In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula. That same year, Russian special operation forces captured Donetsk and Luhansk, two of the main cities in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and created puppet pro-Russian regimes there to further destabilize Ukraine.
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Number of deaths in Derna, Lybia could reach 20,000
The number of deaths in the Libyan city of Derna could range from 18,000 to 20,000 following catastrophic flooding. Abdulmenam Al-Ghaithi told al-Arabiya TV today this could be based on the number of wiped-out districts in the city.
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Did Xi Send Hidden Message to Oppressed Pamiri People?
Chinese President Xi Jinping awarded Paika Kalidibek, a 72-year-old veteran border guard, the national honorary title of “People’s Guardian” on the 75th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Baika, an ethnic Tajik from the Pamir Plateau in Xinjiang, spent 37 years guarding China’s remote border with Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region and Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor.
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Pope Francis visits Southeast Asia’s largest mosque
Pope Francis began the third day of his Apostolic Journey to Asia and Oceania on Thursday, 5 September, by visiting the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, for an interreligious meeting in southeast Asia’s largest mosque. Welcoming him was the Grand Imam, Dr. Nasaruddin Umar. Together they also visited the Tunnel of Friendship, which provides an underground walkway connecting the Istiqlal Mosque with the Catholic Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption from it with a three-lane highway in between.
