Colombo

The leader of Sri Lanka’s Catholics has demanded the government find the perpetrators of the deadly 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, as worshippers held silent protests outside the capital’s churches on Sunday.

The Minister of Education, Gamini Peiris, said this in Colombo. Peiris was quoted in state-owned Daily News as saying that sets of equipment have been provided to schools in order to protect the health of children ahead of classes restarting in the New Year.

At least eight prisoners were killed and more than 50 injured in clashes with guards at a Sri Lankan prison, officials said on Monday, as authorities tried to quell a protest over rising corornavirus infections in the country’s crowded jails.

Shares in Asia Pacific rose modestly on Wednesday as U.S. President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden were locked in a fierce battle for the White House.

The European Union has said it will provide €80,000 (N35.5 million) in emergency humanitarian funding to assist flood victims in Nigeria.

Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani spoke to his Australian counterpart Marisa Payne on Friday, weeks after the October 2 incident that saw airport staff take women off several planes to examine them to check whether they were the mother of a baby abandoned at Hamad International Airport (HIA).

Washington had said the Indian Ocean island must make ‘difficult but necessary choices’ regarding its ties with Beijing.

Vijay Sethupathi withdraws from the project after cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan warns him of backlash from Tamils over Sri Lankan civil war.

Kaduna State Government has unveiled plans to organise the maiden edition of its international marathon race in November this year.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday threatened to punch a reporter repeatedly in the mouth after being asked about his wife's links to an alleged corruption scheme.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka has sworn in a cabinet of 25 ministers as well as 39 powerful state ministers, after a landslide victory at last week’s parliamentary election, officials said on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka’s longest-serving party leader and former Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, on Monday announced quitting the party.

The United Nations on Thursday more than tripled its appeal to help vulnerable countries combat the spread and destabilising effects of the coronavirus pandemic, asking for $6.7bn to help 63 nations, mainly in Africa and Latin America.

International Labour Organisation, ILO, has said the COVID-19 lockdown and containment measures across the globe will increase poverty levels among the world’s informal economy workers by 56 percent in low-income countries.

A recent report analysis by Britain’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) claimed that residents in the United Kingdom (UK) from black heritage are more than four times likely to die from COVID-19 if infected.

The mayor of Manaus, the biggest city in the Amazon rainforest region, asked world leaders Tuesday for help fighting the novel coronavirus, which has brought his city’s health system to the brink of collapse.

The Indigenous people in Brazil have written to the World Health Organization (WHO), asking for an emergency fund to help protect their communities from the threat of the coronavirus pandemic.

Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani has tested negative for the coronavirus, an official said Tuesday, days after news leaked out of an outbreak among his staff.

The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 170 000 people globally, close to two-thirds of them in hardest-hit Europe, according to an AFP tally on Tuesday at 09:35 (GMT).

The number of people facing acute food insecurity could nearly double this year to 265 million due to the economic fallout of COVID-19, the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday threw his weight behind calls for an international inquiry into China’s initial response to the coronavirus and its origins.

Asian markets are in negative territory Tuesday as the shockwaves from Monday’s historic drop in U.S. crude oil prices continues to reverberate.