Washington-Seoul: new nuclear deal against Pyongyang

Today's headlines: in Myanmar the junta burns 450 houses in five days; Albert Augustine's widow and daughter return to India from Sudan; In Thailand, parties challenge each other for elections by promising cash payments to the population; Turkey has expelled 9,000 Afghans since the beginning of the year.

UNITED STATES - SOUTH KOREA

In a historic agreement, Washington pledges to deploy nuclear submarines against Pyongyang and share information about its nuclear programme if in return Seoul does not develop its own nuclear arsenal. This was the outcome of talks between US President Joe Biden and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol, who visited the White House. The two discussed a number of issues and shared concern over the nuclear threat from North Korea.

INDIA

The wife and daughter of Albert Augustine, the Indian Catholic killed in Khartoum at the beginning of the clashes in Sudan, have reached the city of Cochin in India. Saibella and Marietta were protected by the Sudanese company for which the man worked, who also organised their evacuation to Kannur.

MYANMAR

Clashes continued in the Sagaing region, around the village of Pa Zi Gyi, where a few weeks ago some civilians who had taken refuge inside a monastery were massacred: in five days, the Burmese coup junta set fire to 450 houses in three different villages. The region is a stronghold of resistance against the military regime.

THAILAND

The Palang Pracharath Party, the ruling party in Thailand and behind in the pre-election polls, announced yesterday that if it remains in power after the 14 May elections, it will transfer 30,000 baht (almost 800 Euro) into the bank accounts of 8 million farmers across the country. The proposal follows the opposition proposal made by Pheu Thai, who would like to give every Thai over the age of 16 10 thousand baht.

TURKEY - AFGHANISTAN

Turkey has expelled 9,000 Afghans since the beginning of the year, Human Rights Watch reported. Since January 1, Ankara has expelled 29,000 refugees, including 1,581 Pakistanis. An additional 18,000 people are estimated to be detained at the border, including at least 5,000 Afghans.

ISRAEL - PALESTINE

The Palestinian daily Al-Quds launched an online version in Hebrew. The translations of the articles from Arabic are still not very accurate at the moment because they rely on automatic translators. The owners of the newspaper - which sells 30,000 copies in Palestine - said they launched the initiative because "it is time for the Israelis to understand what we say".

RUSSIA

Many fires are occurring in the Ural region and central and eastern Siberia, with entire villages engulfed in flames. In the Sverdlovsk region, 134 houses and other buildings went up in smoke, 660 people were left homeless, and there was also one victim. The village of Sosva was completely destroyed covering 9,000 square kilometres and 110 houses.

KAZAKHSTAN

In the new variant of the mass media law in Kazakhstan, a rule on 'information sovereignty' has been included, which according to the state authorities is supposed to defend the Kazakhs above all from Russian propaganda, but activist Sergei Dubanov believes this is impossible, as 'more than half of the population is succumbing to the Kremlin's spines'.

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