Fifty people gathered to pray for Pakistan The Italian Evangelical Alliance asks authorities to “implement effective measures to ensure the safety of Christian minorities”.

An evangelical pastor in Aleppo analyses the “very critical” situation in Syria. “Pray for us, our sufferings became so great”. The UN says at least 5,800 people died due to the earthquake.

During her first press conference, Nikki Haley stated that the UN has “breathtaking double standards” with Israel, but the US  “will not turn a blind eye to this anymore.”

The huge investment in agriculture transformed  the semi-arid Al Badia region into fields of maize and cotton, by means of subsidies to farmers and the drilling of thousands of wells. This added to the pressure on water resources.