International Relations

Evidence suggests attack on synagogue was motivated by his anti-Jewish views The gunman who killed eight men and three women during the Shabbat services at a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday morning has been charged with 29 counts of federal crimes related to firearm offences. Meanwhile, the chief medical examiner of …

Cites serious constitutional crisis, requests President to reconvene Parliament The Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament, Karu Jayasuriya, on Sunday urged President Maithripala Sirisena to protect the rights and privileges of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe until his majority in the House was challenged by another member. Further, citing possible “serious …

Last week, Britain’s Home Secretary Sajid Javid tweeted about a case of a gang of men (commonly referred to as a “grooming gang”), who had sexually assaulted and abused young girls, and had been found guilty by a court in northern England of over 120 offences. “These sick Asian paedophiles …

An assumed saviour for Croat ethnic identity versus a saviour for all of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) who happens to be a Croat — this is the new political fault-line in the racially tense country. For a country with a tripartite presidency to represent each of the three major ethnic …

Sri Lanka’s first ever Northern Provincial Council completed its five-year term last week. About 25 years after the erstwhile North-Eastern Council lapsed, people living in the Tamil-majority areas had propelled their preferred political representatives to power in September 2013, sensing new hope post-war. Just as the Tamil National Alliance’s (TNA) …

Bangladesh has rediscovered Kamal Hossain, a jurist of international fame, as the face of the political Opposition in the country. From a rally in the northeastern city of Sylhet on October 24, Mr. Hossain, 81, announced a campaign for what he said was the revival of democracy. The rally was …

Veritas , Latin for “truth”, is the motto of America’s oldest and arguably most famous university, Harvard. The motto, presumably signifying a place that seeks truth in matters scientific and philosophical, has special meaning for Harvard these days with a Federal court in Boston hearing a case on discrimination in …

Afghans risked their lives to vote in legislative elections in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, after the Taliban-claimed killing of a powerful police chief delayed the ballot by a week. Turbaned men and burqa-clad women stood in long, segregated queues outside polling centres in the deeply conservative Kandahar’s provincial capital, which …

Initial findings showed that Cesar Sayoc, who was arrested on Friday in Florida in connection with the 13 package bombs, was a Donald Trump supporter. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized a white van in which Mr. Sayoc appeared to be living and large sections of which were covered …

MP and son of Mr. Rajapaksa, Namal Rajapaksa termed the current arrangement “a caretaker government” that would hold charge until “early” national elections. Claiming that their side had a comfortable majority, he said, “We want to first stabilise the economic and political situation”. Asked why the parliament was prorogued if …

Pakistan has been offered aid worth $6 bn by Saudi Arabia Pakistan has not dropped the idea of seeking assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) despite Saudi Arabia offering a $6-billion aid package, officials said on Wednesday. Prime Minister Imran Khan earlier this month gave the green signal to …

Officials reach out to Huawei to recover data from a phone Sri Lankan authorities will seek Chinese assistance to tap evidence pertaining to an “assassination plot” said to be targeting President Maithripala Sirisena. On Tuesday, Sri Lankan police won permission from a magistrate court here to approach Chinese multinational Huawei …

As Sri Lankans grapple with rapidly soaring living costs, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament last week that “the increase of oil prices is inevitable in the current global context”. Fuel prices went up from six to eight rupees — 92-octane petrol costs LKR 155 (roughly Rs. 68) — slowly …

Banksy’s impact beyond the conventional art world has been profound, says Dave Stuart, who runs Shoreditch Street Art Tours in London. Banksy’s humorous, often bitingly political, thought-provoking pieces introduced the media and the public to the world of street art and showed those aspiring street artists, who believed they had …

Staving off tough competition from priceless Chinese antiques, the crème de la crème of European art and Japan’s own woodblock print masters, the hottest museum tickets in Tokyo currently are to Borderless: the world’s first permanent digital art museum. teamLab, the collective behind the museum, is transforming the very ontology …

Sri Lanka’s Parliament on Wednesday passed legislation to pay compensation to victims of the island’s brutal civil war, nearly a decade after the end of the conflict which claimed 1,00,000 lives. The legislature voted 59-43 to approve a broad reparations Bill, which seeks to establish an independent office that will …

Calls for ‘vocational education centres to reform extremists’ Anti-terror efforts in the controversial “reeducation centres” in China’s Xinjiang region will be governed by new standardised rules, as international criticism mounts over the detention of as many as one million in the restive far west. The revised rules, passed on Tuesday, …

Far-right Jair Bolsonaro in the lead Brazilians began casting ballots on Sunday in their most divisive presidential election in years, with a far-right politician promising an iron-fisted crackdown on crime, Jair Bolsonaro, the firm favourite in the first round. Surveys suggest that the 63-year-old former paratrooper, who wants to cut …

Seoul says the second N. Korea- U.S. summit will be held at ‘earliest date possible’ Kim Jong-un has agreed to hold a second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump as soon as possible, Seoul said on Sunday, after Washington’s top diplomat held “productive” talks on denuclearisation with the North Korean …

The conservative judge was confirmed to the Supreme Court by a razor-thin margin in the Senate Conservative U.S. judge Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court on Saturday by a razor-thin margin in the Senate, ending months of partisan rancor over his nomination and offering Donald Trump one of …