Philippines' President Duterte threatens to sail garbage back to Canada - NBC News

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April 24, 2019, 1:08 PM UTC

By Reuters

MANILA — Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte berated Canada on Tuesday in a long-running dispute over waste exported to the Southeast Asia nation, threatening to sail it back to Canada.

Manila has filed several diplomatic protests with Canada over tons of waste shipped to the Philippines between 2013 and 2014. Canada has said the shipment was a commercial transaction and was not backed by its government.

"For Canada's garbage, I want a boat prepared," Duterte told officials after being briefed on an earthquake that struck the Philippines on Monday.

"They better pull that thing out or I will set sail to Canada and dump their garbage there," Duterte added.

In a statement on Wednesday, Canada's embassy in Manila said officials from both countries were working on issues related to removing the waste "with a view to a timely resolution" and "to ensure the material is processed in an environmentally responsible way."

There have been other issues that have strained ties between Manila and Ottawa.

Last year, Duterte ordered the military to cancel a $233 million deal to buy 16 helicopters from Canada, after Ottawa expressed concerns they could be used to fight rebels.

In 2017 at the end of a summit of Asian and Western nations in Manila, Duterte berated Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for raising questions about his war on drugs.

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2019-04-24 13:08:00Z
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Sri Lanka's leader calls for officials' firings as Easter suicide bombers revealed to be ‘well-educated peo... - Fox News

Sri Lanka's president has called for the resignations of the country’s defense secretary and national police chief Wednesday after officials admitted to suffering a “major lapse” in communications in the lead-up to the Easter Sunday bombings, which have left more than 350 people dead.

The announcement comes as officials also revealed that the nine suicide bombers responsible for the attacks were “quite well-educated people” who are believed to have studied abroad and obtained degrees in places like the U.K. and Australia before returning to their homeland. Two of those bombers, they added, were a husband and wife duo.

"It was a major lapse in the sharing of information," deputy defense minister Ruwan Wijewardene told reporters Wednesday, according to AFP, just minutes before news broke that his boss may be on the way out. "The government has to take responsibility."

It wasn’t immediately clear who would replace the two key officials, but President Maithripala Sirisena said during a televised speech Tuesday that he planned to change the head of the defense forces within 24 hours.

CLERIC 'MASTERMIND' BEHIND SRI LANKA ATTACKS KNOWN FOR HATE-FILLED SERMONS, POSSIBLE ISIS LINKS

A priest conducts religious rituals during a mass burial for Easter Sunday bomb blast victims in Negombo, Sri Lanka, on Wednesday. (AP)

The looming shakeup in Sri Lanka’s leadership follows widespread criticism directed at its government for failing to act on warnings it received about the bombers in the days leading up to the attacks. Its top officials have issued and then walked back numerous statements in the aftermath, such as the affiliations of the bombers and possible ties to a recent mass shooting in New Zealand. The statements often have been made without any supporting evidence, adding to the confusion as investigators are still searching for answers. The official death toll on Wednesday rose to 359.

“We believe that one of the suicide bombers studied in the U.K. and later did his postgraduate in Australia before coming back and settling in Sri Lanka,” the Guardian quoted Wijewardene as saying Wednesday.

“This group of suicide bombers, most of them are well-educated and come from middle or upper-middle class, so they are financially quite independent and their families are quite stable financially, that is a worrying factor in this,” he added. “Some of them have I think studied in various other countries, they hold degrees, LLMs [law degrees], they’re quite well-educated people.”

Investigators also told the AFP that two of the bombers were sons of a wealthy spice trader in Colombo – Sri Lanka’s capital and site of many of the attacks. Two others, according to police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara, were a husband and wife duo.

That woman, two children and three policemen are said to have died in an explosion as authorities closed in on her late Sunday, hours after attacks were launched against three churches and three hotels.

This undated image posted by the Islamic State group's Aamaq news agency on Tuesday purports to show Mohammed Zahran, a.k.a. Zahran Hashmi, center, the man Sri Lanka says led the Easter attack that killed more than 350 people, as well as other attackers.

OCASIO-CORTEZ CALLED OUT FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SILENCE IN WAKE OF SRI LANKA ATTACKS

Gunasekara said 60 people have been arrested so far, while U.S. Ambassador Alaina Teplitz confirmed that a team of FBI agents and U.S. military officials are helping in the investigation.

Teplitz told reporters Wednesday that "clearly there was some failure in the system," but said the U.S. had no prior knowledge of a threat before the attacks, the worst violence in the South Asian island nation since its civil war ended a decade ago. She described the breakdown in communication amongst Sri Lankan officials as "incredibly tragic."

Sources close to the investigation told The Guardian that up to nine people linked to the bombings could still be at large. Among those arrested so far are six Pakistani refugees, including two women and two children. A police official says security footage and telephone records indicated that the refugees may have been in contact with one of the alleged church bombers, it added.

A view of St. Sebastian's Church damaged in suicide blast in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka. (AP)

Sri Lankan authorities had earlier blamed a local extremist group, National Towheed Jamaar, whose leader, alternately named Mohammed Zahran or Zahran Hashmi, became known to Muslim leaders three years ago for his incendiary online speeches. On Wednesday, Wijewardene said the attackers had broken away from National Towheed Jamaar and another group, which he identified only as "JMI."

Teplitz declined to discuss whether U.S. officials knew about National Towheed Jamaar or its leader before the attack. "If we had heard something, we would have tried to do something about this," Teplitz said.

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Wijewardene also edged away from comments he made Tuesday that the bombings were retaliation for the March 15 mosque shootings by a white supremacist in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 50 people. He told reporters Wednesday that the mosque attack may have been a motivation for the bombings, but that there was no direct evidence of that.

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Wednesday she hasn't received any official advice from Sri Lanka or seen any intelligence reports to corroborate the claims.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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2019-04-24 12:32:22Z
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Sri Lanka Calls Bombers ‘Well Educated’ and Warns of Ongoing Threat - The New York Times

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

• Sri Lanka’s president asked two top security officials to resign, amid criticism that the government had ignored multiple warnings that churches could be attacked.

• The American ambassador warned of “ongoing terrorist plots,” and a Sri Lankan official said people involved in the Sunday bombings could still be at large.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Nine suicide bombers from mostly educated, middle-class backgrounds carried out the attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 350 people on Easter Sunday, the authorities said on Wednesday as they warned of an ongoing terrorist threat and continued making arrests.

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Mourners at the burial near St. Sebastian’s Church.CreditAdam Dean for The New York Times

The bombers, one of whom was a woman, were all Sri Lankan, officials said. But the authorities were continuing to investigate whether the Islamic State, which on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the coordinated blasts, had provided more than symbolic support, such as by training the attackers or building the bombs.

The authorities said the number of people arrested had risen to 60, and that other individuals involved in the attacks remained at large. As the F.B.I. arrived to assist in the investigation, the American ambassador, Alaina Teplitz, said there were believed to be “ongoing terrorist plots,” a point that Sri Lanka’s state minister of defense also made at a news conference.

“There could be still a few people out there,” said the minister, Ruwan Wijewardene. “Right now, we are asking people to be vigilant. Within the next few days, we will have the situation totally under control.”

Mr. Wijewardene said the leader of the attacks was believed to have been among the suicide bombers, one of whom was a woman. He did not name any of the bombers, and he did not specify whether the leader among them was Mohammed Zaharan, the head of an obscure Islamist extremist group that the authorities have said was behind the attacks.

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Outside the Kingsberry Hotel in Colombo, which was bombed on Sunday.CreditAtul Loke/Getty Images

“They’re quite well educated people,” Mr. Wijewardene said of the attackers. “We believe that one of the suicide bombers studied in the U.K. and then later on did his post-graduate in Australia before coming back to settle in Sri Lanka.” He said the bombers were from different parts of Sri Lanka, but he did not elaborate.

Officials said they were still trying to determine whether the attackers had links to the Islamic State. The terror group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has released a video showing Mr. Zaharan leading masked, black-clad disciples as they pledged allegiance to the organization.

The Islamic State has not provided any further proof for its claim of responsibility, and Mr. Wijewardene said investigators were trying to determine whether the group had provided training or financing for the attacks. He said they had found no evidence to suggest that the bombers had traveled to the Middle East to fight for ISIS.

The bombings Sunday occurred nearly simultaneously at three churches and three hotels. In the last couple of days, security near the bomb sites has tightened. Schools have been shut until Monday, and the postal department is requiring that items sent by mail be wrapped in front of workers at post offices.

Image

Delcia Fernando with the body of her husband in Colombo on Wednesday.CreditAtul Loke/Getty Images

The police said they found a “suspicious bag” at a restaurant in the city of Negombo, near St. Sebastian’s Church, where around 100 people were killed on Sunday. The bag was destroyed on Wednesday in a controlled explosion.

Many mourners on Wednesday focused their anger on the government and the security forces, as grief morphed into rage. All morning long, people gathered near St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo to mourn the deceased at a mass burial.

One distraught woman could not stop crying and shouting at the police. She blamed them for not acting on prior intelligence warning of the attacks.

An Indian security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said India had interrogated a man last year who was linked with ISIS, and who said he was inspired by Mr. Zaharan’s videos on social media. That intelligence prompted an investigation into Mr. Zaharan, and it was part of the context for an April 11 warning sent to the Sri Lankan authorities about the possibility of church bombings.

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St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, another bombing site, on Wednesday.CreditGemunu Amarasinghe/Associated Press

The warning was never relayed to church officials, and the Sri Lankan authorities apparently took no action against members of Mr. Zaharan’s group, despite specific information provided by the Indians.

During a national address on Tuesday, President Maithripala Sirisena tried to deflect criticism that he was at least partly responsible for the security failure. He acknowledged that “there was an intelligence report about the attack” but said he was “not kept informed” about it by his subordinates.

On Wednesday, Mr. Sirisena asked Hemasiri Fernando, the defense secretary, and Pujith Jayasundara, the inspector general of police, to resign, according to a senior official at the president’s office.

Many lawmakers dismissed assertions that the president would not have known about the threat memo, saying that blame for the security lapse should go all the way to the top.

Sarath Fonseka, a member of Parliament who was an army chief in the last stage of Sri Lanka’s civil war, told Parliament on Wednesday that he knew about the memo, as did the national intelligence chief. He said it was “obvious that the letter would have gone to the president.”

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/world/asia/sri-lanka-bombings.html

2019-04-24 11:08:29Z
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Sri Lanka Calls Bombers ‘Well Educated’ and Warns of Ongoing Threat - The New York Times

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Nine suicide bombers from mostly educated, middle-class backgrounds carried out the attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 350 people on Easter Sunday, the authorities said on Wednesday as they warned of an ongoing terrorist threat and continued making arrests.

The bombers, one of whom was a woman, were all Sri Lankan, officials said. But the authorities were continuing to investigate whether the Islamic State, which on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the coordinated blasts, had provided more than symbolic support, such as by training the attackers or building the bombs.

The authorities said the number of people arrested had risen to 60, and that other individuals involved in the attacks remained at large. As the F.B.I. arrived to assist in the investigation, the American ambassador, Alaina Teplitz, said there were believed to be “ongoing terrorist plots,” a point that Sri Lanka’s state minister of defense also made at a news conference.

“There could be still a few people out there,” said the minister, Ruwan Wijewardene. “Right now, we are asking people to be vigilant. Within the next few days, we will have the situation totally under control.”

Mr. Wijewardene said the leader of the attacks was believed to have been among the suicide bombers, one of whom was a woman. He did not name any of the bombers, and he did not specify whether the leader among them was Mohammed Zaharan, the head of an obscure Islamist extremist group that the authorities have said was behind the attacks.

Image

Mourners at the burial near St. Sebastian’s Church.CreditAdam Dean for The New York Times

“They’re quite well educated people,” Mr. Wijewardene said of the attackers. “We believe that one of the suicide bombers studied in the U.K. and then later on did his post-graduate in Australia before coming back to settle in Sri Lanka.” He said the bombers were from different parts of Sri Lanka, but he did not elaborate.

Officials said they were still trying to determine whether the attackers had links to the Islamic State. The terror group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has released a video showing Mr. Zaharan leading masked, black-clad disciples as they pledged allegiance to the organization.

The Islamic State has not provided any further proof for its claim of responsibility, and Mr. Wijewardene said investigators were trying to determine whether the group had provided training or financing for the attacks. He said they had found no evidence to suggest that the bombers had traveled to the Middle East to fight for ISIS.

The bombings Sunday occurred nearly simultaneously at three churches and three hotels. In the last couple of days, security near the bomb sites has tightened. Schools have been shut until Monday, and the postal department is requiring that items sent by mail be wrapped in front of workers at post offices.

The police said they found a “suspicious bag” at a restaurant in the city of Negombo, near St. Sebastian’s Church, where around 100 people were killed on Sunday. The bag was destroyed on Wednesday in a controlled explosion.

Many mourners on Wednesday focused their anger on the government and the security forces, as grief morphed into rage. All morning long, people gathered near St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo to mourn the deceased at a mass burial.

Image

St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, another bombing site, on Wednesday.CreditGemunu Amarasinghe/Associated Press

One distraught woman could not stop crying and shouting at the police. She blamed them for not acting on prior intelligence warning of the attacks.

An Indian security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said India had interrogated a man last year who was linked with ISIS, and who said he was inspired by Mr. Zaharan’s videos on social media. That intelligence prompted an investigation into Mr. Zaharan, and it was part of the context for an April 11 warning sent to the Sri Lankan authorities about the possibility of church bombings.

The warning was never relayed to church officials, and the Sri Lankan authorities apparently took no action against members of Mr. Zaharan’s group, despite specific information provided by the Indians.

During a national address on Tuesday, President Maithripala Sirisena tried to deflect criticism that he was at least partly responsible for the security failure. He acknowledged that “there was an intelligence report about the attack” but said he was “not kept informed” about it by his subordinates.

Shiral Lakthilaka, his senior adviser, said the security lapse would result in firings. “Positions of secretary of the Ministry of Defense and inspector general of police are positions earmarked for dismissal,” he said.

But many lawmakers dismissed assertions that the president would not have known about the threat memo, saying that blame for the security lapse should go all the way to the top.

Sarath Fonseka, a member of Parliament who was an army chief in the last stage of Sri Lanka’s civil war, told Parliament on Wednesday that he knew about the memo, as did the national intelligence chief. He said it was “obvious that the letter would have gone to the president.”

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/world/asia/sri-lanka-bombings.html

2019-04-24 11:03:45Z
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Sri Lanka Attacks: What We Know and Don’t Know - The New York Times

The investigation into a deadly series of suicide bombings in Sri Lanka entered a fourth day on Wednesday. While new information continues to emerge about the bombings, some basic questions remain unanswered.

What we know about the investigation

• Sixty people have been arrested in connection with the Easter Sunday attacks that killed more than 350 people in churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, Ruwan Wijewardene, the country’s state minister of defense, said on Wednesday. Nine suicide bombers, including one woman, blew themselves up in the rampage, Mr. Wijewardene said, adding that the leader of the homegrown terror group was among them.

• Indian intelligence officials warned their Sri Lankan counterparts of the attack two hours before the first bomb was detonated, but the Sri Lankans failed to act. It was the last in a series of unheeded alerts, including an intelligence memo written at least 10 days before the bombings that warned of attacks on churches.

• The government has blamed the group National Thowheeth Jama’ath for the attacks and said it received foreign assistance. On Tuesday, the Islamic State claimed its “fighters” were responsible.

• More than 350 people were killed, and about 500 were wounded. The victims came from more than a dozen countries, and included children worshiping at Easter services.

• A cabinet member on Tuesday said the bombings may have been in retaliation for attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March. On Wednesday, a government minister and former army chief said planning may have been several years in the making.

• The United States Embassy confirmed that agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation were in Sri Lanka to assist.

What we know about who was killed and where

• The death toll rose to at least 359. Unicef, the United Nations children agency, said at least 45 of those killed were children.

• The attacks took place at three churches and three hotels on Easter morning in three separate cities across the island. Two more explosions happened in the afternoon in and around Colombo, one at a small guesthouse and the other at what was the suspects’ apparent safe house. Three officers searching for the attackers were killed in that blast.

• The deadliest explosion was at St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, about 20 miles north of Colombo, where more than 100 were killed.

• At least 28 people were killed at the Zion Church in Batticaloa, on the other side of the island on its eastern coast. St. Anthony’s Shrine, a Roman Catholic church in Colombo, was also attacked, with an unknown number of dead. Witnesses described “a river of blood” there.

• The three hotels attacked, all in Colombo, were the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury.

• People from more than a dozen foreign countries were killed, along with many Sri Lankans. Several of the victims were Americans, the authorities said. Others were Australian, British, Chinese, Dutch, Indian, Portuguese, Japanese and Turkish citizens, according to officials and news reports.

What we don’t know about the attacks

• Sri Lankan officials have yet to confirm if the so-called leader killed in the attack was Mohamad Zaharan, the radical Muslim lecturer mentioned in a security memo as the head of National Thowheeth Jama’ath who is believed to have organized the bombings.

• How two small, obscure groups — one of which was previously best known for desecrating Buddhist statues — managed to pull off sophisticated, coordinated attacks.

• The extent to which the Islamic State or other international terrorist networks may have helped with the attacks.

• The names of the suicide bombers and the now 60 people being held in connection with the attacks.

• Why the authorities failed to take substantial steps to try to prevent an attack after receiving reports of an imminent threat.

• What effect the failure to stop the attacks will have on Sri Lanka’s government. The president and the prime minister were already engaged in a bitter feud.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/world/asia/sri-lanka-attacks-news.html

2019-04-24 09:11:15Z
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What We Know and Don’t Know About the Sri Lanka Attacks - The New York Times

The investigation into a deadly series of suicide bombings in Sri Lanka entered a fourth day on Wednesday. While new information continues to emerge about the bombings, some basic questions remain unanswered.

What we know about the investigation

• The police in Sri Lanka on Wednesday arrested a man carrying 30 pounds of explosives and 25 mobile phones near an army camp in the eastern city of Batticoloa, leading to concerns of a wider campaign of terror in the wake of the Easter Sunday attacks that left more than 350 people dead.

• Sixty people have been arrested in connection with Sunday’s attacks, Ruwan Wijewardene, the country’s state minister of defense, said at a news conference. Nine bombers, including one woman, carried out the suicide attacks on churches and hotels, Mr. Wijewardene said, adding that the leader of the homegrown terror group was among them.

• Indian intelligence officials warned their Sri Lankan counterparts of the attack two hours before the first bomb was detonated, but the Sri Lankans failed to act. It was the last in a series of unheeded alerts, including an intelligence memo written at least 10 days before the attack that warned of the attack.

• The government has blamed the group National Thowheeth Jama’ath for the attacks and said it received foreign assistance. On Tuesday, the Islamic State claimed its “fighters” were responsible.

• More than 350 people were killed, and about 500 were wounded. The victims came from more than a dozen countries, and included children worshiping at Easter services.

• A cabinet member on Tuesday said the bombings may have been in retaliation for attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March. On Wednesday, a government minister and former army chief said planning may have been several years in the making.

• The United States Embassy confirmed that agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation were in Sri Lanka to assist.

What we know about who was killed and where

• The death toll rose to at least 359. Unicef, the United Nations children agency, said at least 45 of those killed were children.

• The attacks took place at three churches and three hotels on Easter morning in three separate cities across the island. Two more explosions happened in the afternoon in and around Colombo, one at a small guesthouse and the other at what was the suspects’ apparent safe house. Three officers searching for the attackers were killed in that blast.

• The deadliest explosion was at St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, about 20 miles north of Colombo, where more than 100 were killed.

• At least 28 people were killed at the Zion Church in Batticaloa, on the other side of the island on its eastern coast. St. Anthony’s Shrine, a Roman Catholic church in Colombo, was also attacked, with an unknown number of dead. Witnesses described “a river of blood” there.

• The three hotels attacked, all in Colombo, were the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury.

• People from more than a dozen foreign countries were killed, along with many Sri Lankans. Several of the victims were Americans, the authorities said. Others were Australian, British, Chinese, Dutch, Indian, Portuguese, Japanese and Turkish citizens, according to officials and news reports.

What we don’t know about the attacks

• Sri Lankan officials have yet to confirm if the so-called leader killed in the attack was Mohamad Zaharan, the radical Muslim lecturer mentioned in a security memo as the head of National Thowheeth Jama’ath who is believed to have organized the bombings.

• How two small, obscure groups — one of which was previously best known for desecrating Buddhist statues — managed to pull off sophisticated, coordinated attacks.

• The extent to which the Islamic State or other international terrorist networks may have helped with the attacks.

• The names of the suicide bombers and the now 60 people being held in connection with the attacks.

• Why the authorities failed to take substantial steps to try to prevent an attack after receiving reports of an imminent threat.

• What effect the failure to stop the attacks will have on Sri Lanka’s government. The president and the prime minister were already engaged in a bitter feud.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/world/asia/sri-lanka-attacks-news.html

2019-04-24 08:15:00Z
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More detentions as death toll in Sri Lanka attacks rises to 359 - Reuters

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan police said on Wednesday they had detained 18 more people for questioning over the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels, claimed by the Islamic State group, as the death toll climbed again to 359.

People participate in a mass funeral in Negombo, three days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Sri Lanka April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

The extremist Islamic State group made its claim after Sri Lankan officials said the suicide bombings in Sri Lanka were carried out in retaliation for attacks on two mosques in New Zealand that killed 50 people in March.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said the death toll had risen to 359 from 321 overnight, with about 500 people wounded, but did not give a breakdown of casualties from the three churches and four hotels hit by the bombers.

Islamic State said through its AMAQ news agency the assaults in Sri Lanka were carried out by seven attackers but gave no evidence to support its claim of responsibility. If true, it would be one of the worst attacks carried out by the group outside Iraq and Syria.

Junior minister for defense Ruwan Wijewardene told parliament on Tuesday two Sri Lankan Islamist groups - the National Thawheed Jama’ut and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim - were responsible for the blasts, which went off during Easter services and as hotels served breakfast.

Police continued searching homes across the Indian Ocean island nation overnight, leading to the detention of 18 more people. That brings the number of people taken in for questioning to close to 60, including one Syrian.

The overnight raids included areas near the Gothic-style St Sebastian church in Negombo, north of the capital, where scores were killed on Sunday, a police spokesman said. An unspecified number of people were detained in western Sri Lanka, the scene of Muslim riots in 2014.

“Search operations are going on everywhere, there is tight checking of Muslim areas,” a security source said.

The Easter Sunday bombings shattered the relative calm that has existed in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka since a civil war against mostly Hindu, ethnic Tamil separatists ended 10 years ago, and raised fears of a return to sectarian violence.

Sri Lanka’s 22 million people include minority Christians, Muslims and Hindus. Until now, Christians had largely managed to avoid the worst of the island’s conflict and communal tensions.

The attacks have already foreshadowed a shake-up of Sri Lankan security forces, with President Maithripala Sirisena saying on Tuesday night he planned to change some of his defense chiefs after criticism that intelligence warnings of an Easter attack were ignored.

Three sources told Reuters that Sri Lankan intelligence officials had been warned by India hours before the blasts that attacks by Islamists were imminent. It was not clear what action, if any, was taken.

Most of those killed and wounded were Sri Lankans, although government officials said 38 foreigners were also killed. That included British, U.S., Australian, Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Danish, Dutch and Portuguese nationals.

The U.N. Children’s Fund said 45 children were among the dead.

Slideshow (3 Images)

Junior defense minister Wijewardene said investigators believed revenge for the March 15 mosque attacks in the New Zealand city of Christchurch was the motive but did not elaborate. The attacks during Friday prayers in Christchurch were carried out by a lone gunman.

The Sri Lankan government has imposed emergency law and an overnight curfew. It said it has also blocked online messaging services to stop the spread of inflammatory rumors that it feared could incite communal clashes.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is assisting with investigations.

Reporting by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Paul Tait

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2019-04-24 05:25:00Z
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