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by Dario Salvi | ISRAEL - PALESTINE

The Palestinian Catholic leader calls the ceasefire agreed upon after tensions in the Israeli government and with Hamas a "good development". For him, children cannot be “killed because of the (alleged) crime of the father or the mother.” Rehauling the Palestinian system of government will be a challenge, one that will not see Hamas play any leading role.

by Dario Salvi

Bishop Aldo Berardi, head of the vicariate that includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, comments on Pope Francis' decision to grant the Syro-Malabar Church jurisdiction over Indian migrants. "This is not a secondary element, it concerns areas that go beyond rituals" and will have to be defined. The problem of places of worship, relations with the State and interlocution with the Muslim world. "Too many voices" can create "confusion".

| 16/05/2024
| GULF - VATICAN - INDIA

Today's headlines: Qatar and Bangladesh sign a memorandum on migrant workers. Myanmar’s military retakes a village on the Mon-Karen border. Taiwan denounces Chinese military activities after Blinken's departure. Syrian woman gets seven life sentences over the Istanbul attack of November 2022. Russia has lost its dominant position as India’s main arms supplier.

| 27/04/2024
| ASIA TODAY
by Dario Salvi

The vicar of Aleppo expresses concerns after yesterday’s raid against the Iranian embassy in Damascus that killed General Mohammad Reza Zahedi. “Here too we have counted 35 dead in an attack that seems to have been coordinated with the rebels and terrorists who control Idlib,” said the prelate who thanks Pope Francis for citing Syria’s suffering in his Easter message. To survive, “people are constantly looking for a piece of bread,” said Maronite Archbishop Nassar.

| 02/04/2024
| GATEWAY TO THE EAST

Today's news: Japan's record low in new births and marriages; Afghan Taliban publically execute a man convicted of murder; Seoul imposes a deadline on (youth) white coat protest; Anti-Muslim hatred grows in India, also linked to the 7 October attack and Gaza war.

| 27/02/2024
| ASIA TODAY

Today's news: Fugitives and defectors to Bangladesh increase among Myanmar border guards who report losing contact with commanders; Escalation between the Philippines and China continues in the South China Sea near Scarborough Shoal; Qatar wins the Asian football cup for the second time in a row; In Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliev is re-elected president for the fifth time with a 'Bulgarian majority'.

| 12/02/2024
| ASIA TODAY

Today's news: Arab diplomacy meets in Saudi Arabia to end the war in Gaza; Delhi aims to discontinue the visa-free policy to Myanmar and block entry to the north-east; A Houhti court sentences 13 people to death by public execution for homosexuality; Ulan Bator aims to launch the country's first satellite to strengthen communications; Outgoing president Ilham Aliev in the lead with counting almost complete.

| 09/02/2024
| ASIA TODAY
Editor's choices
 
Rising costs for ingredients and labour are pushing ramen eateries over the edge. According to Teikoku Databank, 34 per cent reported losses in the last fiscal year. Price rises are now inevitable, even if many Japanese seem unwilling to spend more for ...
| 13/01/2025
| JAPAN
 
by Silvia Torriti
The National Health Commission announced the measure as part of a plan to cope with an emergency kept hidden for many years for cultural reasons. Mental distress is also pervasive in rural areas, especially among women and young people. Fewer than four ...
| 10/01/2025
| CHINA
 
Westerners jailed by the Islamic Republic, who are rightly an international issue, are but a fraction of the more than 8,000 non-Iranians jailed in Iran, 95 per cent of them migrants from Afghanistan. More than 70 Afghans were hanged in 2024. Other countries ...
| 03/01/2025
| IRAN
 
The year that starts today will be full of events, anniversaries and major issues: from Expo Osaka to the midterm elections in the Philippines. In May, Francis and Bartholomew might make an ecumenical visit to Nicaea to mark the 1,700th anniversary of ...
| 01/01/2025
| THE COMING YEAR
 
Political breakthroughs in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with Yunus and Dissanayake, Han Kang the first Asian woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Istiqlal Declaration signed by Pope Francis and the Imam in Jakarta. The most important ...
| 31/12/2024
| ASIA
 
by Giorgio Bernardelli
Twenty-five years after the 2000 campaign, Pope Francis marks the Jubilee relauncing an appeal in the footsteps of from John Paul II to forgive loans to those who cannot repay them. The denunciation of a UNCTAD report: ‘Worldwide 3.3 ...
| 31/12/2024
| VATICAN
 
by Gianni Criveller
Editor-in-chief Fr Gianni Criveller's wish to AsiaNews readers on the feast that opens this year's Jubilee. "We are close to the Christian communities of Asia who live this time as an occasion for evangelisation. Even in a world marked ...
| 24/12/2024
| ASIANEWS
 
by Dario Salvi
The provincial of the Franciscans custodians of the Holy Sites speaks with AsiaNews about the festivities once again without pilgrims, whose return is ‘linked to the end of the conflict’. The focus is on events in neighbouring ...
| 24/12/2024
| GATEWAY TO THE EAST
“L’Asia: ecco il nostro comune compito per il terzo millennio!” - Giovanni Paolo II, da “Alzatevi, andiamo”