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Reality Check
It’s one year on and the worst is yet to come
Just before the presidential election of November 16, 2019, the UK’s Guardian newspaper began its editorial on Sri Lanka with this line: “There are worse things than disappointment…”
But the electorate, fed up with the broken promises,…
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In Sri Lanka rule of law suffers the onslaught of politics
By Alan Keenan and K. Mudiyanse
Sri Lanka, long-plagued by political violence and near-complete impunity for crimes by the State and pro-State forces, now faces a new assault on justice and the rule of law. There is a systematic attempt…
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‘800’ and the unsavoury reality of India’s film industry
By P. K. Balachandran
COLOMBO - The US$ 2.5 billion Indian film industry, which churns out more than a thousand movies a year and is watched by millions, is now facing an intense political heat it faced only once before, in 1975-77, when…
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Eating garbage, elephants die a painful death
By Tharmapalan Tilaxan
This is what you see when I photographed elephants looking for food in a huge garbage mountain in Oluvil in the Ampara district. The easiest way to remove garbage in Sri Lanka is to go to a forest somewhere and…
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‘So, so frightened’: civilians shelter from Karabakh shelling
By Dmitry Zaks
TERTER - Tears didn't well up in Tatyana Pashayeva's eyes until the shells were exploding all around as she hid in an Azerbaijani basement by the Nagorno-Karabakh frontline.
"I am so, so frightened," the 56-year-old…
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An Italian teenager could become the first millennial saint
By Marie Fazio
In many ways, Carlo Acutis was a typical teenager. He loved his PlayStation and making videos of his dogs. He favoured Nikes and jeans, and he had a cellphone and an email address.
But in one significant respect, Carlo —…
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Black October: 30 years since, where are we?
By Shreen Saroor
In October 1990, some 75,000 Muslims in the Northern Province (about 5% of the Province’s total) were forcibly expelled from their homeland by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). In some places the rebels gave…
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At Afghan peace talks, hoping to end their fathers’ war
By Mujib Mashal
DOHA — They are here to end their fathers’ war.
On both sides of the negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban are nearly a dozen children of men who played key roles in the Soviet conflict in the…
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Chinese vlogger dies after being set on fire by ex-husband
BEIJING - The tragic case of a rural livestreamer who died after being set alight by her ex-husband has triggered outrage over domestic violence on Chinese social media.
The 30-year-old woman, named Lamu, died on Wednesday (Sept 30)…
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The consequences of a graceless act
By P. K. Balachandran
COLOMBO - The cancellation of the Japanese-funded Light Railway Transport (LRT) project in Colombo by the Sri Lankan government may have been based on rational grounds, weighing its “limited use” against the “huge…
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