Author: Cesar Jacobs

At least two Ismaili home owners in Mountainous Badakhshan were fined one month’s average wage each for hosting prayers in their homes. The regime banned such meetings in late 2022. Officials told elders on 14 January in Khorugh not to allow prayers in homes, that local people must remove portraits of Ismaili spiritual leader the Aga Khan, and that study at the London-based Institute of Ismaili Studies is no longer allowed. The authorities banned voluntary lessons for children based on a course from the Aga Khan Foundation. Local administrations in the Mountainous Badakhshan Region in south-eastern Tajikistan have issued at…

Chelsea continued their winter spending spree by announcing on Sunday they have completed the signing of France under-21 right-back Malo Gusto from Lyon. The 19-year-old has signed a contract at Stamford Bridge to the summer of 2030 but will finish the current season back in Ligue 1 with Lyon on loan. Chelsea will pay a reported £26.3 million ($32.6 million) for Gusto, who came through the ranks at Lyon and made his senior debut in January 2021. Gusto is the seventh signing of a busy January window for Chelsea, who have already brought in Mykhaylo Mudryk, David Datro Fofana, Benoit…