afghanistan who was trying to recruit militiamen in the Rohingya refugee camps. In recent days, a group of 5 other people have been arrested for being part of the organization Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami Bangladesh, linked to al-Qaeda.

INDONESIA

Ali Saga, 57 years old, recovered from leprosy, now he is dedicated to building handmade prostheses for the approximately 500 sick people in the village of Sitanala. After Brazil and India, Indonesia is the third country in the world in cases of leprosy, currently above 15,000. However, infected people are isolated because the disease is considered a divine punishment.

CHINA

A Chinese woman taught herself at least 10 dialects spoken in the country to help people who for some reason have lost their loved ones to find them. They are kidnapped or trafficked persons, biological relatives raised in other families, or simply older people who have lost their way back home. Tan Yinghuan, 42, has helped about 300 people in nine years of volunteer work.

RUSSIA

In Irkutsk, Siberia, the trial has begun for a serious scandal of violence against the inmates of lager No. 15 in Angarsk, where more than 60 episodes of sexual violence were detected and more than a dozen victims. The defendants are 4 “pressers”, the prisoners who collaborate with the administration, a figure that seemed to have disappeared since the Stalinist era.

SYRIA

For some Syrians, the dump at the US military base in Tell Beydar has become the only source of livelihood: families here search for food to eat and plastic objects to resell. After more than 10 years of war, about 15.3 million people need humanitarian assistance in Syria, according to the latest United Nations figures. At least four out of five people do not have access to enough food.