Sri Lanka attacks: Mass funerals on day of mourning
Sri Lanka has held its first mass funeral as the country marks a day of mourning for the victims of Sunday’s bomb blasts.
The death toll of the attacks on churches and hotels has increased to 310, police said on Tuesday.
The country has observed three minutes of silence and a state of emergency is in effect to prevent further attacks.
Sri Lanka’s government has blamed the blasts on local Islamist group National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ).
Myanmar court rejects final appeal by jailed Reuters journalists
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were accused of breaking Official Secrets Act for reporting on Rohingya crisis
The highest court of Myanmar has denied the final appeal of the two Reuters journalists who were imprisoned for their reporting on the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, upholding the seven-year prison sentence and dashing the last hope that justice would be served.
The swift ruling, by Myanmar’s highest court, was a devastating blow to Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, who were arrested in December 2017 and accused of breaking a colonial-era Official Secrets Act, and have now been in jail for 16 months.
Japanese city gets its first ever female politician
Misuzu Ikeda becomes first assemblywoman in Tarumizu city as record numbers of women elected nationwide
Misuzu Ikeda has struck a rare blow for Japanese women in politics by becoming the first female candidate to be elected to the local assembly in the southern city of Tarumizu.
Ikeda hugged supporters on Sunday night when she finished third out of 17 candidates for the 14-seat assembly in Tarumizu, which is officially recognised as a city despite its relatively small population of 15,000.
Noting that she was the first assemblywoman in the city’s 61-year history, the former tax office employee promised to work towards a society “where residents feel cared about”, according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
Mexico detains hundreds of Central Americans in migrant caravan
Mexican police have detained more than 300 Central American migrants in a caravan traveling towards the US border. Several thousand people are heading north to escape violence and poverty in their home countries.
Mexican police and immigration officials in the southern state of Chiapas on Monday rounded up hundreds of undocumented Central American migrants headed for the US border.
It’s one of the largest raids targeting a caravan since the exodus began last year, and comes as the US ramps up pressure on Mexico to curb the flow of migrants.
New IRA admits responsibility for killing Northern Ireland journalist Lyra McKee
Dissident republican group the New IRA on Tuesday admitted responsibility for killing Northern Irish journalist Lyra McKee during rioting in Londonderry last week, in a statement to The Irish News.
The New IRA “offer our full and sincere apologies to the partner, family and friends of Lyra McKee for her death”, it said in a statement reported by the Irish newspaper, which said the paramilitary group used a recognised codeword.
McKee, 29, was shot in the head late Thursday as dissident republicans clashed with police in the Creggan housing estate in Northern Ireland’s second city, also known as Derry.
Greenland is melting even faster than experts thought, study finds
Updated 0459 GMT (1259 HKT) April 23, 2019
Climate change is eliminating giant chunks of ice from Greenland at such a speed that the melt has already made a significant contribution to sea level rise, according to a new study. With global warming, the island will lose much more, threatening coastal cities around the world.