Paolo Fossati

Women are released after agreeing to keep their children. Although renting wombs has been illegal since 2016, Cambodia remains a popular destination. “There is a close relationship between girl schooling and surrogacy abuse,” says Fr Alberto Caccaro.

Some positive steps have been taken in Tunisia, Lebanon and Qatar, but gender segregation remains in Saudi Arabia. For the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “domestic laws must not punish criticism of religious leaders or prevent commentary on religious doctrine and tenets of faith.”

According to a Swiss bank, the richest 1 per cent of the population controls 66.9 per cent of nation’s wealth. The poorest 50 per cent owns 1.7 per cent, whilst the bottom 70 per cent has 5 per cent. Government spokesman says report is based on "outdated information” and is incomplete and unreliable.

The Indonesian government has been in "structural communication" with China for the past year. Jakarta refuses any government-to-government loan. For Indonesian minister, Chinese investment must include Indonesian workers and the most advanced, environmentally friendly technology.

The Chinese president faces "the opposition of regional administrators": serious unemployment problems could result in street protests. The favoritism and "purges" that Xi operated in the Armed Forces are a cause of resentment among army officers. Intellectuals irritated by the "fierce control" on freedom of expression. Economic alarms undermine Xi's popularity among the Chinese bourgeoisie.

Bangladesh reacts to comments by Myanmar’s Religious Affairs minister who claim refugees were “brainwashed". For Bangladesh Foreign Ministry, in Myanmar there is an "anti-Bangladesh, anti-Rohingya and anti-Muslim policy, which many considered as apartheid."

For Deng Puffang, Deng Xiaoping’s eldest son, some cadres want “to go back to the ancien regime.” The two sons of Hu Yaobang, one of the Party’s liberal icons, “seem frustrated by President Xi’s anti-reform proclivities.”

The Bishops’ Conference will not be provoked. "We do not want to add fuel to the fire," said Fr Jerome Seciliano, executive secretary of the CBCP Permanent Committee on Public Affairs. Duterte has publicly and vehemently criticised the Church on several occasions using vulgar language. His utterances have outraged a large part of the population, including Catholics and Protestants.

Even though the authorities decided against ratifying the UN antidiscrimination treaty, a rally organised to protest against it will still take place. For many ethnic Malays, the treaty is a threat to their rights and to Islam’s influence. For one scholar, race and religion are sensitive issues, a time bomb ready to go off.

Crown Prince Naruhito will ascend to the throne on 1st May next year after the abdication of 84-year-old Akihito. Japan wants to show the strength of its link with the United States. The US president is already expected in the country for the G20 in Osaka, on 28-29 June 2019.

The two administrations signed a cooperation agreement. Activists fear a repeat of Beijing’s scorched earth" policy against Uyghurs. Last August, Hui Muslims opposed the demolition of the Weizhou Grand Mosque.

All aged between 20 and 40, they landed in the city of Kuala Idi and received food and water. Since 2015, when the Thai authorities have dismantled the regional networks of human traffickers, it was rare for the Rohingya to attempt to sail the southern maritime routes.