A Bangladeshi court jailed an ethnic tribal leader for eight years for an alleged charge of extortion, about a year after he was released from nearly five years in secret detention.

A court in Rangamati district of Chattogram Hill Tracts (CHT) region in southeast Bangladesh sentenced Michael Chakma and two others to eight years rigorous imprisonment on Oct. 8. The case was filed in 2007 during the tenure of the military-backed caretaker government.

Chakma, 46, an ethnic Chakma and Buddhist, is a leader of the CHT-based political organization, the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF), which seeks autonomy for the hilly, forested, and restive region.

He disappeared while visiting the national capital, Dhaka, in 2019. Chakma told the media that the state forces kept him in secret locations until he was dropped off at the door of his home on Aug. 7, 2024, two days after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India following a massive student-led public uprising.

He is among about 700 victims of enforced disappearance during the 15-year authoritarian regime of Hasina’s Awami League government.

The interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus, which replaced the ousted regime, formed the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances to probe into hundreds of people who were either killed or secretly detained. Chakma was convicted in absentia in 2023 for alleged illegal possession of arms, which he termed “yet another false case.”

Leaders from Christian and Hindu communities have criticized Pakistani authorities for their failure to form a commission to protect the rights of religious minorities despite nearly five months after the parliament passed a related law. Pakistan’s parliament passed the National Commission for Minorities’ Rights Bill 2025 on May 12. The law was hailed as a landmark move to safeguard the rights of minorities in a country criticized for violations of religious freedom.

The criticism came as media reports suggest the bill has been in limbo after being returned by President Asif Ali Zardari to the Ministry of Human Rights for review. In a report released on Oct. 10, the Catholic bishops’ National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) expressed disappointment over the limbo.

The report titled “Thousands of Slips Stand Guard” cited administrative hurdles and political apathy as major causes for the delay in forming the proposed 30-member minorities commission. The NCJP urged the government to ensure the commission enjoys independence.

It further urged the government to re-table the bill, ensure amendments comply with the Paris Principles, the standards for the credibility and effectiveness of National Human Rights Institutions adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1993.

The founder of a prominent Chinese underground church has been detained along with more than 20 of its members in a sweeping national crackdown, according to his daughter and one of its pastors. Police arrested Jin Mingri, who founded the unregistered Zion Church, at his home in the southern region of Guangxi on Oct. 10, along with several pastors in other cities, including Beijing, who were taken into custody overnight.

Jin was detained on “suspicion of the illegal use of information networks,” a detention notice stated. At least seven pastors, including Jin, who also goes by the name Ezra, may face criminal charges for “illegal dissemination of religious information via the internet,” according to a church statement.

Police searched their homes and confiscated their computers and cell phones. “It is just a blatant attack on religious freedom,” Jin’s daughter Grace said. Since Oct. 9, police have apprehended church leaders and members in Shanghai, Beijing, Zhejiang, Guangxi, Shandong, Sichuan and Henan, according to a list compiled by church members.

Four people have since been released following interrogation. Police barred lawyers from meeting detained church members in the Guangxi city of Beihai on Oct. 13 morning, according to Grace.

It was not immediately clear if those detained have been able to speak with lawyers since then. “We are not criminals, we are just Christians,” said Sean Long, a Zion pastor based in the United States who has been in touch with family members of those detained in China. “We pray for the best, but we have to prepare for the worst.”

The Daughters of St Paul, a member of the Pauline Family, on October 1 elected Sister Mari Lucia Kim as their superior general during their 12th general chapter in Rome. Sister Kim is the first Asian to head the 110-year-old congregation founded by Blessed James Alberione along with Mother Thecla Merlo. She is the eighth successor of Mother Merlo.

The Korean nun, who will turn 60 on November 1, has been a member of the congregation since 1995. She is currently the Korean provincial. She had served as a member of the general council during 2013-2019. Sister Kim replaces Sister Anna Caiazza, who led the congregation for the past six years. She will head the congregation until 2031.

The Daughters of St Paul, who entered South Korea in 1960, are known as the “Media Nuns” in the Southeast Asian nation. The sisters spread the Gospel through various forms of media and literature, supporting Catholic culture among young people.

The sisters operate 15 bookshops throughout Korea and manage 12 communities. In 2020, they opened a new apostolic centre in Seoul called Hyehwa Namu, which includes a bookstore, snack bar, event spaces, and a small theatre. Their primary focus is on forming young people through new media and establishing a website for their mission in Asia. They are involved in training and motivational programs for young people in schools and universities. The Daughters of St Paul has 1,815 members in 11 provinces and 14 delegations. As many as five houses are directly under the generalate.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle said politicians in the Philippines must remember that they are “not God” following a major corruption scandal. “Please, you are human beings. You are created in God’s image. Can you please look at yourself and, with humility, say, ‘I am not God. I should not pretend to be God. I am a creature with many other creatures, and so my responsibility is to take care of what God has given to us for the good of all,’” Cardinal Tagle told the ABS-CBN News Channel.

Tagle, pro-prefect at the Dicastery for Evangelisation, was the Archbishop of Manila from 2011 to 2019. The 68-year-old theologian, who finished his doctorate at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, remains an influential voice in the Filipino Church.

Speaking in an interview published on 4 October, Tagle expressed disbelief at the corruption controversy involving billions of pesos for flood control projects. He said it demonstrates “the mystery of the capacity of human beings to destroy each other through corruption”.

Acknowledging that this was partly a failure of formation by the Church, the cardinal challenged Filipinos to go beyond the massive protests that have rocked the country in recent weeks. “After the rallies, we should now look for lasting change, because we cannot effect change simply by expressing our anger,” he said.

Other Church leaders have condemned the corruption scandal, even joining protests in different parts of the country. A Church-led protest on 21 September drew thousands of people, and a bigger one is being prepared for 30 November, a public holiday in honour of the nineteenth-century Filipino revolutionary Andres Bonifacio. The Bishop of Kidapawan Jose Colin Bagaforo, 71, said a group of clergy had joined a new movement to fight the “systemic corruption” and “excessive greed” that have led to poverty in the country. Their “Trillion Peso March Movement” is named after the successful “Trillion Peso March” protest on 21 September.