Latest Sri Lanka News
Sri Lanka conservationists fight elephant smuggling in court
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Environmentalists in Sri Lanka are challenging a court order issued earlier this month that would allow the return of 14 illegally captured wild elephants to people accused of buying them from traffickers. Rights groups and lawyers say the...
Sri Lankan prison minister resigns over prisoner threats
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A Sri Lankan minister in charge of prisons submitted his resignation on Wednesday following a public outcry after he allegedly threatened to kill two ethnic minority prisoners. Lohan Ratwatte, state minister of Prison Management and...
Sunil Perera, outspoken Sri Lankan singer, dies at age 68
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Singer and musician Sunil Perera entertained generations of Sri Lankans with captivating songs, but won their minds and hearts with his outspoken comments against social injustice, corruption, racism and suppression of democracy. Perera, a...
The Latest: Arizona gov: Biden 'overreaching' with new rule
PHOENIX -- Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey says President Joe Biden is overreaching with his new requirement for employees of large businesses to be vaccinated or regularly tested for COVID-19. The Republican governor said the Biden rule “requires pushback and response” but...
New Zealand feared an extremist but found no way to stop him
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Immigration officers feared him. So, too, did prosecutors, prison officials and police. They thought he could launch a terror attack at any moment. Even the prime minister wanted him deported. Yet, in the end, nobody in New Zealand was...
The Latest: N. Carolina has 170 clusters in schools, centers
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina health officials on Tuesday released a report showing 170 ongoing COVID-19 clusters in K-12 schools or child care settings. While the state Department of Health and Human Services said it does not have data on the number of pupils...
Sri Lankan Parliament approves state of emergency
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s Parliament on Monday approved a state of emergency declared by the president, who said it is needed to control food prices and prevent hoarding amid shortages of some staples. Opposition lawmakers said the emergency declaration...
New Zealand attacker radicalized by neighbors, mother says
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The mother of an Islamic State-inspired extremist who stabbed shoppers in a New Zealand supermarket said her son was radicalized by neighbors from Syria and Iraq who helped him recover from an injury. The attacker, Ahamed Samsudeen, was a...
Extremist stayed in New Zealand despite immigration fraud
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The Islamic State-inspired extremist who attacked shoppers in a New Zealand supermarket had been fighting deportation for immigration fraud, leaving the nation's leader expressing frustration at the process. The new details about the...
Church: Talks on Sri Lankan blasts require gov't credibility
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A Sri Lankan Roman Catholic leader has said the government must win back the confidence of the church before the two sides can hold talks on the church's criticisms of inquiries into 2019 Easter Sunday bomb blasts that killed 269 people. ...
