ISIS brides who are truly trapped

SYRIA: U.K. and U.S. media are obsessing over ISIS brides who voluntarily joined the jihadists and now say they want to come home. Yet 1,400 Yazidi women—women enslaved and trafficked by fighters over the last three years—remain involuntarily in ISIS captivity, Kurdistan’s minister of health told me earlier this month. Most are believed to be in Syria, likely in these same hideouts. Early Thursday morning, David Eubank of Free Burma Rangers, an aid group working on the front line, sent me photos of one such Yazidi mother and her children rescued from the fighting.

PAKISTAN: Asia Bibi is not in solitary confinement or trapped, “She is in a comfortable and spacious location and is being well looked after,” said Shaan Taseer. Taseer’s father, Salmaan Taseer, was governor of Punjab and assassinated in 2011 for coming to Bibi’s defense. Authorities are waiting for an opportune time to escort her to safety, Taseer said, following her acquittal on charges of blasphemy against Islam, an acquittal the court reaffirmed Jan. 29 under orders to review the case. Taseer told WORLD an account by friend Aman Ullah given to the Associated Press—that officials had moved her to Karachi and barred her from leaving the country—is “false news.” WORLD Radio’s Jill Nelson has the latest on the case.

HAITI: A week of unrest nationwide is giving humanitarian aid groups pause on whether to remain in the country. At the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, water is running low and workers had to close the emergency room.

VENEZUELA: Establishment media are piling on the “tense” exchange between U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and newly tapped envoy to Venezuela Elliott Abrams, despite avid defenses of Abrams by those often critical of the Trump administration and Omar being wholly unprepared for the discussion. Watch the entire thing. The rest of the hearing (if you care to watch that) was an informative jolt of bipartisanship on U.S. policy toward Venezuela.

CHINA: Internationally known Uighur comedian Adil Mijit has been missing since returning to China three months ago from Turkey. His case is one of untold thousands posted using the Twitter hashtag campaign #MeTooUyghur—the latest effort to draw attention to the 1 million Chinese Uighurs, mostly Muslims, believed incarcerated in government reeducation camps.

NIGERIA: Saturday’s presidential election has young voters clamoring for change, despite two leading candidates in their 70s. WORLD’s Nigeria reporter Onize Ohikere previews.

INDIA warned Pakistan of a “strong response” after a Pakistan-based Islamist group bombed an Indian paramilitary convoy in Kashmir, killing at least 40 people.

JAPAN: On Valentine’s Day, 13 same-sex couples filed the country’s first lawsuit to compel the government to recognize gay marriage.

MALAYSIA: Two years after Pastor Raymond Koh was kidnapped, his family asked the new prime minister to open a new investigation into his disappearance. Two other Christians and a Shiite Muslim were abducted in 2016, and an investigation into all four cases concluded unsuccessfully last year. CCTV captured Koh’s abduction on video, sparking outrage across the country.

COSTA RICA: Using deep-sea seamounts, a team of scientists discovered at least four new species of deep-sea coral and six other animals new to science.

NOTE: No Globe Trot on Monday.

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