Melani Manel Perera

Each year about 26 million people migrate within their own countries or across borders because of environmental disasters. In the next 10 years the number will rise to one billion. Government negotiators describe deals as ambitious, "but it is just a delaying tactic". The maximum of two degrees and a commitment to limit the increase in global warming to 1.5 "will not save the world."

The woman is the mother of two children. She was sentenced to death for adultery after having had an extra-marital affair. Her lover to receive 100 lashes. Deputy Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka: "The reopening of the case is a great victory." The Ministry will pay all legal costs.

The mother of two moved Saudi Arabia in 2013 to work as a housemaid. She was convicted on fornication charges, i.e. having an affair with a man who was not her husband. She got death; he gets 100 lashes. The kingdom is among the top three countries in the world in carrying out the death penalty. Sri Lankan officials calls on the Saudis to show some some sympathetic consideration.

The Ceylon Bible Society organised the charity event in Moratuwa. This is its 13th edition. Elderly former seamstresses provided hand-made clothing and cooks brought homemade food. For the Bible Society’s secretary general, seniors “are a huge resource for young people who can learn a lot from them”.

He lives in Neethavan, near Jaffna, with his mother, wife and two children. Speaking to AsiaNews, he talks about the hardship of living on handouts from a government that has failed to keep its promises. "They come here to give us a little bit of food and then they leave,” he said. “We don’t have money even to buy nails to repair the roof."

The German embassy to Colombo, along with the local Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ), has prepared an action plan for the population, which is already suffering from drought and unpredictable storms. Farmers and fishermen brought to their knees by the change of rainfall and water salinity. In the north of the country, the mango crops for commercial purposes is abandoned.

A steadfast opponent of the Rajapaksa regime, the Buddhist monk was a staunch advocate for a democratic society. Sri Lankan authorities plan a state funeral and a national day of mourning. Religious leaders, social activists and political prisoners remember his quest for “the light of truth, a righteous life, overturning mistakes and a free country.”

At a monument for Civil War dead and missing, Catholic woman remembers her son who was abducted in 1989 by men dressed as soldiers as he was decorating a church. “We believed we were safe because the youth were in the church,” she said. Sri Lanka has the second highest number of disappearances with 5,750 cases.

Some 30,000 people remain internally displaced in northern Sri Lanka. Some 38 refugee camps accommodate 1,536 families. A displaced Tamil talks ​​about life in the Neethavan camp, on the Jaffna Peninsula. Each shelter is home to 2-3 families, or 10-15 people, without electricity and poor sanitation. Security remains a problem. Video shows conditions in the Konatpulam Tamil refugee camp.

A court ruled that Tamil prisoners ​​have to stay in prison until at least 18 November and that they have to undergo rehabilitation. For Anglican priest, the authorities want to rehabilitate them in prison even though they refuse to recognise them as political prisoners. In “this case it serves no purpose to keep them locked up”. The prisoners began their hunger strike in October, and stopped when President Sirisena said he would release them by 7 November. However, “so far, he has done nothing”.

The data of the annual report made by the National STD / AIDS Control Program of the Ministry of Health together with UNAIDS. The most affected are men between 15 and 49; the western districts recorded highest infection rates. Less than 1% of the population has contracted the virus (3600 total cases), but of 1,732 cases diagnosed only about 825 people testing positive have undergone medical treatment.

Ainslie Joseph, convener of the Christian Alliance for Social Action, and Fr Reid Shelton Fernando, theologian and social activist, express their opinion on the matter. The two Catholics do not enter into the merit of the topics addressed by the Synod but agree on the "uniqueness" of the method used, and on the pope’s call to "treat everyone with God’s mercy."