Nadeem Masih, 51, was taken to the police on 21 August 2025. He was targeted and repeatedly harassed in Model Town Park where he worked checking weights. He is now free. For his mother, this is an answer to her prayers. For his legal team, “These cases are extremely sensitive and have life-altering consequences.”
Once a hidden and clandestine practice, poppy cultivation has become a means of subsistence. The heart of production lies in the Zagros Mountains in the west. The estimated value of opium is up to 72 times higher than that of wheat. In Tehran, the price of bread has risen by 100 per cent. As poverty increases, so does the exploitation of child labour.
Across the Indian state, thousands of people took part in the celebrations, diving into wells, ponds and watercourses in a symbolic ritual that recalls the biblical episode in which St John the Baptist leapt for joy in the womb of his mother, Elizabeth. A festival deeply cherished by the Catholic community, it coincides with the start of the monsoon season.
In an extensive interview with TASS, Metropolitan Sergij of Singapore described the mission of his exarchate – which today stretches from Korea to Indonesia, across countries with Buddhist or Muslim majorities – as “difficult and stimulating”. “Dialogue on faith? Here it does not begin with dogma, but with the beauty and silence of an Orthodox church”
Today’s headlines: The Philippines have blocked an online video game used by one of the perpetrators of the Tacloban massacre; Cambodia has upheld a 14-year sentence for two journalists who photographed a temple in an area disputed with Thailand; FIFA has suspended Nepal from international football competitions; South Korea has asked Ukraine for permission to grant asylum to defectors from Pyongyang.
As much as FIFA and social media may celebrate Japanese fans who pick up trash after World Cup matches, the act is divisive in Japan. The slogan "Japan Pride" has also been criticised, while some Japanese women who say they do not see the same behaviour from men at home.
