Pakistan is set to buy 300,000 tonnes to meet emergency. Between 2018 and 2019, the country exported twice that much, even after a ban was imposed. Bakers go on strike in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to protest lost sales. Flour shortages have pushed up the price of products made with flour.

| 21/01/2020
| PAKISTAN
by Wang Zhicheng

The 66-year-old must also pay a fine of 2 million yuan. He was expelled from the Communist Party in March 2019. His wife Grace has asked Interpol and the French president for help, to no avail.

 

| 21/01/2020
| CHINA

North Koreans have a history of social exclusion and marginalisation among distrustful South Koreans. The death from starvation of a North Korean woman and her 6-year-old daughter in opulent Seoul last July has prompted the government to act.

| 21/01/2020
| KOREA
by Nirmala Carvalho

Overnight hooligans vandalised the altar and destroyed the tabernacle. Hosts were scattered on the ground, dishonouring “Our Blessed Lord and Saviour”. Archbishop Machado proclaimed a day of reparation and prayer for Friday.

| 21/01/2020
| INDIA

Their son, a Chaldean priest in Istanbul, is deeply concerned. He cares for over 7,000 refugees. The last contact dates back to January 7. Neighbors did not report the disappearance for fear of retaliation. A Kurdish activist, who has been in prison and ill for 28 years, commits suicide in protest against abuses and human rights repressions.

| 21/01/2020
| TURKEY
by Vladimir Rozanskij

For the first time, a thesis on Islamic theology is accepted in a state university. The faithful of Muhammad in the country could reach 30% by 2030. Islam and the Orthodox Church will have to share loyalty of believers, in competition but also in agreement with Erdogan's neo-Ottoman Turkey.

| 21/01/2020
| RUSSIA
Editor's choices
 
Not only Gaza and the war in Ukraine: the global arms race is also driven by Chinese pressure on Taiwan.. The 6.8% growth represents "the highest year-on-year growth since 2009". China, Russia, India and Saudi Arabia among the world's top five with ...
| 22/04/2024
| ASIA - MIDDLE EAST
 
by Dario Salvi
Layan Nasir, a 23-year-old native of Birzeit, is the only Christian woman under "administrative detention". She was taken, blindfolded and handcuffed, overnight by a military patrol without an arrest warrant or charges against her. The Bethlehem ...
| 19/04/2024
| ISRAEL – PALESTINE
 
Chinese Human Rights Defenders released a report detailing the stories of children and young people victims of human rights violations, like He Fengmei's daughter, who was separated from her mother a month after her birth and kept in a psychiatric ...
| 16/04/2024
| CHINA
 
Currently in intensive care, the seven-year-old is the only person to be seriously wounded by Iran’s attack against Israel because her house and village were not covered by Israel’s Iron Dome defence system. Nothing is known of the fate of ...
| 15/04/2024
| ISRAEL – GAZA - IRAN
 
by Daniele Frison
The auxiliary bishop of Jerusalem and patriarchal vicar for Palestine looks at the protests in Amman. Diplomatic relations with Israel allow aid to be sent to Gaza. Some students from Gaza’s Holy Family Parish arrived in Amman thanks to the Patriarchate’s ...
| 12/04/2024
| JORDAN
 
The Holy See has officially announced the long journey to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore. Card Goh of Singapore hopes the pope will bring to his predominantly Chinese city, “renewed fervour to all Catholics [. . .], especially ...
| 12/04/2024
| VATICAN
 
by card. Anthony Poola *
The Archbishop of Hyderabad looks at the media reaction to the declaration released by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on human dignity. The media are “focused on gender theory, sex change, surrogacy etc., but” people who “struggle ...
| 11/04/2024
| INDIA
 
The Vatican Secretary for Relations with States presides over Mass in the cathedral, the focal point of this historic trip for the local Church since the breaking of diplomatic relations between Hanoi and the Vatican in 1975. In the meeting with ...
| 11/04/2024
| VIETNAM
“L’Asia: ecco il nostro comune compito per il terzo millennio!” - Giovanni Paolo II, da “Alzatevi, andiamo”