Hong Kong wants to ban foreign lawyers from security trials. In India they found the charred bodies of two Muslims inside a car. Iran is preparing to receive a Taliban embassy. The Burmese junta awarded honorary titles to two nationalist monks. The bulletproof vests of the Moscow police will be emblazoned with holy icons.
SYRIA – TURKEY
The tremors continue in the areas affected by the earthquake just over two weeks ago. The most recent was last night, of magnitude 6.3 with an epicenter in the southern Turkish province of Hatay, which was also felt in Lebanon, Israel and parts of Iraq. The provisional figure is a handful of deaths and several hundred wounded. According to some sources, those affected by the earthquake had returned to take refuge inside the buildings due to the low temperatures.
INDIA
The case of two Muslim men whose bodies were found charred inside a car in the state of Haryana. Relatives of the victims say they were killed by right-wing Hindus who accused them of cow smuggling. Sacrifice of the animal is illegal in some states, including Haryana. In recent years, many Muslim cattle traders have been attacked by Hindu vigilantes who accused them of transporting beef.
IRAN – AFGHANISTAN
Iran is preparing to hand over the Afghan embassy in Tehran to the new Taliban authorities. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate has appointed Mohammad Afzal Haqqani as ambassador to Tehran. Some sources claim that Iran had not initially accepted the appointment. Only Pakistan and Russia have received Taliban embassies.
HONG KONG
The city authorities submitted a proposal to amend the regulations of the Legislative Council in order to prohibit the presence of foreign lawyers in cases related to the national security law, imposed by Beijing in 2020. This decision has been taken after tycoon Jimmy Lai asked for clarification last week about the possibility of being represented by his British lawyer in the trial that will take place in autumn.
THAILAND
The death of a Uyghur asylum seeker at a Bangkok immigration center has led human rights defenders to call for better treatment for some 50 refugees detained for nearly 9 years. The Thai authorities had prohibited Aziz Abdullah, 49, from going to the hospital. He was part of a group of more than 350 Uyghur asylum seekers who fled Xinjiang in 2013. China has repeatedly pushed for Uyghur asylum seekers to be repatriated or prevented from reaching Turkey.
MYANMAR
The president of the coup junta, General Min Aung Hlaing, has granted the highest honorary title to two nationalist Buddhist monks, in a clear attempt to use religion in support of the military coup. One of them is U Wirathu, known for his hate speech, whom Time magazine dubbed the “Buddhist bin Laden.” He had been detained by the previous government and released in October 2021.
RUSSIA
Moscow police are buying panels for bulletproof vests emblazoned with holy icons, the Interior Ministry’s procurement portal reports. 111 “patrol” vests have been ordered with the Archangel Michael, Saint George “the victor” and the Virgin of Kazan with the texts of the corresponding supplication prayers.
LITHUANIA
Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople accepted the request for the rehabilitation of five Lithuanian Orthodox priests who had been reduced to lay status by Metropolitan Innokenty of Vilnius, a member of the Moscow Patriarchate, because they had asked for separation from Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, reducing them to lay status even without the consent of their bishop.
