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Sri Lanka President house is burning down!

Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has announced he is stepping down from office on Saturday. The announcement comes hours after tens of thousands of protesters stormed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's residence in Colombo, forcing him to move to safety. Demonstrations across the country led to an imposed curfew as the economic crisis continues. https://twitter.com/i/events/1545674271325769730

Sri Lanka's outgoing Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was rescued in a pre-dawn military operation Tuesday, hours after his resignation, as violent clashes between pro and anti-government protesters left several dead and 217 injured. The military were called to the Prime Minister's 'Temple Trees' compound after protesters tried to breach his private residence twice overnight, a senior security source told CNN. The attackers managed to "enter the outer perimeter" of the residence where they hurled petrol bombs, but their attempts to enter the building were thwarted when the military fired tear gas, according to the source. One police officer involved in...

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka announced a 40 per cent price hike for dozens of commonly used medicines on Saturday (Apr 30) as the island nation labours through its worst economic crisis in decades. Months of lengthy blackouts and acute shortages of food, fuel and pharmaceuticals have sparked widespread protests calling for the government's resignation. Antibiotics, non-prescription painkillers and medications for heart conditions and diabetes will all be subject to the price rise, Health Minister Channa Jayasumana said. It is the second time in six weeks that pharmaceutical prices have been raised. In mid-March, a 30 per cent increase was imposed.

Sri Lanka has announced plans to ban the wearing of burqas and said it would close more than 1,000 Islamic schools known as madrassas, citing national security. “The burqa has a direct impact on national security,” Weerasekara told a ceremony at a Buddhist temple on Saturday. “In our early days, we had a lot of Muslim friends, but Muslim women and girls never wore the burqa,” Weerasekara said, according to video footage sent by his ministry. “It is a sign of religious extremism that came about recently....” The wearing of burqas was temporarily banned in 2019 after the Easter Sunday...

Three Sri Lankan men have been charged in California with aiding a terrorist group blamed for 2019 Easter attacks that killed 268 people in Sri Lanka, including five U.S. citizens, and injured hundreds... Mohamed Naufar, Mohamed Anwar Mohamed Riskan and Ahamed Milhan Hayathu Moahmed were charged last month in federal court in Los Angeles with conspiracy and providing and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorst organization, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office. The men have no California connection but the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force that headed the investigation is based in Los Angeles...

At Fa-Hien Lena, a cave in the heart of Sri Lanka's wet zone forests, we discovered numerous tools made of stone, bone, and tooth – including a number of small arrow points carved from bone which are about 48,000 years old. The invention of the bow and arrow allowed people to hunt prey at a much greater distance. People no longer had to get within "a stone's throw" of prey which could suddenly bolt and escape. This innovation greatly increased the chances of a successful hunt. Bows and arrows also made it much safer to hunt dangerous prey. If you...

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka (AP) — The leader of the Islamic State group praised the Easter suicide bombings that killed more than 250 people in Sri Lanka in a video released Monday, calling on militants to be a “thorn” against their enemies in his first filmed appearance in nearly five years. The video of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to whom the suicide bombers in last week’s attack apparently pledged their loyalty, came as the top official in the Catholic Church urged Sri Lanka to crack down on Islamic extremists “as if on war footing.” Meanwhile, a government ban on niqab face covering...

After a startling upset in Sri Lanka’s presidential election, President Mahinda Rajapaksa conceded defeat on Friday morning, bringing an abrupt end to a larger-than-life, increasingly controlling presidency that he had hoped to extend into a third six-year term. Mr. Rajapaksa left his residence, Temple Trees, shortly after 6 a.m. “to allow the new president to assume his duties,” a presidential spokesman announced. Mr. Rajapaksa’s defeat is remarkable because he had an overwhelming advantage going into the election, which he decided to hold two years ahead of schedule. During nearly a decade in office, he had built close ties with China,...

Dormant places are about to come alive ! Blessings being held back about to arrive , Water in arrid places and streams where there had been none , Now the Glory of God arrive upon his daughters and sons , Making a way in the desert places "The Oasis of Christ", Prayers being answered not once but twice , Behold a double portion each time you pray , For each time you lift up JESUS he will make a way ! Isaiah 41:18 18 I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I...

In his canonization Wednesday morning of Sri Lanka's first saint, Pope Francis cited three reasons why Joseph Vaz sets an example, even today: — Exemplary priest: "He teaches us how to go out to the peripheries, to make Jesus Christ everywhere known and loved." — Transcending religious divisions: "His example continues to inspire the Church in Sri Lanka today. (The Church) gladly and generously serves all members of society. She makes no distinction of race, creed, tribe, status or religion." — Missionary zeal: "I pray that, following the example of Saint Joseph Vaz, the Christians of this country may be...

In May 2009, the army of the South Asian island nation of Sri Lanka did what decades of UN diplomatic intervention and State Department pronouncements could not do. It ended its 26-year war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, more commonly known as the Tamil Tigers. The war not only extracted a tremendous economic cost, but had a massive human cost—the UN estimated that the death toll might exceed 100,000. In the end, Sri Lankan action was both merciless and effective. The army reconquered Tamil Tiger-held territory and slaughtered the group's leadership. The final battle was messy, but with...

Passengers revolt after being told to fly on jet with its wing tip missingBy DANIEL BOFFEY - More by this author » Last updated at 21:43pm on 3rd November 2007  An airline crew faced a rebellion when they told passengers they were going to fly on a jet that had lost its wing tip in a runway crash.  The SriLankan Airlines customers had been on the Airbus A340 a day earlier when it sliced through a wing of a stationary British Airways 747 at Heathrow, delaying departure by 24 hours. So they were amazed to be boarding the same...

Amherst, NY (WBEN) - Federal agents raided a home in Amherst, and arrested three people they say are linked to an overseas terror cell. The FBI raided a home on Shetland Drive over the weekend, and the three unidentified suspects were charged with raising and laundering money for the Tamil Tigers terror group in Sri Lanka. WBEN's Tom Puckett has more in the audio link above, including assurances from police that the local community was apparently not a target.

Sri Lanka's air force on Friday launched airstrikes on rebel positions in the north, an official said, and the government promised to send aid to the hundreds of thousands cut off there by the fighting... Hundreds of rebels and security forces have been killed in fighting in the Jaffna Peninsula since Aug. 11, when rebels made a major push to retake the Tamil-majority area... The United Nation's refugee agency said the closing of a key road to the north was preventing vital aid reaching the peninsula, where its 500,000 residents remain under a 22-hour curfew and food, water and other...

The three ambassadors who died violent deaths were Cleo Noel Jr.,killed in March 1973 when Palestinian terrorists struck an embassy in Sudan; Adolph Dubs, killed in 1973 when Afghan police stormed a hotel room where he was being held by terrorists; and Arnold Raphel, who died in 1988 when a plane crashed. Receiving waivers as longtime diplomats with military service were William Rivkin and Philip Crowe. Rivkin, who died in 1967, served as ambassador to Senegal, Gambia and Luxembourg and spent five years of in the Army during World War II, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Crowe, who...

A 38-year-old Sri Lankan man, whose wife died three months ago, appears to have the ability to breast feed his two infant children, doctors told a local newspaper Wednesday. B. Wijeratne from the central town of Walapone, 186 kilometres from the capital Colombo lost his wife when she died giving birth to their second child. "My eldest daughter refused to be fed on powdered milk liquid in the feeding bottle," he said according to the Sinhalese-language daily Lankadeepa. "I was so moved one evening and to stop her crying I offered my breast. I then realised that I was capable...

THE September 11 attacks on the United States have, ironically, proved to be a strategic bonus for Washington in extending its military presence across Asia. Through a complex web of alliances, ostensibly to fight the scourge of Islamic terrorism, and backed by economic sops and clever strategic agreements, the world's lone superpower has manoeuvred itself not only to exploit the vast energy resources of the Central Asian Republics (CARs), but also to encircle China, its potential economic and military rival. Ten months after 9/11, U.S. military presence is palpable not only in Kabul, Islamabad and strategically located CARs such as...