The Supreme Court has asked states and the central government to urgently identify and repeal all obsolete provisions that continue to contain discriminatory references to people with leprosy. According to the National Human Rights Commission, there are nearly 100 laws that limit the rights and access to services of even those who have been cured.
The Ministry of Energy would like to restart atomic energy production in the Philippines in the province of Pangasinan with the construction of a 1,200-megawatt plant. In a pastoral letter, the bishops of the region where the plant would be built express their opposition: ‘After Fukushima, let us choose prudence, investing in renewable energies that guarantee safety, resilience and true long-term development for our people’.
After focusing on the opportunities opened up by the US withdrawal, China now has to contend with the new winds of war between Kabul and Islamabad, which are also affecting the thousands of Chinese working on one of the most important routes of the Belt and Road Initiative. Meanwhile, the Taliban are recruiting contingents from the Uighur diaspora.
More than 2.3 million Sri Lankans have been affected by the natural disaster that struck the country on 28 November. An estimated three million livestock died in the disaster, while flood-damaged rice still ended up for sale. About 20 per cent of the country's rice fields were destroyed by the floods.
The border dispute is not the only factor in restarting clashes. Scores of online scam centres operate along the border, run by criminal networks linked to Cambodian elites. Thailand considers them strategic military targets and is using the war to build up nationalist support ahead of upcoming elections. Thailand's opposition People's Party has called for a return to diplomacy.
On the centenary of the pontifical institute established by Pius XI in 1925, the pontiff published a letter on the importance of this discipline for the Church. Archaeology has a "sensory" role to "touch, see, and hear the Word made flesh." It “teaches us that nothing touched by faith is insignificant." And it helps “Those who know their own history know who they are.”
