A court decision to release Sri Lanka’s former navy chief Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda from a sensational case of abduction and murder of 11 youths has sparked protests from the family members of the victims. The protesters held rallies at the Courts Complex in the national capital Colombo to oppose his impending release on Monday.

Relatives and rights activists joined them on the streets, holding placards and banners with pictures of their missing loved ones. The navy chief was accused of conspiracy to abduct, murder, and disappear 11 young Sri Lankans during the decades-long civil war that ended in 2009.

Banners protesting the impending release of former navy chief Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda are seen in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on June 24. (Photo supplied)

The case highlighted extrajudicial killings during the ethnic conflict. He is one of 14 people accused of abducting the teenage children of wealthy families in 2008 and 2009 and killing them after extorting money. He was detained, investigated, and put on trial in a case that made international headlines.

However, in 2021, Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam announced that it would drop charges against Karannagoda, paving the way for a lower court to release him.  

Activists have called for a new national law to manage Church properties in India following two separate court cases involving Catholic and Protestant dioceses in the financial capital Mumbai.

On Monday, a court initiated legal proceedings against seven people including five Catholics after indicting them for forging documents to grab an expensive plot of land belonging to the Bombay Archdiocese. They are charged with fraud and forging land documents to illegally acquire 2,538 square meters of land in the upmarket Bandra West area worth over 71 million US dollars.

An Indian Catholic man prays outside the Mount Mary Church in Mumbai in this file photo. Court cases involving Catholic and Protestant dioceses in Mumbai have prompted calls for a new national law to manage Church properties. (Photo: AFP)

In the other case, the Maharashtra state High Court on June 20 ordered the Church of North India’s Bombay diocese to demolish all illegal structures on 3,500 square meters of land that the government leased to the Protestant Church in 1953 for 99 years. The court order followed complaints that Church authorities violated lease conditions and used the property for their commercial gain by building illegal structures and renting them out to third parties.

The land in prime Fort Mumbai is estimated to be worth about 37 million US Dollars and originally belonged to the federal government’s Defence Ministry. The lease conditions prohibited the Church from using it for anything other than Christian religious use.

A court in eastern Nepal convicted a popular self-styled spiritual leader for raping a minor disciple. On Monday, the court said 33-year-old Ram Bahadur Bomjan, was found guilty of sexually assaulting a minor girl in 2016. Bomjan is known as Little Buddha among his thousands of followers across the world.

During the alleged crime, the girl was staying as a nun at one of Bomjan's hermitages inside the forest in the eastern Bara district. The punishment for Bomjan is expected to be delivered on July 1.

Buddhist monks attend a prayer ceremony as a tribute to late Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Kathmandu on Sept. 19, 2022. The involvement of self-styled spiritual leaders in criminal activities is increasing in the Himalayan nation. (Photo: AFP)

Women rights activists have slammed the abuse of power by religious leaders and said the case should be a wake-up call to end abuses “under the guise of religion.”

Bomjan was arrested in early June following a dozen complaints of sexual assault, physical abuse, and involvement in the disappearance of at least five followers. Since 2019, several religious leaders have been accused and convicted of sexual assaults in Nepal.

South Korean Church leaders and theologians have strongly recommended strengthening priestly formation in seminaries amid a drop in priestly vocation. The concerns were raised during a national symposium organized by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference Korea and the Catholic Theological Society of Korea this week.

It drew bishops, priests, academics, and theologians from various dioceses. The experts said the Church needs to implement revised guidelines for effective priestly formation including establishing an emotional care system and a psychological evaluation model.

Bishops and priests pose for a photo following a Mass during the national symposium on priestly formation on June 25 at Incheon Catholic University, South Korea. (Photo: Incheon Catholic University)

They suggested the formation of a national council to oversee the implementation of the Korean Catholic Priest Training Guidelines formulated last year.

A study found that in 2023, a total of 85 new priests were ordained compared to 131 in 2011, and seminary admissions dropped by 30 percent in 2021 compared to 2011. The alarming low birth rate and secularization were cited as major factors behind the decline.

Rights groups Civicus and Forum-Asia have slammed the Cambodian government for a smear campaign against a labor rights group after it published a report highlighting the lack of freedom of association.

The groups issued a joint statement on Wednesday to criticize the repression of the labor rights group, Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights or CENTRAL. The group came under heavy attack after it released a report, titled “Barriers to Representation: Freedom of Association in Cambodia,” on June 4.

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet (center) takes selfies with workers on Aug. 29, 2023. On June 24, his government said it was planning to launch an investigation into a labor rights group after it criticized employer-imposed barriers to freedom of association.(Photo: AFP)

The rights groups said the government-backed unions and authorities organized protests outside CENTRAL's office, demanding it "correct" its report. The unions also accused CENTRAL of receiving foreign funding to “destroy peace and stability” and called on the Ministry of Interior to monitor and review its activities.

Rights groups say the actions against CENTRAL highlighted the “repressive civic space environment for activists, trade unionists and civil society” in Cambodia.

Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing administration has hit back at the US after its annual trafficking report placed the territory on its “watch light” saying the security laws were hampering efforts to combat human trafficking. The US State Department released the 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report on Monday.

It claimed the Hong Kong government had continued to deny trafficking publicly despite ongoing anti-trafficking efforts of government officials and NGOs.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (center) at the function to release the State Department's 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report in Washington on June 24. (Photo: AFP)

It said the national security laws had restricted NGOs and civil society organizations when they tried to engage the government on human trafficking issues. Hong Kong government said it “vehemently opposes and firmly rejects the unfounded and false remarks in the report.”

The US report said Hong Kong’s estimated 360,000 domestic helpers, mostly from Southeast Asian nations such as the Philippines, were at “high risk” of being trafficked due to insufficient safeguards to protect them.

A Church-run leprosy rehabilitation center in Indonesia’s Catholic-majority Flores Island has paid tributes to a German nun who pioneered leprosy treatment.

An art exhibition was organized this week at St. Damian Cancer Rehabilitation Center in Labuan Bajo in memory of Sister Virgula Maria Schmitt.

Children are seen at St. Damian Cancar Rehabilitation Center in Labuan Bajo, Flores of Indonesia on June 23. (Photo supplied)

The nun founded the center in 2006 to offer treatment and rehabilitation to leprosy patients. She arrived in Flores in 1965 and a year later founded St. Michael Hospital and St. Damian Rehabilitation Center for Lepers and Persons with Disabilities. The nun was based in Flores for 49 years. She passed away in the Netherlands on June 27, 2022.

Leprosy is still a public health threat in Indonesia as the country is ranked third after India and Brazil in terms of leprosy patients. The government listed seven out of 38 provinces including Christian-majority East Nusa Tenggara as risky zones for leprosy.

At least five million people were affected by devasting flooding in northeast Bangladesh for nearly two weeks.

Much of the four districts in Bangladesh’s low-lying Sylhet region near India have been under water due to heavy monsoon rain and an onrush of water from the upstream Indian state of Meghalaya.

Children use a raft made from banana trees to travel in a village in Moulvibazar district of northeast Bangladesh on June 20. (Photo supplied)

Government officials said at least 70,000 people were left homeless and lost many domestic animals and birds including cattle and chickens.

The government opened 1,700 flood shelters for the homeless people.

Local sources say many people failed to make the long, treacherous journeys to flood evacuation centers due to a lack of transportation, like boats, and were left stranded.

The state-run Department of Agricultural Extension estimated that the flooding swamped 26,000 hectares of cropland.

Another devastating flood in 2022 hit the Sylhet region when it was engulfed by floodwater for a week and left at least six million people stranded.

That year, the government deployed soldiers for rescue operations using helicopters and boats.

Experts blame the intensity and frequency of natural disasters like flooding on climate change impacts.