Globe Trot: Leaders of India, Pakistan bond over cricket

INDIA:Frosty relations between India and Pakistan apparently thawed this morning over cricket. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi phoned Pakistani leader Nawaz Sharif to discuss the upcoming match Sunday in Australia between India and Pakistan, its first World Cup competition. The two also reportedly moved on to diplomacy.

IRAN: U.S. President Barack Obama’s secret Iran strategy has included drafting a nuclear agreement that could bypass Congress. Said Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes in a side comment he thought wasn’t on record: “We’re already kind of thinking through, how do we structure a deal so we don’t necessarily require legislative action right away.”

AZERBAIJAN: A leading Azerbaijani dissident married to an American has been denied help by the U.S. Embassy in Baku, and is holed up in the Swiss embassy in the capital.

GREAT BRITAIN:What’s an English breakfast without sausage? Primary schools in north London (and upscale) Islington have scrapped pork from the menu because it costs too much to monitor which children can eat it. Some locals aren’t happy about it, and as Robert Spencer points out, Jews have lived for centuries in London with pork on the menu. Recent restrictions are due to prevailing pressure from Muslim families.

This comes with new data showing the number of children under 5 years old being brought up as Muslim in Great Britain rose 80 percent in the last decade. Said professor David Voas at Essex University:

“In terms of ethnic-religious minority groups expanding, I think this is probably unprecedented. … Even if immigration stopped tomorrow, it is clear that in due course, by the middle of this century or a bit later, 10 percent of the population of Britain will be of Muslim heritage.”

CHAD: Boko Haram insurgents from Nigeria crossed Lake Chad in canoes, attacking villages and killing five in the first reported lethal attacks by the group in Chad. In Nigeria’s Borno state, a suicide bomb attack in the market of Bui town killed five and injured 10 yesterday.

LONG WEEKEND READ: This color-driven map of history occasionally runs around the internet. It’s endlessly fascinating.