Cities face ‘whiplash’ of floods, droughts as temperatures rise, study warns
Singapore Reuters The weather in some of the world’s most densely populated cities is swinging from droughts to floods and back again as rising temperatures play havoc with the global water cycle, a study commissioned by the charity WaterAid showed on Wednesday. South and South-East Asia face the strongest wetting trends, while Europe, the Middle […]
Sri Lankan protesters demand justice for 2019 Easter attacks
Colombo, Sri Lanka AP Thousands of Sri Lankans held a protest in the capital on Friday, demanding justice for the victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed nearly 270 people. The protesters demanded that the government uncover who they said were the real conspirators behind the attacks on three churches – two […]
Sri Lankan security troops raid protest camp, 50 injured
Colombo, Sri Lanka Reuters Sri Lankan security forces raided an anti-government protest camp in the commercial capital Colombo early on Friday, two protest organisers said, a sign that the country’s new President was cracking down a day after his swearing in. Hundreds of security personnel surrounded the “Gota Go Gama” protest camp, mockingly named after […]
Sri Lankan President to step down, parliamentary speaker says, amid storm of protests
Colombo, Sri Lanka Reuters Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa plans to step down, the country’s parliamentary speaker said on Saturday, bowing to intense pressure after a violent day of protests in which demonstrators stormed the president’s official residence and set fire to the Prime Minister’s home in Colombo. The announcement, following the dramatic escalation in […]
Battered by economic crisis, Sri Lankans seek passport to a better life
Colombo, Sri Lanka Reuters RMR Lenora stood in a snaking queue outside Sri Lanka’s Immigration and Emigration Department headquarters for two days last week, hoping to get a passport and, with it, a chance to leave a country wilting under an economic crisis. A garment worker, 33-year-old Lenora decided to apply for a job as […]
Sri Lankan protesters include Tamil victims in war memorial
Colombo, Sri Lanka AP Sri Lankan protesters lit flames and offered prayers Wednesday remembering thousands – including ethnic Tamil civilians – killed in the final stages of the country’s decades-long civil war, in the first-ever event where mostly majority ethnic Sinhalese openly memorialised the minority group. Protesters gathered outside the President’s office floated flowers in […]
Sri Lanka protesters call for new government a day after clashes kill eight
Colombo, Sri Lanka Reuters Protesters and a key trade group in Sri Lanka called for a new government to take control of the crisis-hit country on Tuesday while the President asked for calm following clashes that claimed eight lives and prompted his brother to quit as prime minister. Sri Lanka has been suffering its worst […]
Protesters in Sri Lanka defy curfew, police fire tear gas at students
Colombo, Sri Lanka Reuters Protesters in the Sri Lanka’s largest city Colombo held numerous small, peaceful demonstrations over a severe economic crisis on Sunday, defying a nationwide curfew, while police used tear gas to disperse student protesters in the central city of Kandy. A senior police official said officers used tear gas and water cannons […]
Heavy rains in India, Sri Lanka kill 41, authorities say
Chennai, India/Colombo, Sri Lanka Reuters Heavy rains across southern India and Sri Lanka have killed at least 41 people, authorities said on Thursday, with weather forecasters expecting the downpours to ease in the next few days as stricken communities pumped out the deluge. The Indian Meteorological Department forecast light to moderate rain in most affected […]
Sri Lanka Catholic Church faults government’s bombing probe
Colombo, Sri Lanka AP Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church said Friday that 25 people charged this week in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed 269 people could be “smaller fish,” and accused the government of still not taking steps to identify the true conspirators. The head of the Archdiocese of Colombo, Cardinal […]