INTERNATIONAL

On Friday, five university students were arrested in the building of Minsk State Linguistic Institute by Belarusian police, according to human rights activists. Several days ago, the Minsk Linguistic Institute had reportedly warned students about calling the police if they didn't stop the protests against last month’s results of the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko. On September 1st, the first day of the academic year, thousands of students took out protests across Belarus against Lukashenko’s Aug. 9 election win, which many allege was rigged. Social media videos displayed the chaotic scenes of the students being detained and dragged away by officers. According to an interior ministry spokeswoman, the arrests were an “administrative process”. Later on Friday,...

China’s Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe told Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in Moscow on Friday that India was “entirely” responsible for the border tensions and China would not give up “an inch of its territory”, Chinese media reported on Saturday. The state-run Xinhua news agency quoted General Wei as saying “recently the relations between the two countries and the two militaries have been seriously affected by the border issue” and it was “very important for the two defence ministers to have a face-to-face and candid exchange of views on relevant issues.” At the time of writing (9 am IST on Saturday), India was yet to release a statement on the talks. According to Indian sources, China had first sought Friday’s meeting.

There has been a major force build-up of Chinese tanks and infantry forces in the South Pangong region of Eastern Ladakh Indian media reported on Friday. Given the range of their guns, Chinese artillery would be located in ‘depth’ positions, more than twenty kilometres away from the Line of Actual Control, NDTV reported. As per the report, the presence of additional tank forces has been detected not too far from Chinese positions in Moldo in South Pangong. It added that the Indian Army has reinforced its own tank formations in the area, and deployed additional forces to shore up the heights that it holds along the disputed Line of Actual Control in the region. The report further said that there had been heavy air activity as well along the Line of Actual Control with the Chines...

On Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held a video-conference meeting with rival Palestinian groups in order to form a united front over the United Arab Emirates’(UAE) and Israel's August 13th agreement to normalise ties. This rare meeting was held between Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Ziyad al-Nakhalah, and the Palestinian President Abbas, covering the reach from Ramallah in the West Bank to Beirut. Palestinians see UAE's 'normalisation' deal with Israel, orchestrated by US President Donald Trump, as a betrayal that would most probably weaken a long-standing pan-Arab position that urges Israel to withdraw from occupied Palestinian territory. After years of in-fighting, it is rare to have such high-level contacts between Hamas, a Palestini...

Pakistan records its heaviest rainfall in a single spell since 1931. Flooding in Karachi, Pakistan's financial capital, lead to the death of at least 23 people and has wrought chaos in the city. Karachi has experienced days of torrential downpours and widespread flooding turning streets into rivers as the large volume of rainfall overloaded the city's dilapidated and ill-maintained drainage systems. The city's main utility company failed to supply electricity across the city, almost immediately, as it reported its substations being flooded. The utility company made pre-emptive cuts in order to limit deaths due to electrocution. As of now, at least six people have died due to electrocutions. Anwar, a resident in Karachi, in an interview with Aljazeera blamed the city's institutions...

On Wednesday, thousands of Bulgarians protested in front of the parliament in Sofia recording one of the biggest protests in the two months of demonstrations demanding the three-times Prime Minister, Boyko Borissov, to resign. Protesters threw over 100 small bombs and firecrackers at police. Whereas, the police brought a water cannon to disperse the crowd. The police also arrested around 60 people. Although protest leaders urged for a peaceful rally, protesters threw eggs, apples, and garbage at police. Protesters also shook police vehicles, and according to Sofia Police Chief Georgi Hadzhiev, nearly 100 police officers were affected by pepper spray aimed at them by protesters. Protest leaders said provocateurs attacked the police. Sofia Health officials reported around 45 pe...

On Tuesday, police use lethal metal pellets to disperse off protests in Lebanon resulting in the injury of two protesters. This incident adds to the rising evidence of security forces previously using uncommon weapons that cause serious and potentially deadly injuries.  A French photographer, Floroient Zwein and an unidentified man sustained the metal pellet injuries in these protests. Richard Weir, a Beirut-based crisis and conflict researcher with Human Rights Watch, said pellets are most likely fired from shotguns, but could also be released from small explosive devices similar to a grenade. Weir said that it’s unacceptable to use metal pellet guns in situations like these and it shows the inherent indiscriminate force used and the decision by security forces to use these ...

On Wednesday, Syria’s air defence struck a string of Israeli rockets which were projected in the direction of Tiyas airport in Homs governorate, according to the state news agency who cited a military source. According to the military sources, “Losses were limited to material losses.” Israeli military spokesperson refused to give any statement over this incident.

The United States (US) Department of Defense, also referred to as the Pentagon, on Tuesday, reported that China aims to nearly double its nuclear arsenals by the next 12 years and is reaching the ability to launch nuclear strikes by land, air, and sea, a capacity known as a triad. These reports are revealed amid rising tensions between China and the US and as the US urges China to join a nuclear arms treaty between the US and Russia. For the first time ever, the Pentagon's annual report to US Congress on China’s military disclosed China having nuclear warheads in the low 200s. According to The Federation of American Scientists' estimates, China has about 320 nuclear warheads. China's nuclear weapons growth projections were based on China having enough material to double its nuclea...

On Tuesday, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary-General Dr Yousef Al-Othaimeen reaffirmed the organization's support for Kashmir's right to self-determination in a meeting with Pakistan’s permanent representative to the OIC Ambassador Rizwan Saeed Sheikh. Pakistan’s mission reported that OIC Secretary-General, Othaimeen, reiterated the organizations “continuing and unstinted support on to the Kashmiri people toward realization of their inalienable right to self-determination, in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions.” According to Pakistan’s OIC mission's tweet, Ambassador Rizwan informed the secretary-general on worsening human rights violations in the Kashmir Valley.