NEWSWORTHY
'Once-a-century' rains that have killed more than 1,200 people across South Asia and displaced 1.3 million people are in line with predictions say climate scientists, who warn that worse is to come if global warming continues unabated. The monsoon rains upon which farmers in the ...
Japan vows to help boost Sri Lanka maritime security as China makes inroads
Japan has pledged to help strengthen Sri Lanka's maritime security, authorities said Tuesday, in a new sign of efforts to counter China's strategic grip on the Indian Ocean island. President Maithripala Sirisena thanked Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera for donating two coast guard patrol craft ...
China's silk road isn't turning out to be smooth
Skeptics' warnings about the "Belt and Road" initiative are beginning to come true.
Tokyo court defies Justice Ministry in ordering asylum for Sri Lankan man
The 58-year-old plaintiff, who is a member of the ethnic Tamil minority, applied for refugee status in October 2006 during civil war in Sri Lanka.
China seen flexing loan muscle as it pushes further into Pacific
In the gritty, steamy streets of Papua New Guinea's capital Port Moresby, signs of China's push into the Pacific island nation are inescapable. A Chinese worker stencils a logo for China Railway Group outside the new national courthouse it's building; China Harbor Engineering Group laborers ...
A third of girls in South Asia miss school during periods: report
More than a third of girls in South Asia miss school during their periods, a report said Tuesday, with a lack of toilets and cultural taboos about menstruation among the factors impeding their education. The study by WaterAid and UNICEF also found many girls across ...
Increase in violent rhetoric by hard-line Buddhist monks in Asia defies stereotypes
Buddhism may be touted in the West as an inherently peaceful philosophy, but a surge in violent rhetoric from small but increasingly influential groups of hard-line monks in parts of Asia is upending the religion's tolerant image. Buddhist mobs in Sri Lanka last week led ...
Sri Lanka's capital moves to cut worsening flood risk
When heavy rain falls in the hills and plains west of Colombo — and in the city itself at the same time — Sri Lanka's capital drowns. As runoff from the west rushes into the Kelani River, which empties into the sea just north of ...
Sri Lanka declares state of emergency amid Buddhist-Muslim clashes
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday declared a nationwide state of emergency for seven days in a bid to curb communal violence after clashes erupted between majority Buddhists and members of the Muslim minority. Under the emergency, which was imposed for the first time ...
Sri Lanka deploys forces to quell deadly Buddhist-Muslim clash
Sri Lanka sent troops and elite police to central Kandy district and imposed a curfew there on Monday to prevent clashes between majority Sinhalese Buddhists and minority Muslims after a mob set fire to a Muslim-owned shop. Renewed tension has been growing between the two ...
Just as European imperial powers employed gunboat diplomacy, China is using sovereign debt to bend other states to its will.
Despite end of Sri Lanka's civil war, men report rape and torture under new government
He was barely a teenager when Sri Lanka's civil war ended, spared by youth from witnessing its horrors. But last year, the brutal conflict caught up with Witness #205. Raped, branded and beaten, he is one of more than 50 men who say they were abducted ...
