Author: Ona Toychiyeva

In a bid to attract more tipsters, the CIA published a set of online instructions on how to reach out to Langley in Korean, Mandarin and Farsi on Wednesday. Top US spy agency wants to make it easier for people in Iran, China and North Korea to reach out with tips in a bid to add to its portfolio of domestic informants. The CIA published a set of online instructions in Korean, Mandarin and Farsi on Wednesday detailing steps that potential tipsters can take to contact US intelligence officials without putting themselves in danger. The instructions include ways to reach…

A follow-up report issued recently by the UN General Assembly’s Human Rights Council assails Tajikistan’s government for failing to implement recommendations contained in an earlier survey concerning atrocities committed during the country’s civil war in the mid-1990s. The follow-up report relates to a mission conducted in 2019 by UN researchers intent on promoting the closure of old societal wounds left by the civil war. Among that mission’s recommendations was the establishment of a “a truth-seeking State policy” and the development of “specific mechanisms, supported by dedicated resources, for dealing with disappearances caused by and related to the civil war.” The Tajik civil war…

The Border Security Force on Wednesday said it thwarted a “significant” infiltration attempt by a large group of Bangladeshis along the International Border in West Bengal, amid an ongoing “high alert”, announced due to a turmoil in the neighbouring country. Officials said the personnel of the force stopped about 120-140 Bangladeshi citizens who were attempting to cross over to the Indian side from multiple locations in the eastern state. The force has been on a “high alert” mode since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in Dhaka earlier this week. The North Bengal Frontier of the force issued a…

Russia has reportedly lost a staggering amount of troops over the past 24 hours along with dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles as bloody fighting takes its toll on Vladimir Putin’s men. Russia lost a staggering 1,740 troops in a single day, the highest tally of casualties for Moscow since the start of the invasion in 2022, according to Ukraine. In the previous 24 hours, Ukraine also claimed Russia had lost 30 tanks and 42 armoured vehicles. Death toll and military hardware statistics are difficult to assess with both sides giving different or little information. However, Ukraine’s armed forces have claimed Russia has so far lost an eye-watering…

The primary purpose of Xi Jinping’s three-day visit to Hungary might be to ensure that Hungary can help China gain market share in the EU, as Beijing and Budapest prepare to sign a total of 16 bilateral agreements. The Chinese president has arrived in Budapest late Wednesday, in the third and last stop of his European visit. During his three-day stay, Xi Jinping and his delegation are expected to conclude a series of economic agreements with Budapest, as China sees Hungary as an important bridgehead in conquering European markets: among other things, Chinese companies are building electric car and battery factories.…

The past two weeks have seen a succession of high-level interactions between China and the U.S., which analysts see as a positive sign of the two sides to further cooperation and manage differences. In particular, the phone talk between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden accentuated the will of the two sides to carry forward the San Francisco vision and avoid strategic misjudgment and the risk of sliding into confrontation, despite growing divergences. The issue of strategic perception is always fundamental to the China-U.S. relationship, just like the first button of a shirt that must be put…

Punishing hot weather affects not only a person’s health or work productivity but also affects couples’ fertility and birth outcomes, a project by the National University of Singapore (NUS) found. Rising temperatures could further reduce Singapore’s resident total fertility rate, which dipped below 1 – a record low – in 2023. The rate refers to the average number of babies each woman would have during her reproductive years. Researchers from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine studied sperm samples from 818 men that were already stored at the National University Hospital’s (NUH) andrology section. The scientists then traced the men’s…

The Ministry of Economy and Finance has signed an agreement worth €9 million (grant funds) with the German International Cooperation Society to increase the capacity of the private sector for “green” industrialization in Uzbekistan and to implement a consultation project on economic policy, Azernews reports, citing Kun.uz News Agency. The agreement was inked on December 3 by First Deputy Minister Ilhom Norkulov on behalf of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and Torsten Brezina, coordinator of the Central Asia regional programs cluster from the German International Cooperation Society, on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference held in Dubai. At the…

Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan mentioned prospects for increasing strategic partnership, Trend reviews. These points have been mentioned between President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov, who arrived in Tashkent metropolis to take part within the sixteenth Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Summit. During the assembly, the edges mentioned topical problems with the bilateral agenda within the context of the implementation of agreements on the highest degree, and likewise famous with satisfaction the constant growth and strengthening of the Uzbek-Turkmen multifaceted cooperation and in-depth strategic partnership. Furthermore, the heads of each states careworn the growth of sensible cooperation within…

London (28/11 – 58) Tajikistan’s human rights record continues to deteriorate amid an increased crackdown on freedom of expression and the political opposition, as well as the targeting of independent lawyers, journalists, and family members of opposition activists abroad. Freedom of assembly is severely curtailed with any local protests, such as a series of protests in the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region (GBAO), violently quashed. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Programme Office in Dushanbe, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, and the Permanent Representation of France to the OSCE organized a study visit to Paris for government officials from…