New Delhi’s young gang rape victim has paid the ultimate price for being a woman in India.

A few days after her funeral, people will return to their daily routine and the horror of violence against women will recede from memory. But it will not be long before we hear of another rape.

In one of the more traumatic weeks in India, the media exposed their bigotry and their blood thirst in ample measure over the tragic death in Ireland of an Indian dentist, Savita Halappanavar, from Karnataka state, of septicemia following a miscarriage, and the execution by hanging of Ajmal Kasab, a 25-year-old Pakistani citizen, who had been part of a terrorist commando group that killed over 160 persons during a hotel hijack in Mumbai four years ago.

The launch of the Apple iPhone 5 prompted a crazy rush on outlets by people vying to be among the first to get one. But that is not likely to be the end of it, as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and the iPad Mini have both joined it on the market.

People flock to get hold of these knickknacks, which boast faster streaming speeds than their predecessors and added functions.

During this 50th year since the opening of the Second Vatican Council in 1962, the bishops of Asia will gather for their deferred meeting in Vietnam during December for the first Plenary Assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences since they met in Manila in 2009.

The anniversary of Vatican II is significant, as the council was a momentous event, not least of all for the Church in Asia.

MACAU (SE): “What difference does it make if our universe loses a few million years from its projected billions-of-millennia lifespan?” Father Louis Gendron asked at a seminar held in the Macau Institute of Tourism on November 7 and 8 on the theme, Humankind and Nature: An endangered system of interdependence in today’s globalised world.

HONG KONG (SE): “Seeing is believing.” A slice of popular wisdom, but when it comes to faith, or believing in God, Australian theologian, Adam Cooper, is adamant that it is the ears that give us the entrée to faith, not the eyes.

“Sight only backs up hearing,” he said. “Sight can be deceived,” as there are such things as optical illusions, “but the word of God does not deceive.”

SYDNEY (SE): The Australian bishops describe the modern economic environment as being not family-friendly in a 21-page message released on September 21 to coincide with the celebration of Social Justice Sunday, which was marked in the Land Down Under on September 23.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. All people will know that you are my disciples if you love one another’

John 13: 34-35

HONG KONG (SE): “In busy, noisy, hyperactive Hong Kong, contemplative spirituality is rare, hard to find and even harder to practice,” Louis Tong told the Sunday Examiner in reflecting on his experience at a meditation retreat put on at the Wu Kai Sha YMCA Youth Camp by Buddhist monk, Thye Ngat Hanh, in 2010, that over 300 Catholic people attended.