South Korea: At least 15 injured during air force exercise

Today's news: the Hong Kong Supreme Court overturns 4 and a half month sentences of some supporters of the pro-democracy movement; China revises upwards the number of people affected by the earthquake in Tibet in January; In Indian Punjab farmers arrested for protesting against the government; Burmese junta head calls Putin ‘the king of mice’.

SOUTH KOREA

At least 15 people have been injured in a bombing that mistakenly hit a church and houses in Pocheon, a town about 40 kilometres north of Seoul. Two KF-16 fighter planes belonging to the air force dropped two bombs outside the training range. The authorities have announced that they expect the number of injured to rise, while the air force will launch an investigation into the incident.

RUSSIA – MYANMAR

During a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the head of the military junta that staged a coup in Myanmar, General Min Aung Hlaing, compared the Russian head of state to the ‘king of mice’, referring to a Buddhist story. A mouse named Thoma made offerings to the Buddha, who prophesied that Thoma would become king of Russia more than 2,000 years after the Buddha's death, would have unrivalled knowledge of weapons and would become friends and allies with the kings of Myanmar. ‘This prophecy has come true,’ said Min Aung Hlaing.

HONG KONG

The Hong Kong Supreme Court has unanimously overturned the convictions of three members of a pro-democracy group (now disbanded) that organised an annual vigil to commemorate the Tiananmen Square crackdown. The group members had been sentenced to four and a half months in prison. In their sentence, the five judges of the Court of Appeal stated that the government prosecutors had censored the key facts.

CHINA

The Chinese authorities have reported that more than 120,000 people, double the initial estimate, were affected by the earthquake that shook Tibet in January, killing at least 126 people, a figure that could in reality be much higher. The figure was made public during a ceremony in the village of Gurum, in Dingri county, to commemorate the beginning of the reconstruction by China of eight villages seriously damaged by the earthquake. The authorities have stated that they want to transfer over 120,000 displaced persons to new homes by the end of the year.

INDIA

Hundreds of farmers from the state of Punjab were arrested while trying to march towards Chandigarh in protest. The demonstrators burned images of the chief minister Bhagwant Mann and the governing party, the Aam Aadmi Party. The farmers are demanding a guarantee that the government will buy their harvest at the so-called minimum support price.

SYRIA

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani has declared to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague that the new government is committed to destroying the weapons and devices inherited from the regime of Bashar al-Assad, adding, however, that it needs the support of the international community, probably in an attempt to obtain a lifting of sanctions.

KYRGYZSTAN – TAJIKISTAN

After finalising border demarcation agreements, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan intend to increase the balance of their mutual trade to 500 million dollars by 2030, as agreed by the heads of the two governments, Adylbek Kasymaliev and Kokhir Rasulzoda, in a meeting in Dushanbe, within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union, and by re-establishing direct flights between the two countries.

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