(Reuters) – The killing of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a U.S. raid is a further blow to a jihadist group that once held a swathe of territory in Iraq and Syria, experts said, but the organization and its ideology remain dangerous. Where once t... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s military intercepted a Sri Lankan boat carrying 13 asylum-seekers last month, Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton said on Monday, as Canberra sought to defend the relocation of a Tamil family to a remote detention center. Dutt... More »
BERUWALA, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Sri Lanka presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been a polarizing figure for much of his political life. It is an image he is trying to change. When he was defense chief in his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government he c... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Beijing-based startup iSpace is planning up to eight commercial rocket launches next year, after last week becoming China’s first privately funded firm to put a satellite into orbit, its executives told Reuters. iSpace’s success has turned ... More »
UNWATUNA/GALLE, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Pearl Divers, a diving school on one of Sri Lanka’s most popular southern beaches, shut shop for two months after suicide bombers attacked churches and hotels on the island on Easter Sunday, killing about 250 people. It ha... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – England ended their 44-year wait for a maiden 50-overs World Cup title by beating a gutsy New Zealand side on boundaries after a tied Super Over amidst heart-stopping drama on Sunday. Chasing 242 for victory, Ben Stokes’ scintillating 84 not... More »
CHESTER-LE-STREET, England (Reuters) – A swarm of bees forced the players of South Africa and Sri Lanka to dive onto the ground during their Cricket World Cup clash at the Riverside Stadium on Friday — but for many on the pitch there was a sense of deja vu. Be... More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s battered tourism industry is trying to woo visitors back to beaches deserted after deadly Easter bombings, slashing hotel rates and pushing promotions in key markets like Russia. Tourism, which accounts for 5% of Sri Lanka’s gro... More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka on Monday temporarily blocked some social media networks and messaging apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, after attacks on mosques and Muslim-owned businesses in the worst unrest since Easter bombings by Islamist militants. Th... More »
BATTICALOA/COLOMBO (Reuters) – State schools in Sri Lanka resumed classes on Monday amid tight security after the Easter Sunday bombings, but many anxious parents kept their children at home over fears of more attacks by Islamic militants. Two weeks after suic... More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Authorities lifted a curfew in Sri Lanka on Monday, a day after a string of bombings at churches and luxury hotels across the Indian Ocean island killed 290 people and wounded about 500, but there were warnings more attacks could come. Ther... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – After condemning the series of deadly bomb attacks on Sri Lankan churches and luxury hotels on Sunday that killed more than 200 people, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told voters that they needed to elect him to a second term as only... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said in a revised travel advisory ‘terrorist groups’ were continuing to plot possible attacks in Sri Lanka after 290 people were killed and about 500 wounded in blasts in churches and luxury hotels on Sunday. “Terrorists m... More »
(Reuters) – Bomb blasts ripped through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing 207 and injuring 450 people, in the first major attack on the Indian Ocean island since the end of a civil war 10 years ago. Here is a timeline of the expl... More »
(Reuters) – Easter Sunday bomb blasts at three churches and four hotels in Sri Lanka killed more than 200 people and wounded at least 450, police officials said, the first major attack on the Indian Ocean island since the end of a civil war 10 years ago. Polit... More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – The death toll from attacks on churches and luxury hotels across Sri Lanka rose significantly to 290, and about 500 people were also wounded, police said on Monday. The death toll overnight had stood at 207. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunaseker... More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – A Sri Lankan court issued an order preventing Mahinda Rajapaksa and his disputed cabinet from holding office on Monday, heightening the island’s political drama and drawing an immediate vow to appeal from the prime minister. The South Asian... More »
SINGAPORE/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asia’s most externally vulnerable economies – India, Indonesia and the Philippines – have just taken a one-two punch. U.S. 10-year Treasury bond yields US10YT=RR hit 3 percent this week, a level long touted as one to watch for p... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – The Maldives rejected a demand by a U.N. human rights watchdog on Monday that former president Mohamed Nasheed be allowed to stand for office, including in a presidential election later this year. The U.N. Human Rights Committee, a panel of ... More »
FILE PHOTO: Facebook logo is seen on a wall at a start-up companies gathering at Paris’ Station F in Paris, France, January 17, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc on Thursday put an end to a test of splitting its signature Ne... More »
MALE (Reuters) – The Maldives’ state health minister said on Monday he has resigned from the administration of President Abdulla Yameen in protest against the government’s decision to not enforce a Supreme Court order freeing opposition leaders from prison. St... More »
FILE PHOTO: Commuters pass by the front of the Bangladesh central bank building in Dhaka, Bangladesh on March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Ashikur Rahman/File Photo DHAKA (Reuters) – Bangladesh’s central bank has asked the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to join a lawsui... More »
Australia will not be allowed to walk away from legal, financial and moral responsibility for nearly 800 men when it closes its asylum seeker detention center in Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Tuesday, PNG's immigration minister said. More »
A Sri Lankan man who raised suspicion by the way he kept looking around in an airport departure lounge was found to be carrying nearly a kilogram (2.2 lb) of gold stashed in his rectum, a customs official said on Monday. More »
Cigarettes are seen in this illustration photo taken May 24, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration By Lisa Rapaport(Reuters Health) – Roughly 11 percent of youth aged 13 to 15 around the world use tobacco products like cigarettes and cigars, a glob More »
H&M Foundation Global Manager Diana Amini poses with portraits of women on its Foundation 500 list of female entrepreneurs in emerging markets in Stockholm, Sweden, June 2, 2017. Picture taken June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Anna Ringstrom From a Peruvian trout farm man... More »
Some Sri Lankan banks stopped buying Qatar Riyal on Tuesday, saying their counterpart banks in Singapore advised them not to accept the currency a day after the Arab world’s biggest powers cut ties with Qatar. More »
Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers his speech during the welcoming banquet for the Belt and Road Forum at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China May 14, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj Lin Wong More »
A map illustrating China’s silk road economic belt and the 21st century maritime silk road, or the so-called ”One Belt, One Road” megaproject, is displayed at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong, China January 18, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip When leaders of 28 ... More »
India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F09) carrying GSAT-9 communications satellite blasts off from the Satish Dhawan space centre at Sriharikota, India May 5, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer India launched a communications satellite on Friday for its s... More »
Gunmen opened fire on a prison bus in Colombo on Monday, killing five prisoners and two warders on their way to court in what was believed to be a gangland dispute, officials said. More »
Lawyer Amal Clooney sits with Mohamed Nasheed during a news conference in central London, Britain January 25, 2016. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth Exiled Maldivian leader Mohamed Nasheed said on Thursday he would return to the troubled Indian Ocean archipelago to cont... More »
The Facebook logo and emoticons are seen on a coffee mug at the reception of its new office in Mumbai, India May 27, 2016. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade Facebook Inc launched a stripped down version of its popular Messenger app for emerging markets on Monday as it ... More »
Shadows of journalists are reflected on a wall next to WHO’s logo at a news conference in Beijing, China, March 29, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon By Nita BhallaNEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Eleven countries in South and East Asia on Friday agreed to ... More »
SINGAPORE Singapore and Sri Lanka have started talks for a free trade pact, including measures to free up trade in goods and services as well as investments, the city-state’s trade minister said on Monday. Sri Lanka’s push to build infrastructure and develop i... More »
ISLAMABAD The plight of a lonely elephant in a Pakistani zoo has inspired help from pop icon Cher, who has sent a representative to oversee improvements in his living conditions. Cher first became aware of 29-year-old Kavaan’s plight when pictures of the eleph... More »
SWIFT on Monday rejected allegations by officials in Bangladesh that technicians with the global messaging system made the nation’s central bank more vulnerable to hacking before an $81 million cyber heist in February. The comments were in response to a Reuter... More »
DHAKA/BOSTON Bangladesh’s central bank became more vulnerable to hackers when technicians from SWIFT, the global financial network, connected a new bank transaction system to SWIFT messaging three months before a $81 million cyber heist, Bangladeshi police and... More »
