Come Christmas a tiny settlement on the Malacca coast turns into a wonderland. Thousands of visitors arrive in the evenings to look at the brightly lit streets and decorated homes in a Portuguese settlement, a 15-minute drive from the capital city of the coastal state in south-western Malaysia.
Curtains of colourful, fairy lights flow along the rooftops and the walls of houses and stream down to driveways and lawns. The trees are decked with baubles, candy canes, and other ornaments.
Almost every house has a large nativity set adorned with glittering lights placed on the front porch for all to see, appreciate, and reflect.
Children in Santa suits run around happily and old folks sit and chat, while the womenfolk get busy in the kitchen making jam tarts, sugee cake, cookies, and other festive delicacies. The carollers go from house to house in the seven narrow streets of the settlement.

Last week the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) captured Namhsan, a city in the northern Shan State.
The TNLA is one of three ethnic militias that form the Three Brotherhood Alliance that launched an offensive against Myanmar’s military junta at the end of October.
According to the militias, at least 650 regular soldiers surrendered, potentially changing the direction of Myanmar’s civil war, which began with the military coup of 1 February 2021.
TNLA fighters are “walking the revolutionary path,” said the group’s spokesman, Tar Aik Kyaw. “The main objective is to take down the military dictatorship, which is what Myanmar people [have] always want[ed],” he added.
The offensive, called Operation 1027 from the date of its start, October 27, is still ongoing despite strikes by the junta’s air force.
Sources told AsiaNews that the fighting has now reached all segments of the population, affecting places of worship as well, Christian and non-Christian alike.
At least 660,000 people have been displaced since the operation began, this according to United Nations data.

Only 4 months ago in Jaranwala in Pakistan more than 900 Christian families were forced to flee and hide in the fields with women, elderly people and children to save their lives from the fury and burning of Islamic fundamentalists.
The toll was hundreds of Christian homes burned and 21 churches attacked, of which 3 belonging to the Catholic community. The rebirth of this wounded Christian community comes from Advent: it is in this period that the Cecil&Iris Chaudhry Foundation (CICF) organized a Christmas Fair to restore dignity, hope and trust to the Christians of Jaranwala, victims of the events that occurred on 16 August. This is also why the event kicked off on December 16th. The Christian community has rallied around this ordeal and has risen with the aim of celebrating the birth of Jesus together.
The inauguration of the fair was attended by several representatives of the local administration, social and religious leaders, including Father Khalid Mukhtar, Catholic priest of the diocese of Faisalabad in Punjab, the Rev. Aleem Anwer bishop of the Anglican Church of the Diocese of Faisalabad, Major Arshad Nizam, division commander of the Salvation Army Church and Mrs. Michelle Chaudhry, president of the CICF.

Christmas vigil prohibited for children. Traffic blocks and shop closures. Ban on display of objects that recall Christmas in university dormitories. These are some of the measures deployed by the local authorities of Baoding, a northern city in the Chinese province of Hebei not far from the capital Beijing.
As a diocese with a long history, a large number of Catholics live in the Baoding area. For this reason, on Christmas Eve this year the police adopted exceptional security measures in the city centre. The authorities announced traffic control in the historic centre of Yuhua Road, where the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, seat of the diocese of Baoding, is located.
No vehicles were allowed to enter the historic centre after 4 pm and buses passing through this area were ordered to reroute. Furthermore, all shops in the area around the church were ordered to close and Christmas sales and promotions were not permitted.
A source living in Baoding confirmed the information and told AsiaNews that police officers were everywhere around the church. Police vehicles were parked near the church and there were also officers in riot gear. All the shops around the church were closed.
The source said that the police prevented parents with children from entering the church. Police told parents to leave the church because it was “unsafe for children as there were too many people inside.” The police were everywhere inside the church, with a heavy atmosphere, in open contrast to the spirit of the celebration.
The atmosphere was also tense in Donglü, whose church is a pilgrimage destination. According to our source, the police have been stationed in the village for a week before Christmas. Donglü is 20 kilometres from Baoding, and is famous for its Madonna of China.
In 1900, Catholics sought refuge in this village during the Boxer Rebellion, the wave of violence against foreigners and Christianity supported by the Qing dynasty. But in Donglü the Boxer group that tried to attack the church was defeated.

The number of newlywed couples in South Korea has fallen by more than 6%, to just over one million in 2022.
The proportion for couples with no children has reached an all-time high, this according to Statistics Korea.
A declining birth rate also touches North Korea, so much so that its leader, Kim Jong-un, in a speech, urged his countrywomen to be “more communist” and have more babies.
In South Korea, the number of newlywed couples came to 1.03 million last year, down from the previous year’s 1.1 million, according to Statistics Korea.
The newlyweds here refer to couples who tied the knot for the first time in the five years up to November 2022.
The figure has shown a drop from 1.47 million in 2015 to 1.32 million in 2018 and 1.18 million in 2020.
Of the couples, 46.4% did not have children, a record high proportion since 2015, when Statistics Korea began compiling the related data.
The number of babies born to the newly-weds came to 0.65 in 2022, also an all-time low. The comparable figure for 2021 was 0.66.
As many young people choose to postpone or give up on the idea of getting married or having children, South Korea must face a low birth rate and an aging population.
Such a trend appears to be in line with changing social norms and lifestyles, as well as rising housing prices, a tough job market, and an economic slowdown.
The country’s total fertility rate – the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime – came to just 0.79 in the third quarter of 2023, much lower than the replacement level of 2.1 needed to keep South Korea’s population at 52 million.

Religious leaders and rights activists in  Sri Lanka have honoured prominent Catholic journalist and human rights defender Fredy Gamage who recently received Timor-Leste’s top civilian award for his remarkable contributions to its struggle for independence from Indonesia.
Gamage was hailed as a fear-less human rights defender in Timor-Leste and in his home country during a reception at the Cardinal Cooray Centre in Nego-mbo, about 40 kilometres from the capital Colombo, on Dec. 9.
Catholic priest and rights de-fender, Father Sarath Iddamalgoda, said Gamage’s commitment has persisted through decades of war, political crises, and social injustices that have plagued the island nation.
He is held in high esteem for dedicated efforts in championing the rights of north-eastern people throughout three decades of civil war in Sri Lanka, Iddamalgoda said.
Gamage organized impactful poster campaigns, such as “Tears and Fire of War,” effectively shedding light on the plight of innocent civilians caught in the conflict, he said.
“Through these campaigns, Gamage played a crucial role in informing the public about the hardships faced by minority Ta-mils, demonstrating his commitment to raising awareness about their struggles,” Iddamalgoda told the gathering.

A prominent rights group in Pakistan has expressed “considerable alarm” over the state of religious freedom in the country. The problem is especially acute for Christian and Hindu girls and young women.
Given this ever-present emergency, some prominent figures and advocacy groups made an appeal yesterday, 10 December, Human Rights Day. Celebrated around the world, the observance commemorates the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948, 75 years ago.
The appeal is addressed to Pakistan’s police, judiciary, government officials, and political leaders to enforce the law and protect those who are victims of abuse.
Many civil society groups urge the government to uphold legal and administrative safeguards to protect ethnic and religious minorities from human rights violations and abuses.
“Successive governments have introduced a legal framework and established national human rights institutions,” explained Fr Abid Tanvir, vicar general of the diocese of Faisalabad; “however, women, people with disabilities, and religious minorities are still facing discrimination and exploitation for the lack of political will and insufficient allocation of resources to institutions.”

In the realm of drug policies, the dichotomy between the recent liberalization of drugs in America and Europe and the strict, unforgiving stance in Japan unveils a stark contrast of ethical views.
While the West grapples with rising homelessness primarily fuelled by drug addiction, Japan’s stringent approach has yielded distinct outcomes, so much so that videos of Japanese subways go viral on social media for the simple reason that no drug addict ever disrupts a scene of quietness and basic civil coexistence.
The East Asian culture, particularly in Japan, stands as a testament to zero tolerance towards drug offenses, reflecting a soci-etal commitment to maintaining order and safety.
But in the Western hemisph-ere, drug-related issues, especially homelessness, are often attributed to substance abuse, particularly illicit drugs. The prime culprit is the abuse of substances like opioids, methamphetamine, and other addictive narcotics.
The resultant consequences can be witnessed in the disconcerting scenes near train stations in major capitals in Europe, where individuals, under the influence of drugs and alcohol, resort to criminal activities such as robbery or physical harassment.
Moreover, the sight of home-less individuals engaged in ghastly public acts like urination is a common sight.
“Individuals find themselves entangled in a complex web of struggles where their mental health issues exacerbate their addictive behaviours”
In my interactions with these individuals, it became evident that mental health struggles played a prime role in pushing them toward homelessness. For many, mental illness manifested itself through various addiction problems, with gambling and alcohol abuse standing out.

This week-end we mark two very significant anniversaries which are interlinked and inter-dependent and matter to the entire world. Saturday is the 75th anniversary of the Genocide Convention. On Sunday is the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Within the Asia region alone, at least two genocides are being committed right now. Both began within the past decade, both impact Muslim populations and both have been officially recognized as genocides by the US State Department as well as by parliamentarians and legal experts around the world.
They are the genocide of the Rohingyas in Myanmar and the Uyghurs in western China’s Xinjiang region. Both involve marginalization, discrimination, dehumanization, hate speech, false accusations of terrorism made against entire people groups, as well as rape, torture, the destruction of places of worship, and incarceration of large proportions of the population.
Across Asia, there are other atrocity crimes – war crimes and crimes against humanity – committed below the radar of the world’s media.
North Korea’s human rights violations were recognized a decade ago as crimes against humanity by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry into North Korea chaired by the Australian judge, Justice Michael Kirby.
In Tibet, atrocities continue and forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China, particularly Falun Gong practitioners, has been declared a crime against humanity by the China Tribunal. Indeed, that independent tribunal has declared China “a criminal state.”

A major inter-church group in Malaysia’s Christian-ma-jority Sarawak state has reje-cted an invitation to participate in a state-sponsored Christmas program after the organizers declined to replace a popular but commercial song for the celebration. The Association of Churches in Sarawak (ACS) president Donald Jute said the group will not be involved in “A Christmas Carol, Sarawak in Diversity” program on Dec. 3 after the main organizer TV Sarawak (TVS) claimed it could not meet its request to replace the song Jingle Bell Rock with O Holy Night, the Malay Mail reported on Nov. 24. “The association expressed its regret that the request was not entertained by TVS,” Jute said in a letter to the Sarawak Unit for Other Religions (Uni-for), a focal body for various religious bodies to liaise and interact with state and federal agencies. The broadcaster said it rejected the request to change the song due to “religious elements” and “protocol” from the Film Censorship Board of Malaysia and the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission, he said.