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Who controls Papua and West Papua?
Papua and West Papua form the western half of the island of New Guinea (the eastern half is the nation of Papua New Guinea).
The region was known as Irian Jaya until 2000, before the provinces were renamed in 2003 as Papua and West Papua.
China on Monday criticized recent attacks by an alliance of ethnic armed groups on police and military outposts in northern Myanmar’s Shan State, saying the actions derail the country’s peace process and create instability in the region.
At a press conference in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said China “strongly condemned” the attacks carried by the Northern Alliance (NA), an alliance of the ethnic armed groups the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA).
The suicide bomber stood in the middle of the dancing, clapping crowd as hundreds of Afghan children and adults celebrated a wedding in a joyous release from Kabul’s strain of war.
Then, in a flash, he detonated his explosives-filled vest, killing dozens — and Afghanistan grieved again.
Pakistan says three of its soldiers were killed Thursday in clashes with India across the disputed Kashmir border, known as the Line of Control (LoC), amid increasing tensions between the two nations over the Himalayan region.
A Pakistani army spokesman claimed five Indian soldiers also were killed in retaliatory fire. Major-General Asif Ghafoor said skirmishes were ongoing intermittently.
A total of 15 militants including a Taliban key commander have handed over their weapons to security forces in the northern Badakhshan province, provincial government spokesman Nik Mohammad Nazari said on Sunday.
“Taliban commander Mullah Ashor along with his 14 armed fighters have given up fighting and surrendered to security forces on Saturday,” Nazari told Xinhua.