Dhaka opens first metro rail

Today's headlines: officials and businessmen hoard antivirals as China grappling with unprecedented wave of Covid-19; Karnataka church vandalized two days after Christmas; Kishida evokes possibility of early elections in Japan; Israeli ambassador returns to Ankara; Russian opposition politician Lev Yasin denied appeal and transferred to a place of detention far from Moscow.

BANGLADESH

In Dhaka, Premier Sheik Hasina inaugurates the first section of the metro rail today. The line, funded by Japanese cooperation for the Bangladeshi metropolis of more than 20 million people, spans 12 kilometers joining Diabara to Agargaon. The line connects the northern part of Dhaka with the center, where government offices and hospitals are located.

CHINA

The hunt is on for antivirals in China grappling with the unprecedented wave of Covid-19 cases. Several public and private hospitals told the Financial Times that Paxlovid, the antiviral used to treat moderate symptoms of Coronavirus, is either out of stock or available only to patients with serious medical conditions. Doctors recounted how officials and business owners have hoarded large stocks of pills at exorbitant prices to protect their elderly parents, family members or friends.

INDIA

Two days after Christmas, a church was vandalized in the Indian state of Karnataka. At St. Mary's Church unknown persons damaged the statue of the baby Jesus and ransacked the altar. Karnataka is one of the Indian states where the most attacks against Christian communities have occurred this year.

JAPAN

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has hinted that he may call elections before raising taxes to fund defense upgrades. The prime minister has the final say on the dissolution of the Japanese House of Representatives. The current four-year term expires in October 2025. A fourth member of the Kishida government, Reconstruction Minister Kenya Akiba, resigned in recent days.

TURKEY-ISRAEL

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday received the credentials of Israel's new ambassador to Turkey, the final step in normalizing ties between the two countries after years of tension. Turkey and Israel had begun improving relations this year with high-level visits, including that of Israeli President Isaac Herzog to Ankara.

RUSSIA

Opposition politician Lev Yasin, sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison for fejk against the military, was transferred from Moscow prison to a lager in another region without waiting for an appeals process and without disclosing his destination, becoming the harshest-prosecuted prisoner of conscience in Russia in the past three decades.

UZBEKISTAN

President Mirziyoyev has signed decrees to reduce Uzbekistan's ministries and government bodies from 61 to 28, at least 20 of which have been completely abolished, in a plan to streamline institutions that are being reduced by 30 percent to affirm "a fair system of labor compensation" at all levels of executive power.

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