Nirmala Carvalho

Husband and wife surrender to police in Rayagada district. They admit being involved in the assassination of the Hindu leader, an event that set off an anti-Christian pogrom in Orissa. GCIC president deplores the fact “that in the region the reign of terror continues.”

Tibetans are stopped from employing a trusted lawyer, lawyers are removed and they denied access to clients. In closed door trials, without a trusted defence, Tibetans who dared to protest or praise to the Dalai Lama, are handed down heavy sentences.

Sister Mary Joseph, a Carmelite in Mumbai, describes the feast of Our Lady of Mount Caramel. Coming from a family of devout Hindu Brahmin, the religious sister stresses the importance of dialogue between religions and regarding requests for the intercession of the Virgin says: "Even Muslims who recognize Mary should do it."

The SVD priest , among the first victims of anti-Christian pogrom in Orissa, celebrates the 25th anniversary of his priestly ordination. "God has allowed this to happen to me so I could bear witness to the faith of priests and solidarity towards all the priests of the world who suffer in His name."

Asghar Ali Engineer condemns the attacks in Baghdad against Christian churches. He emphasizes that violence "has nothing to do with the precepts of Islam" and is the work of "fundamentalists." The scholar prays for the victims and families and hopes to promote a "peaceful and lasting co-existence."

Groups of Tibetans in exile underline the similarities between what is happening today in Xinjiang and the crackdown in Tibet after the March 2008 protests. Fear of disappearances, death sentences and life imprisonment, a constant fact of martial law.

In an interview with AsiaNews, Mgr Thomas Dabre, chairperson of the Commission for Theology and Doctrine of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, discusses how the Pope’s Encyclical stresses the “need for a humane economy.” Development must be centred on people so that globalisation, progress and wealth can serve mankind.

Money will go to rehabilitate 196 buildings, churches and places of worship belonging to various Christian denominations in Kandhamal District. The Global Council of Indian Christians wants compensation for victims and protection for witnesses in trials against Hindu extremists.

An interim report on the anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal is released. Land disputes, conversions and reconversions and fake ID papers are the causes, this according to the commission of inquiry. For the bishop of Bhubaneshwar, “We do not need an inquiry to better know the truth but the political will to up hold the constitution of India and the law.”

Police violence in Urumqi is similar to that in Lhasa in March 2008. Beijing should draw some lessons from the Xinjiang riots, namely find a solution to the Tibetan question with the Dalai Lama. Tibet’s spiritual leader has urged his countrymen and women to use non-violence, but once he is dead Tibetan frustrations could turn into an uprising.

Gujarat has set up a commission of inquiry to study state-wide demographic shifts. Jesuit priest slams the exercise as a way to sow divisions and discriminate against minorities.

Delhi High Court decriminalises homosexuality by repealing statute in Indian Penal Code that defined it as a crime. Harsh criticism comes from India’s Muslims who accuse the government of giving in to Western decadence. The spokesman for the India Church says that trying to redefine the family will undermine the bases of society.