AFP — Two English amateur rugby players had taken heroin just before their deaths while in Sri Lanka, a court was told Friday as it ordered the arrest of those responsible for selling the narcotics. Concluding inquests into the deaths,
China’s state-run Global Times is very angry with the New York Times for publishing a report critical of China’s immense “One Belt, One Road” infrastructure project, specifically the controversy surrounding China’s lease on a port in Sri Lanka. The NYT said on Tuesday that angry Sri Lankan lawmakers launched a social media campaign to discredit two local reporters who worked on the piece.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka announced Friday it would establish new police posts and step up patrols at popular resorts after a spate of sexual attacks and violence targeting foreign tourists.
Contents: General warns of US security danger if China acquires Djibouti seaport; China continues influence through ‘debt trap’ policies
Sri Lanka has reportedly blocked access to social media and messaging sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp in an attempt to prevent “hate speech.”
Contents: Sri Lanka declares state of emergency after Buddhist-Muslim violence; Growing violence by Sri Lankan Buddhist hardliners against Tamils; North Korea says it will denuclearize if the regime is ‘secure’
In what has been described as a dispute between rival Sri Lankan migrants, two men attacked another with a machete, scalping him and cutting off his arm in a Paris restaurant.
The United States slammed the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland, for its biased treatment of Israel and providing a platform for the most egregious violators of human rights like Iran.
Contents: Maldives president arrests Supreme Court justices to get favorable court ruling; Maldives crisis pits India vs China in the Indian Ocean
Contents: US-Pakistan relations continue as before, despite US aid cutoff; US requests Pakistan’s permission to ship Afghan supplies through Gwadar seaport
Contents: Mongolia elects new president after highly nationalistic anti-China campaign; India to help construct Mongolia’s first oil refinery; Brief generational history of Mongolia
Contents: Xi Jinping says that China will now have a ‘say’ on all international issues; Xi Jinping promises to eliminate poverty by 2020; North Korea says that its nuclear arsenal protects it from attacks; Generational Dynamics World View finishes another year with a perfect record
Contents: China alarmed by consequences of its CPEC investment in Pakistan — terrorism and corruption; China halts CPEC funds over concerns about corruption in Pakistan; Pakistan alarmed about a Chinese ‘debt trap’
Contents: Sri Lanka formally hands its southern seaport Hambantota over to China; India’s alarm grows over spread of China’s ‘Maritime Silk Road’
Sri Lanka has vowed to “reassess” the criminalization of homosexuality in response to a review from the United Nation’s Human Rights Council.
Indian customs officials stopped 29 passengers for trafficking gold in their rectums Sunday at an airport in southern India.
Contents: UAE official says Arab blockade was engineered to prevent Qatar hosting 2022 World Cup; Numerous controversies surround FIFA’s award of World Cup 2022 to Qatar; A new ‘risk report’ raises doubts about Qatar hosting World Cup 2022
Contents: China takes control of Sri Lanka’s strategically valuable Hambantota seaport; India reacts to China’s One-Belt One-Road and threat of war over Doklam; Threat of India-China border war at Doklam Plateau grows
Contents: India’s ‘Operation All-Out’ brings Kashmir closer to all-out war; Kashmir escalations building to all-out war; Multiple terrorist attacks across Pakistan kill nearly 50
Contents: Sri Lanka targets radical nationalist Buddhists in Bodu Bala Sena (BBS); Brief generational history of Sri Lanka and Bodu Bala Sena (BBS)
Contents: Kenya launches new China-built railway from Mombasa port to Nairobi; China accused of a policy of ‘debt trap diplomacy’ in infrastructure projects
Israel has delivered emergency supplies to Sri Lankan authorities as they struggle to cope with the impact of floods and mudslides that have killed nearly 200 people and displaced more than 80,000 from their homes in recent days.
Contents: China forum launches the decades-long ‘One Belt One Road’ project; Laborers on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) shot dead on Saturday
Contents: Massive China-Pakistan CPEC energy project said to end energy crisis ‘soon’; Skeptics claim that CPEC will only benefit China, not Pakistan; Pakistan will use dark financing to cover the cost of protecting Chinese workers
Contents: Sri Lanka Sinhalese Buddhist monks accused of racist hate speech against Hindu Tamils; Sri Lanka says that ’32 élite, well-educated Muslims’ have joined ISIS in Syria
Contents: UN report on Burundi documents massive human rights violations; Burundi lawmakers vote to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Contents: Relations between India and Pakistan continue to deteriorate; India boycotts regional SAARC meeting in order to isolate Pakistan; Terrorists attack another Indian army base in Kashmir; India and Pakistan threaten war over Indus River water rights
Contents: Russian warplanes drop phosphorus bombs and bunker buster bombs on Aleppo; Comparisons of Syria civil war to Sri Lanka civil war; US, UK, UN officials accuse Syria and Russia of barbarism and war crimes
TEL AVIV — An Israeli passenger held at an airport for five days has taken a DNA test to prove she is the mother of her child after authorities questioned the girl’s origin when the pair arrived from Sri Lanka.
Contents: Iran releases American sailors as end of sanctions approaches; Report: Sri Lankan government repeatedly torturing and raping Tamils; Sri Lanka joining the torture club, with Syria, Burundi, Zimbabwe
COLOMBO, Aug 17 (Reuters) – Sri Lankans went to the polls on Monday to elect a new parliament in what amounts to a referendum on ex-president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s [pictured above] comeback bid, with the reformist alliance that swept him from
Contents: Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leader Malik Ishaq killed in gunfight in Pakistan; Bizarre Mullah Omar death announcement seals fate of Afghan peace talks; Mullah Omar’s impossible conditions for Afghan peace talks
Contents: Australia accused of paying people smugglers to take migrants to Indonesia; Pakistan shuts down ‘Save the Children’ and threatens other NGOs; France’s Dominique Strauss-Kahn acquitted of ‘aggravated pimping’
The principle of non-violence is central to Buddhist teachings, but in Sri Lanka some Buddhist monks are being accused of stirring up hostility towards other faiths and ethnic minorities. Their hard line is causing increasing concern.
Sharmila Seyyid, a Muslim woman journalist and human rights activist from Sri Lanka, received so much backlash from a comment in a BBC appearance that she left her home country. She did not receive a warm welcome in India, which forced her into hiding. Now outlets are pressuring both countries to protect Seyyid.
India and China battle for strategic influence in the Indian Ocean; Questions continue to swirl in Russia over assassination of Putin’s opponent
There are many important lessons to be learned from the spectacle of a drunken man at the Udawalawe National Park in Sri Lanka picking a fight with an elephant, chief among them: do not pick fights with an elephant. Particularly an elephant already known to have killed someone, as onlookers warn in this video.
Germany commemorates the firebombing of Dresden; What’s the value of a
human life?; Generational Dynamics and prolactin
More than half a million people attended a seafront mass in Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka, on Wednesday, as Pope Francis announced that Reverend Joseph Vaz had been canonized as a saint. Vaz was a 17th century Indian missionary who revived the faith in Sri Lanka during a time of anti-Catholic persecution by Dutch colonists, who were Protestant Calvinists.
All Christians ask is for the freedom to carry out their mission, Pope Francis said in his homily at a Mass attended by a half million people.
