World's youngest chess champion is Indian (and beats China)

Today's News: First agreement found to pacify Kurram district in Pakistan; The US indicts 14 North Koreans for transferring funds to the Pyongyang regime;  Malaysia's international Islamic schools are increasingly popular among Singaporeans; Turkey and Azerbaijan agree on humanitarian aid for Syria.

INDIA

India's 18-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju yesterday defeated China's Ding Liren at the World Chess Championship in Singapore, becoming the youngest player to hold the title in history. Originally from Chennai, he is also the first Indian grandmaster to win the title since Viswanathan Anand, who won it in the early 2000s.

PAKISTAN

Yesterday, a jirga was held in the district of Kurram that should restore peace in the region, where over 130 people have died in recent weeks due to violence: the agreement envisages a demilitarisation of the district, because according to government officials, the presence of many weapons is the main cause of the violence. At the moment, the road connecting Parachinar with other towns remains closed.

NORTH KOREA - USA

A federal court in the United States indicted 14 North Koreans for alleged conspiracy: under a scheme set up by North Korea, thousands of workers hired in the United States under false identities allegedly extorted money from US companies to finance Pyongyang's weapons programmes. According to the indictment, at least USD 88 million was involved over a six-year period.

MALAYSIA - SINGAPORE

International Islamic schools in the Malaysian state of Johor are also attracting more and more students from neighbouring Singapore. These institutions are responding to the growing demand from Singaporeans who are unable to enrol their children in local madrasas.

CHINA - EGYPT

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China and Egypt agree that both nations should promote peace and negotiations to achieve stability in the Middle East. The statements, expressing concern over events in Syria, were made after a meeting with Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty.

TURKEY - AZERBAIJAN - SYRIA

The Presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey, Ilham Aliev and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, agreed by telephone on a joint humanitarian action for Syria after the fall of the regime of Bashir Assad, congratulating the Syrian people on this turn of events and expressing their common and ‘brotherly’ support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the new government in Damascus.

RUSSIA

The Bureau of Forensic Medicine of the Russian republic of Udmurtia, in the Volga area, has decided to invest more than one and a half million roubles (around 15,000 euros) in addition to the large sums already used for the genetic analysis of the bodies of those killed in the war in Ukraine. It is estimated that at least 1,500 Udmurtia soldiers have fallen, and the subsidy to the families requires recognition of the body, while bodies of unknown people are often presented.

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