Top executives of the main transnational criminal organisation, which was responsible for transporting drugs abroad, arrested, while local consumption is also growing. Drug trafficking continues to travel the so-called 'northern route' through Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Russia to finally reach Europe, with widespread connivance among law enforcement agencies.
In the general audience Francis renewed his invitation to pray for peace. In the catechesis he reflected on the theological virtue of faith. "Its great enemy is not reason, but fear". A gift that "must be asked daily, so that it may be renewed in us".
May 1 in many Asian countries coincides with temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius. Increasingly frequent conditions that - as a study by the Global Labor Institute on textile companies in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan and Vietnam explains - risk compromising workers' health and productivity without adequate mitigation measures.
Today's news: Vietnam convokes an extraordinary session of parliament; Beijing rewards the Burmese junta crackdown with a medal and money; Turkish Airlines resumes connections with Afghanistan, four flights a week between Istanbul and Kabul; First two phases of marathon election in India record lower turnout for 2019 Lok Sabha vote
Fr Bahjat Karakach, a Franciscan, talks about the difficult situation in the battered city after 13 years of war, a powerful earthquake, and the Gaza War. With inflation and rents skyrocketing, people survive with “remittances from relatives abroad.” The parish is involved in various projects in neighbourhoods once occupied by militias where poverty and degradation are high. The Church today is "a light in the midst of darkness.”
The deputy governor of Lanao del Sur, who chairs the SIAP, is behind the new alliance, whose aim is to represent and meet voters’ demands. President Marcos warns that he will not tolerate any attempt to obstruct or stop the upcoming election after officials with the Transition Authority linked to the MILF had asked for another postponement of three years.