Dario Salvi

Dinayet chief Ali Erbaş led Friday prayers holding a sword (pictured) engraved with a Qurʼānic verse on the blade. He plans to set up a madrassa inside the former Christian basilica to educate a “pious generation". Amid fear and persecution, Turkey’s Christian Orthodox are increasingly concerned and uncertain about their future.

Doctors warn that a surge in new cases could push the healthcare system to collapse. Stay-at-home orders are now in place for two weeks in Manila and four surrounding provinces in Luzon. Duterte accuses doctors and health care workers of trying to foment revolution. Many people have found themselves stranded in the capital without transport to travel to their hometowns.

A new version of the Great Game is unfolding in Afghanistan, the five Central Asia countries, as well as Nepal, India and Pakistan. As Washington and Delhi undertake a rapprochement, Beijing develops closer ties to Iran and Pakistan. Afghanistan too is in China’s sight, but US influence remains strong. COVID-19 becomes part of the diplomatic game.

Hamad Alkaabi, the country's representative to the IAEA, says that this is an “Historic milestone for the nation with a vision set to deliver a new form of clean energy”. Nuclear fission has begun in one of four reactors. Oil-rich UAE wants Barakah to meet a quarter of its energy needs. Qatar calls the plant a "flagrant threat to regional peace and environment”.

The myth of the country with zero victims collapses after months of targeted pandemic management. The epicenter of the disease is the tourist and commercial heart in the center of the country with 93 infections. The sick are aged between 27 and 87. Identified, and isolated, over 6,000 people who have had contact with the infected.

The Philippines leads in the Asia-Pacific region. Yesterday a record 3,954 new cases were reported. For the Bishop of Kidapawan, the president’s “pride, prejudice and power prevailed over better judgment and people’s welfare”. Duterte calls on the poor to disinfect protective masks with petrol.

Saudi authorities remain on maximum alert for possible health emergencies. It is "reassuring" that no cases have emerged, Ministry of Health said. Participants were provided with masks, accommodation and medical coverage. “Allah fulfilled my desire to do the Hajj without any financial cost,” says Chinese Muslim.

Speaking at a conference, the cardinal criticised the invisibility of Christians in school textbooks. Culture can represent a barrier to the barbarism of the Islamic State group and other extremisms. Art and history are a people’s "living memory" and represent more wealth than oil. Leading figures of various ethnic and religious backgrounds should make a joint statement to that end.

At least 212 environmental campaigners were murdered worldwide in 2019, Global Witness reports. Colombia and the Philippines combined accounted for just over half of the confirmed deaths. Deaths and killings are “business as usual” for President Rodrigo Duterte and his government.

For seven years, nothing has been known about the fate of founder of the Mar Musa community, who disappeared in Raqqa on 29 July 2013. Card Zenari notes that the clergyman, like many of the missing, was as "card" to be played in the Syrian power game. Prisoners “must be freed or the families must be informed”. Some “good will” is needed.

Close to a million people in Beirut can no longer afford basic necessities, Save The Children reports. The effects of the economic crisis are worsening, with the local currency losing 80 per cent of its value. The crisis has hit everybody -- Lebanese families as well as Palestinian and Syrian refugees alike.

Shia fighters and Israeli forces clash at the border. Netanyahu attacks Hezbollah for “playing with fire", pledges a "strong response". The pro-Iranian group denies involvement. A source in the Maronite Patriarchate calls for stronger Lebanese neutrality amid regional tensions.