Other news of the day: The first attempt by a Japanese company to land on the moon has failed. The Taliban killed an ISIS leader responsible for the Kabul airport bombing nearly two years ago. The WHO has launched a new alarm about Indian syrups. Karen language schools are back in Myanmar and Thailand. Turkmenistan has banned the mother of an activist from going on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
Türkiye
Three weeks before the next presidential elections, Türkiye yesterday arrested 126 Kurdish activists and journalists, alleging that it had carried out “anti-terrorist” operations in 21 provinces of the country. Police detained people suspected of financing the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) or recruiting new members.
JAPAN
The Japanese company Ispace has confirmed that his first attempt to land on the moon failed, admitting that he had lost contact with the Hakuto mission’s Mission 1 lander, which likely crashed on the lunar surface. The launch had taken place in December from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and if successful, it would have been Japan’s first moon landing.
AFGHANISTAN
the taliban an Islamic State leader was killed Responsible for the August 2021 Kabul airport bombing that took place during the withdrawal of US and international forces from the country, killing more than 170 people. The news has been confirmed by US officials, but the name of the leader has not yet been revealed.
INDIA
The World Health Organization has sounded the alarm about a new batch of cough syrups of Indian manufacture that is exported to the Marshall Islands and Micronesia. Tests on some samples produced by Punjab-based QP Pharmachem showed too high levels of two compounds toxic to humans. India is the world’s largest exporter of generic drugs, shipping its products mainly to developing countries. So far, the contaminated syrups have caused 66 deaths in The Gambia, 18 in Uzbekistan and three in the United States.
MYANMAR
More than 130,000 children attend Karen schools at the Myanmar-Thailand border, receiving literacy training in their mother tongue. Since the 1960s, the Ministry of Education had imposed courses of study in the Burmese language in the Karen-speaking regions. After the February 2021 coup, teachers reinstated the old curricula and provide education for children even in refugee camps.
RUSSIA – ITALY
The international philological conference “Homo Loquens” was held in St. Petersburg at the Christian Humanistic University, with the participation of Russian academicians and Italian philosophers. As the Italian linguist and philosopher Stefano Capilupi, who works permanently in Russia, said, “there were many dialogues during the night, and a great desire for rebirth and freedom.”
TURKMENISTAN
The Turkmenistan authorities have prohibited the mother of Khamida Babadžanova, a humanitarian activist currently emigrating to Turkey, from traveling to Saudi Arabia for the Muslim pilgrimage, who since spring 2021 has continued to disseminate videos and photos showing the serious economic crisis in the country and the violations of citizens’ rights.
