For more than a year, a shipment of Tamil translations of the Islamic holy text from a Saudi foundation has been blocked in a container. The detention was reportedly requested by an official from the Ministry of Defence. Muslim MPs: ‘Discrimination on religious and linguistic grounds’.

Yesterday, Dili officially became the 11th nation in the Southeast Asian bloc. The end of a 14-year journey was marked by a highly symbolic ceremony attended by all regional leaders. Prime Minister Rala Xanana Gusmao was the last to add his signature. Challenges and responsibilities related to inclusion remain.

The removal from a monument of the Russian word used to refer to the famine caused by Stalin in the 1930s with the forced abolition of small private farmers has sparked controversy. In present-day Kazakhstan, as in Ukraine, hunger killed millions of people. Behind the formal explanation of the “correction” lies the delicate balance in relations with Moscow.

Let us “make our own the suffering and the hope of the [. . .] victims of war,” said Leo XIV after the Angelus. Hopefully, “many gestures of evangelical charity, concrete closeness, and solidarity” will emerge. The “truth is not possessed, but sought together,” he said in the homily of the Jubilee Mass for the synodal teams and the participatory bodies.

Faced with outrage over irregularities in unfinished flood control work, which culminated in the Trillion Peso March, the social arm of the Philippine Catholic Church has signed a memorandum with the government that provides for the direct involvement of parishes in monitoring construction sites. “Beyond criticism, we hope to give moral guidance,” Bishop Bagaforo says.

Sebastian Lai spoke to AsiaNews about his father’s ordeal. The 78-year-old Catholic businessman, who fought for democracy in Hong Kong, has been in prison since 2020. Given his poor health as a diabetic, “the fear for his life is very real.” Too many diabetics “have died in that situation in Hong Kong prisons.” The former media owner “is in solitary confinement,” denied the right to attend Mass. US President Donald Trump said that he would speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping about his case and get him released. His mother’s meeting with Pope Leo XIV gave her strength.