Opposition slams proposal. Catholic leaders are grateful but note there are more pressing issues to deal with like financial assistance to schools, which has not been given yet.
Kerala’s Education Rules Reforms Committee wants to ban religious worship in schools. Religious minorities are afraid the measure might restrict their freedom of religion.
India’s Law Commission wants to lower the age of marriage for men from 21 to 18 like for women. Its goal is to erase child marriage and its abuses. An expert argues that tinkering with the law to fight abuses will not work; what is needed are better structures and health care.
The superior general of the Missionary of Charity Sisters writes to the population of the Indian state hit by a violent anti-Christian campaign over the Christmas period. In her letter she warns against losing the sense of God and of the Sacred in today’s democratic and secular India. She urges everyone to move towards reconciliation and forgiveness.
The regional superior of the Missionaries of Charity recounts her visit to the district of Kandhamal, struck by anti-Christian violence last Christmas, a scene of unimaginable destruction. Also with her was Sister Nirmala Joshi, who has written a letter calling for reconciliation.
On the run is Amit Kumar, a surgeon at the head of one of the largest networks of illegal kidney transplants in the country. The organisation, which operates in Gurgaon, lures in the poor with the false promise of a job, only to remove their kidneys with or against their will. Many private clinics and hospitals are involved. Some suspect police complicity.
The executive secretary of the Commission for Justice, Peace and Development of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, Fr Nithiya Sagayam, explains to AsiaNews that it is useless to commemorate the Mahatma if one does not recall what it was that he lived for and the values that motivated him. An appeal for peace between India and Pakistan, the only path for the development of the two nations.
In a meeting held in New Delhi some 80 experts studied and discussed the letter 138 Muslims scholars sent to the Pope in order to find an answer. They express their appreciation for the document seen as an important “theological platform for building bridges.” One participant suggested translating the letter into Urdu.
Tenzin Choeying, head of ‘Students for a Free Tibet,’ talks to AsiaNews, commenting Hu Jintao’s latest speech to the party in which he calls for greater commitment to political propaganda ahead of this year’s Olympics. However, for Choeying the Games are a great opportunity to show the truth of what is happening in Tibet and China.
New Delhi tells Paris not to present the Bangladeshi writer with the Simone de Beauvoir Award on Indian soil. For years she has been the target of Islamic fundamentalists for her action on behalf of women.
In one week, it has struck at least 6 districts. Countermeasures are being disrupted by the residents, who are blocking the destruction of poultry. In Kolkata, sales of chickens are crumbling and the airlines in the region no longer serve poultry.
Urgen Tenzin, executive director of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, tells AsiaNews that the death of Gyaltsen Tsepa Lobsang and Yangpa Locho is full of unanswered questions, part of an increasingly nasty repression campaign waged by Beijing ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games.
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