NEWS OF THE WORLD

AFGHANISTAN

Women may still be allowed to play cricket despite the fundamentalist Taliban government’s hard-line views on women’s rights, according to the chair of the country’s Cricket Board.

Azizullah Fazil said the governing cricket body would “very soon” rule on women’s involvement in the sport, and added that the 25 members of the women’s team are still in country.

VIETNAM

Authorities have started a probe against a Vietnamese company that is using iconic Cambodian images of Phnom Penh and the Angkor Wat temple to promote noodle products without official permission.

The Cambodian Ministry of Commerce has demanded the Nam Vang noodle brand “cease and desist” its sale of noodles, because it competes with a local brand.

RUSSIA

President Vladimir Putin is in need of a history lesson after a high school student corrected him in a televised appearance in Vladivostock.

Putin was lecturing students about an 18th century conflict, describing the 1709 Battle of Poltova in which Peter the Great defeated the Swedish Empire, as having taken place during the “Seven Years War.”

But Nikanor Tolsykh corrected him, saying the battle took place during the Great Northern War that lasted from 1700 to 1721.

BRAZIL

More than 5,000 women from indigenous tribes marched on the country’s capital, Brasilia, to denounce what they called the federal government’s “assault” on their native lands.

Women from 170 of the country’s 300 tribes voiced outrage at President Jair Bolsonaro’s proposal to roll back indigenous rights and open up their ancestral lands to commercial exploitation.

CAMEROON

It looked like snow was coming down this week in Bana as people took to the streets to photograph the unusual event in the African country.

But the “snow” may just have been a huge hailstorm. According to BBC weather forecaster Nikki Berry, the university town’s elevation is too low for snow to develop.