Ammunition depot explodes in Pakistan: police call it an accident

Today's headlines: A man is sentenced to death for drug trafficking in Singapore; Money raising Apps go viral in South Korea; One of 12 cheetahs brought from South Africa dies in India; Tensions flare up again in Nagorno Krabakh; The European Union has imposed new sanctions for captagon trafficking.

PAKISTAN

Two explosions at an anti-terrorist ammunition depot in the north-western Swat Valley killed at least 13 people and injured 50 others. The region was controlled by Islamist militants until 2009. According to the police spokesman, the ammunition caught fire, 'most probably due to an electrical short circuit. So far, no evidence of an attack from outside has been established'.

INDIA

A cheetah died in India's Kuno National Park in the state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the second in less than a month and part of 12 felines brought to India from South Africa in February. According to a preliminary report, the animal died of heart failure. India reintroduced cheetahs last year after they had been declared extinct for 70 years.

SINGAPORE

Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, was sentenced to death for drug trafficking for attempting to smuggle 1kg of cannabis from Malaysia and in recent days the Court of Appeal upheld his sentence, which is expected to be carried out tomorrow. The family asked the authorities for a pardon and called for a retrial, believing the man to be innocent.

SOUTH KOREA

Taking 10,000 steps, completing simple tasks such as signing up for social media or tapping the mobile phone screen when others are nearby can generate up to 10 cents at a time for users of the increasingly popular Toss app from South Korean startup Viva Republica. Three out of four adults earn money this way in South Korea amid rising youth unemployment and rising inflation.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH

The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is flaring up again, so much so that various Russian and Azerbaijani media are fearing 'a new major Armenian military offensive' soon, also underlining the 'increasingly vocal anti-Russian stance of Armenian PM Pašinyan, who calls on the collective West to expel Russia from the region', according to the @Rybar news agency.

RUSSIA

In the Moscow Duma, United Russia deputy Sultan Khamzaev put forward the proposal to exclude the English language from school curricula, in order to "get out of the propaganda vector in the world of education", because the language of the Anglo-Saxons has become international precisely by "imposing it as compulsory in curricula all over the world".

EUROPEAN UNION - SYRIA

The EU has extended sanctions for "large-scale drug trafficking operations" by the Syrian government to Wasim al-Assad and Samer al-Assad, two relatives of President Bashar al-Assad, two Lebanese nationals and nearly a dozen others for their suspected role in the trade in captagon, an amphetamine. A Russian company was also cited. Sanctions had previously been imposed on the Syrian president.

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