Global rights group Amnesty International has called for cross-border cooperation to reduce the widening impact of air pollution in South Asia. “We reiterate our calls to the affected South Asian countries to urgently create and implement cross-border pollution action plan,” Amnesty International’s Climate Adviser Ann Harrison said in a press statement on March 20.
There has been “little conce-rted action by both the affected countries as well as the high-income fossil fuel producers that are planning to expand, not reduce production,” Harrison added. She pointed out that the issue of air pollution “is largely driven by the burning of fossil fuels.” Earlier, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India occupied the top three spots for having the worst air quality among 134 nations surveyed in the 2023 World Air Quality Report releas-ed by IQ Air.
Bangladesh occupied the top spot with an average PM2.5 con-centration of 79.9 ìg/m³ (micro-gram per cubic meter) roughly 32 times higher than the World Health Organization limit of 2.5 ìg/m³. Pakistan occupied the second spot with an average PM2.5 concentration of 73.7ìg/m³ followed by India at the third spot with 54.4ìg/m³. The IQ Air report assesses the PM2.5 concentration – fine particulate aerosol particles measuring up to 2.5 microns in diameter – which is the primary air quality indicator for the World Air Quality Report.
PM2.5 is one of six common pollutants monitored and regulat-ed by environmental agencies worldwide due to its significant impacts on human health and the environment. “The climate ‘red alert’ in addition to prolonged exposure to toxic air quality in many parts of the South Asian region illustrates the risk of harms to life and health of more than a billion people from accelerating climate chaos,” Harrison warned.
Fossil fuels comprise about 80 percent of the world’s energy use, according to a 2023 report publi-shed by Boston University’s Insti-tute for Global Sustainability.

The demographic decline no longer affects only the countries where well-being is more wide-spread. It is a global phenomenon, spanning every continent. And if it continues to a pace according to current dynamics, in 2100 only 6 countries in the world will still reach a fertility rate of 2.1 child-ren per woman, the so-called “replacement threshold” which allo-ws them to keep their population stable.
This is supported by a new study based on statistical models and published by the British scie-ntific journal Lancet. This is a demographic analysis on the gigantic amount of data from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries and Risk Factors Study, carried out by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation of the University of Washington.
Precisely those scientific circles that have long shouted about the “demographic bomb”, therefore, today send out exactly the opposite message: births are dra-stically reducing on a global level. By combining thousands of studies relating to demographic dynamics in 204 countries with sophisticated systems, they certify not only that the fertility rate at a global level has halved in the last seventy years, falling from 4.84 in 1950 to 2.23 in 2021.
The most interesting data from the research published by the Lancet concerns the dynamics taking place in individual geographical areas. Because if on the one hand the slowdown (which exists) follo-ws a slower pace in sub-Saharan Africa, the collapse in the birth rate in South Asia would make the difference in the coming years.
According to these project-ions, countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are on track to very quickly reach the low birth rates of Western Europe and the Far East. If in 2021 there were a total of 32 million births in South Asia, by 2050 they could already drop to 18.7 million.

The Communist Party of Vietnam has accepted the “resignation” of President Vo Van Thyang over unspecified “shortcomings” that show the extent of the cou-ntry’s political turmoil.
For international analysts, the situation risk undermining the confidence of foreign investors and the possibility of dialogue with various partners, including the Vatican. Major steps have been taken under the out-going head of state, including his recent invitation to Pope Francis to visit the country.
In a statement released, the government accused the president of violating the party’s rules, stressing that his “shortcomings had negatively impacted public opinion, affecting the reputation of the party, state and him per-sonally.” The party’s Central Committee, one of Vietnam’s top decision-making bodies, approved Thyang’s resignation not more than a year after his election. The Vietnamese president plays a largely ceremonial role, but remains one of the top four main political offices in the Southeast Asian country.

On a spring afternoon in early March, Usha Rokka took a break from sewing ladies’ handbags ordered by a customer to give snacks to her seven-year-old son who just returned from school.
The 25-year-old single mother has been living in a tiny, rented one-room house in Pokhara, the tourist city in western Nepal since leaving her abusive husband and in-laws seven years ago.
She and her son have a simple, happy life thanks to Rokka’s thriving home-based business that a group of Good Shepherd nuns helped her start as part of their project supporting vulnerable women.
The business yields up to 30,000 rupees (US$277) a month, enough to pay for Rokka’s house rent, daily essentials, utilities, and schooling.
Rokka still remembers her nightmarish days years ago when she attempted to commit suicide twice out of frustration as she failed to find a job to support the family. She fled her in-law’s house in Kushma, a two-hour drive from Pokhara and came to the city in 2018.
“The first time, a fisherman saved my life when I jumped into Phewa Lake and then a neighbor took me to the hospital when she heard my son crying after I drank poison,” she said.
“I couldn’t feed my son properly. I was being mentally tortured by my husband and the people in the village,” she added.
Dowry is considered a social malpractice in many countries as it is blamed for endemic domestic abuse against brides. Despite being illegal in most countries the practice is still prevalent in many parts of South Asia.

A police officer who saved a woman accused of blasphemy from a mob of 200 men in eastern Pakistan has described how she had to negotiate with the crowd to lead her to safety.
The woman, who has not been named for security reasons, was surrounded in a Lahore restaurant by men who wrongly claimed her shirt was adorned with verses from the Koran.
Blasphemy is an incendiary charge in ultra-conservative Pakistan, where mobs have lynched people they deem to have insulted Islam.
Syeda Shehrbano Naqvi, an assistant superintendent with Punjab police, was among the first officers on the scene on Sunday.
“The crowd was pretty charged, and they were chanting slogans. They were talking about how people who commit blasphemy must be punished,” Naqvi told AFP.
A video shared on social media showed the woman sitting in a corner of a cafe protecting her face with her hands.
Crowds were later heard chanting: “The only punishment for blasphemy is beheading.”
“There was a confusion and nobody was willing to listen to us. We feared that if the dialogue didn’t begin, the woman’s life would be in danger,” Naqvi added.
In the end, Naqvi appealed with the crowd to let police determine whether Pakistan’s blasphemy laws had been breached.
Officers then formed a human chain to help lead the woman out of the restaurant.
The woman was in fact wearing a shirt with the Arabic word for “beautiful” written on it.

In a world often divided by global conflicts and tensions, Pakistan’s current situation is a distressing practical representation of the negative impact that wars have on international peace and harmony. This South Asian country, embroiled in global wars, has had its share of difficulties in maintaining stability and finding comfort in the face of hardship.
For the people of Pakistan, Christian prayers are a glimmer of hope and strength in the midst of chaos. Christian prayers are more than just words spoken in space; they are a channel to the supernatural and a way to ask for comfort, direction and help from an infinite being. Both individuals and communities can find the courage to persevere and overcome obstacles precisely through prayer.
Christian prayers provide comfort and firmness in times of turmoil. Believers believe that prayer can repair broken relationships, be a source of miracles and bring peace. Through prayer, they gain the strength to persevere in faith in the face of suffering.
Another significant habit with strong roots in Christianity is fasting. This is a renunciation of eating, or certain foods, for a specific period of time, often combined with prayer and meditation. Fasting is a spiritual activity that helps people get closer to God and strengthens their resolve in the current situation in Pakistan.

As the Catholic Church witnesses the constant emergence of new spiritual movements, devotional networks, and religious initiatives, their recognition and institutionalization are complex processes. The Church as a whole needs time to carefully discern their spiritual value, orthodoxy, and contribution to the body of Christ.
But these processes of growth and regulation, renewal and discernment, creativity and obedience keep the Church alive. Initiatives that may come from the Holy Spirit need to be recognized as such by other parts of the Body of Christ – including the head of the Church.
“Yet, this long discernment is not only happening between the Roman centre and some local communities. It is rarely limited to some localities only. It takes almost the whole Church – with numerous mediators and encounters – to truly recognize the vitality, renewal, and challenges that the Holy Spirit brings to us.
Singapore hosted the March 1-5 extraordinary International Congress of the Flame of Love. About 60 delegates came from all around the world to spend five days of retreat and work.
Over the past few years, the Flame of Love has rapidly grown across all continents. Taking many members by surprise, the new movement is now present in more than 50 countries – including Singapore, India, the Philippines, etc. With more people involved and national associations established, the Flame of Love needs to adapt its structures to let the Vatican discern an inter-national recognition.

Hong Kong is on the verge of enacting a new domestic security law which is even more repressive than the National Security Law imposed by Beijing in 2020 — and may well strike at the very heart of the Church’s conscience, with a potential assault on the confidentiality of the Sacrament of Penance.
One of the most dangerous, insidious, and outrageous aspects of the new security law is the proposal, made on March 7 by Hong Kong’s Secretary for Justice Lam Ting-kwok, regarding the crime of “failing to disclose the commission of treason by others.”
It means if a person knows that another person has committed “treason” but fails to disclose the knowledge to the authorities within a reasonable time, that person is guilty of a crime and could face 14 years in jail.
There is increasing concern that this poses an implicit threat to the Sacrament of Penance (or Reconciliation or “Confession”) in the Catholic Church and other Christian traditions – and Lam said nothing to reassure the Church to the contrary.
For Catholics, Confession is a spiritual act of pivotal importance. It is something we are encouraged to take up regularly, especially during the holy seasons of Lent and Advent.
Yet at the heart of Confession is its absolute confidentiality. The Church’s “Seal of Confession” is exactly that. What is confessed by a penitent, before a priest, in front of God stays solely between those three beings.
“Forcing a priest to reveal something said in Confession is an assault on the very integrity of the Church”
If a serious crime under law is confessed, a priest might advise a penitent to confess to the authorities — but he can never report it himself, and certainly should never be held criminally liable for having heard that confession.
I have never committed criminal acts (except under Hong Kong’s draconian laws, extraterritorially), but like all of us I sin, and while some of my flaws are already known to friends and colleagues, what I say in Confession I would not broadcast to the world.

The president of Pakistan’s Catholic Bishops’ Conference has welcomed a Supreme Court decision to reject a government report into the authorities’ response to attacks described by Church leaders as the “worst incident against Christians” in the nation’s history.
Bishop Samson Shukardin praised Pakistan’s highest court which threw out the government report on the attacks in Jaranwala where in a single day last August a mob torched more than 25 churches and up to 100 homes belonging to Christians.
Qazi Faez Isa, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, who headed the three-member bench of the Supreme Court, described the report, submitted by the Additional Advocate General of Punjab, as being worthy of “being thrown in the dustbin.”
The court alleged the report lacked relevant information, including details of arrests and court cases and that the investigation agencies lacked determination to bring the perpetrators to justice.
At a Supreme Court hearing about the report, a Punjab law officer stated that after 304 arrests only 22 cases had been registered, with just 18 charge sheets collected.
The court ordered that a fresh report be submitted within two weeks, warning the authorities they may face suspension if they fail to carry out their investigations thoroughly.
Bishop Shukardin, who heads the Diocese of Hyderabad, in Sindh Province, described the Supreme Court’s reaction to the government report on Jaranwala as “very positive for us as Christians.
“This is the first time the Government and especially the Supreme Court has taken this issue so seriously,” he told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN),
His comments come amid reports of widespread breakdown in trust between the police and the Christian community and others in Jaranwala and elsewhere.
Church leaders have described how people are disillusioned about delays in bringing perpetrators to justice and fears that police are not committed to protecting Christians and other minorities at risk of attack.

The Malaysian government has set 31 December as the dead-line for individual states to harmonise Sharia (Syariah, Islamic law) with the constitution to iron out the differences between Quranic rules and the country’s constitutional framework.
For many observers, the deadline is too short, but it has reignited a debate over the place of secular and Islamic law in a country deeply divided along ethnic and social lines.
On Sunday, Islamic Affairs Minister Mohd Na’im Mokhtar pledged to address the matter before the end of the year to ensure a more orderly relationship between the two forms of law.
He plans to do so in cooperation with Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah of Selangor, who chairs the National Council of Islamic Religious Affairs.
A special committee headed by a former chief justice is also taking part in the process, which began last year, with the aim of assessing how to extend legislative powers in this sensitive area.
This is the more pressing since Malaysia’s Supreme Court invalidated 16 laws adopted by the north-western state of Kelantan, covering various offences punishable under Sharia, such as sodomy, sexual abuse, possession of false information, drug and alcohol addiction, as well as how courts should apply the laws.
According to the court, the state cannot make Islamic laws in areas that come under Malaysian federal law even though state legislatures can adapt it to reflect local religious views.
While the minister’s statement started a debate over the timing to achieve the goal, others note that such a topic raises questions about the very identity of the country.