Vincenzo Faccioli Pintozzi

North Koreans have a history of social exclusion and marginalisation among distrustful South Koreans. The death from starvation of a North Korean woman and her 6-year-old daughter in opulent Seoul last July has prompted the government to act.

The mysterious new coronavirus has infected at least 1,700 people in Asia, research shows. The US issues a warning against travel in central China. Concerns have been raised about the upcoming Lunar New Year, a period with the largest mass movement in the world.

Leading figures from 18 nations worldwide write to the Chief Executive of the Territory: "Hong Kong is a great world city, a major international financial and trading centre, and an important gateway to China and the rest of Asia. It would be a tragedy if it loses this role and gains a reputation for repression”. The local executive responds quickly: "Untruthful facts, foreigners must not meddle in our internal affairs".

Francis meets the members of the Roman Curia for the traditional Christmas greetings and warns: "We need a radical change in the way we think about the mission, let's look at the peripheries of the big cities". The change of the apparatus "is not done in the name of the change itself". "What we are experiencing is not simply an era of change, rather a change of era."

The Chinese president is in the former Portuguese colony for the 20th anniversary of its return to the mainland as well as the inauguration of its new chief executive, Ho Iat-seng. Macau’s cabinet includes five mainlanders. Xi warns that Macau and Hong Kong are China’s internal affairs: “we will never tolerate any external interference”.

Francis meets non-governmental organizations of Catholic inspiration, which have gathered in the last two days in Rome. "We need more imagination, new ways of encountering culture".

The Venerable Wonhaeng, leader of South Korea’s Buddhist Jogye Order, visited Pakistan for a week. The founder of Korean Buddhism came from what is now Pakistan. The Jogye Order’s chief abbot met Pakistan’s president and prime minister in Islamabad. Peaceful coexistence between religions in Pakistan is possible.

Katsuzo Ishimaru, a world-famous artist who survived the 1945 atomic bomb, looks at Pope Francis’s visit to Japan. Living with terror has influenced his art, and now he hopes for a "revolution" on the part of young people, who must go back to a life in contact with nature. Artificial intelligence, pollution and global warming are challenges that "must be addressed immediately”.

The "China Cables", secret documents of the Communist Party that emerged thanks to the efforts of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, describe in detail life in the detention camps where 1.8 million Chinese Muslims are imprisoned. The emphasis on the education of the youngest, who must be isolated from the world and re-educated. The denied requests of the international community to be able to visit these areas that are "vocational institutes" for Beijing.

Students at Myongji University support the cause of the former British colony. Those involved in the brawl were released after brief questioning by police. Acts of vandalism have been reported at Seoul National University.

A crowd of Christians gathered at Chater Garden for a prayer meeting in memory of Chow Tsz-lok, the student who died very suspiciously after falling from a parking lot roof. Msgr. Ha Chi-shing calls on the government to create an independent commission of inquiry and ensure justice to society and the family of the deceased.

Financial turbulence and the trade war with the United States weigh heavily on rural areas. Rich Guangdong exceeds the government's growth target by 0.2 per cent. Other areas are struggling. In the first 9 months of the year they are underperforming. Expert warns the trend is getting worse.