Taiwan

According to astrologers it will be a year of prosperity and success, a good year to get married and start new relationships. At least 700 million people in China have travelled home; 31 million in South Korea. In Pyongyang, Kim Jong-il has taken part in a patriotic concert. Taiwan celebrates the beginning of the second centenary of the Republic of China.

Muslim intellectuals and theologians draw the prospects for a change even in Islam: the value of women and fraternisation of sexes; rejection of fundamentalist Salafism, seeking a religion of the heart and freedom, against the formalism of the veil, the beard and abstruse ritual practices. And above all, they welcome secularism, the separation of Islam from politics.

Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe have seen huge increases in food and fuel prices. The cost of wheat and other agricultural products has risen not because of shortages, but because of inflation generated by the Federal Reserve. The gap between economic elites and the population is widening.

The government turns down a request by Wang Dan, a former 1989 protest leader now living in Taiwan, from entering Hong Kong to attend a service to commemorate the former trade union leader who died at the start of the year. Lee Cheuk-yan hopes the authorities will reconsider.

The program - truly revolutionary - wants to rethink the value of women, fraternisation between the sexes, the relationship of equality with Christians. And it also desires to clarify interpretations on the sayings of Mohammed and the myths of fundamentalist Salafism, rejecting the influences that come from Saudi Arabia.

Suspension of dialogue with the Vatican concerns Egyptian Church. For days, Patriarch Naguib, spokesman for the bishops and Catholic communities has submitted to the Egyptian government and the imam of Al Azhar, the Arabic translation of the Pope's speech that led to the apparent freeze. Accusations against Al Jazeera, of intentionally misrepresenting the papal message. In both east and west growing need for real religious freedom against terrorism and secularism.

Benedict XVI recalls the trials faced by Christians in the Holy Land and the Middle East, even to the sacrifice of life. Every division is "an offense to Christ." This requires a process of conversion of the Church. Appointments for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: the meeting of the Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Ancient Oriental Churches, Vespers in the basilica of St. Paul, on 25 January.

Behind the decision to freeze dialogue with the Holy See, the rejection of the presence in the Vatican delegation of an expert in Islam of Jordanian nationality, a member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. But also political expediency. Al-Azahr condemned the suicide of the Tunisian that sparked the popular revolt and fall of Ben Ali.

First Ordinariate for Anglicans in the Catholic Church established. Three ex- Anglican bishops ordained priests in the cathedral of Westminster. The Anglican Communion, with 80 million adherents, is present in all parts of Asia.

Before leaving for Chicago, the Chinese president gives a rare interview to US newspapers, explaining his views on the economy, international politics and human rights. His answers show that he is unwilling to make any political and economic concessions. Now everyone is waiting to see how President Obama will respond.

Decision announced today, Benedict XVI to celebrate the rite on Divine Mercy Sunday, particularly linked to the memory of the Polish Pope. The miraculous cure of a nun suffering from Parkinson's disease recognised.

In his speech to the diplomatic corp, Benedict XVI denounces injustice and violence against Christians in Iraq, Egypt, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, India and the Middle East. In the West there is a process that tends to treat faith as a personal and irrelevant matter. "You can not create a sort of scale for the severity of intolerance toward religion" and "religious freedom is not only freedom of worship."