Rural Daily

Pakistan’s capital under official security lockdown due to opposition rally

26Nov

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Pakistan’s capital under official security lockdown due to opposition rally

Paramilitary soldiers stand guard with riot gears at a road barricaded with shipping containers ahead of a planned rally by supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, in Islamabad, Nov. 24, 2024. ISLAMABAD — Thousands of supporters of Pakistan\'s jailed former prime minister, Imran Khan, marched toward Islamabad on Sunday to demand his release, among other political prisoners, prompting authorities to lock down the capital and partially suspend mobile internet services. Khan has urged supporters of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, party to assemble at the capital’s D-Chowk public square and remain there until the government addresses their demands. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition government has deployed tens ...

26Nov

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World

Khmer Krom group calls on Vietnam to release activists

By RFA Vietnamese2024.11.24 Read more on this topic in Vietnamese An international group representing Vietnam’s Khmer Krom community is calling on the country’s leaders to release five Buddhist monks and four activists before their trial on Tuesday and Wednesday. Abbot Thach Chanh Da Ra and buddhist Kim Khiem have been charged with “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331 of the criminal code. Monks Duong Khai, Thach Qui Lay, Kim Sa Ruong and Thach Chop along with activists Thach Nha, Kim Khu and Thach Ve Sanal are accused of “illegally arresting and detaining people” under Article 157. All of the men were arrested in March. About 1.3 million Khmer Krom – ethnic Cambodians and one of Vietnam’s 53 ethnic minorities – live in the southern provinces of Vietnam. The community often ...

26Nov

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World

Purported letter from Vietnam’s ‘barefoot monk’ renounces vow of poverty

By RFA Vietnamese2024.11.25 A man whose ascetic pursuit of Buddhist studies earned him countless followers both on and off of social media as he traveled by foot across Vietnam has ended his vow of poverty, according to a letter purportedly written in his own hand. But supporters have questioned whether the letter was really written by Thich Minh Tue, whose real name is Le Anh Tu, and who observes the ascetic practices of Buddhism without actually being a monk in an order recognized by the Vietnamese government as a state-sanctioned religious group. Known as the “barefoot monk,” Tue has walked across Vietnam at least four times, the last time creating a storm of publicity that prompted the government to ask him to go into retreat in early June, when he disappeared from the public eye. ...

25Nov

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World

Trump ‘incredibly concerned’ about escalation of munitions in Russia-Ukraine conflict, aide says

FILE - Residents walk at a site of a Russian missile strike in Dnipro, Nov. 21, 2025. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is “incredibly concerned” about the escalating use of different types of weaponry in Russia’s nearly three-year war on Ukraine, his designated choice for national security adviser said Sunday. Michael Waltz, now a Florida congressman, told “Fox News Sunday” that the decision by the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to use anti-personnel land mines to try to halt Russia’s battlefield ground troop advances has turned the fight in eastern Ukraine into something akin to “World War I trench warfare.” FILE - Representative Mike Waltz speaks during a hearing in Washington, July 22, 2024. Waltz said the decision “needs to ...

25Nov

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World

Australia withdraws misinformation bill after critics compare it to censorship

Australia's Minister for Communications, Michelle Rowland, introduces the Online Safety Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Nov. 21, 2024. CANBERRA, Australia — Australia\'s government has withdrawn a bill that would give a media watchdog power to monitor digital platforms and require them to keep records about misinformation and disinformation on their networks. Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said Sunday that the government was unable to drum up the support needed to pass the legislation. The opposition spokesman, David Coleman, said the bill "betrayed our democracy" and amounted to "censorship laws in Australia." "Based on public statements and engag...

25Nov

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World

Africa's junta-led nations use music to push anti-imperialism drive

Women attend the Conference in Solidarity with the people of the Sahel in Niamey, Niger, Nov. 20, 2024. NIAMEY, Niger — Thousands from the junta-led countries in Africa\'s Sahel region gathered this week in the Nigerien capital of Niamey, with music and cultural displays, to condemn what they called the West\'s imperialist agenda and to drive support for their military regimes. Delegates from Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali took part in the three-day conference that ended on Thursday. The junta leaders of the three countries are seeking greater popular support after they deposed democratically elected governments and severed ties with longstanding Western partners such as France, their former colonial ruler, with Russia the new preferred ...

25Nov

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World

Moscow offers debt forgiveness to new recruits and AP sees wreckage of new Russian missile

Fragments of a rocket which struck Dnipro on November 21 are seen at a center for forensic analysis in undisclosed location in Ukraine, Nov. 24, 2024. KYIV — Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law granting debt forgiveness to new army recruits who enlist to fight in Ukraine. The measure, whose final version appeared on a government website Saturday, underscores Russia’s needs for military personnel in the nearly 3-year war, even as it fired last week a new intermediate-range ballistic missile. According to Russian state news agency Interfax, the new legislation allows those signing up for a one-year contract to write off bad debts of up to 10 million rubles ($96,000). The law applies to debts for which a court order for coll...

25Nov

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World

Floods sweep through parts of England and Wales in wake of Storm Bert

Locals look on as high winds from Storm Bert cause waves to crash over the harbor arm in Folkestone, Britain, Nov. 24, 2024. Floods swept through parts of Britain on Sunday as residents woke to flooded homes and streets as Storm Bert battered Britain. Floods in the small Welsh town of Pontypridd, near Cardiff, left residents battling high water levels and volunteering in groups to help clear water from their homes and streets using an assortment of buckets. Emergency workers rescued a dog while local resident Victor fled the town with his partner and pet cat \'Cookie\' after moving their valuables to the upper floor of the home, planning on returning once waters subside. In West Yorkshire\'s small town of Hebden Bridge, fire fighters planned to return a major road back i...

25Nov

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World

Designer describes invitation to work on Notre Dame cathedral's reopening as 'calling'

Designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac displays a liturgical vestment for priests and to be worn at the December reopening of Paris' Notre-Dame Cathedral, Nov. 20, 2024. paris — When Jean-Charles de Castelbajac watched as Notre Dame cathedral burned in April 2019, he felt compelled to act. Returning home, the French fashion designer began sketching ideas, imagining the monument\'s reconstruction. So, when the Paris Archbishop\'s emissary approached him to design the liturgical garments for the cathedral\'s reopening next month, Castelbajac — a believer with personal roots with the church — felt the moment transcended mere coincidence. "It\'s bigger than a job. It\'s a bit mysterious … mysterious," Castelbajac said, his e...

25Nov

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World

Iran says will hold nuclear talks with France, Germany, UK on Friday

FILE - Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei holds a weekly press conference in Tehran on Oct.28, 2024. DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Iran said on Sunday that it would hold nuclear talks in the coming days with the three European countries that initiated a censure resolution against it adopted by the U.N.\'s atomic watchdog. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the meeting of the deputy foreign ministers of Iran, France, Germany and the United Kingdom would take place on Friday, without specifying a venue. "A range of regional and international issues and topics, including the issues of Palestine and Lebanon, as well as the nuclear issue, will be discussed," the spokesman said in a foreign minist...