updated Fri. June 14, 2024
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BBC News
May 29, 2017
Bangladeshi authorities are trying to evacuate up to a million people before a powerful cyclone makes landfall. Cyclone Mora is likely to hit the eastern coast early on Tuesday, the meteorological department said. Port cities in the south-east have been asked to display the highest warning system known asÃâà...
BBC News
December 8, 2016
A battle-hardened, world-weary but still young former Maoist guerrilla is summoned back to his native village after his father dies. As he trudges homeward, a young boy orphaned by the war latches on to him, looking for a father-figure. Once home, the man, Chandra - or Agni ('Fire') to give hisÃâà...
BBC News
December 8, 2016
A battle-hardened, world-weary but still young former Maoist guerrilla is summoned back to his native village after his father dies. As he trudges homeward, a young boy orphaned by the war latches on to him, looking for a father-figure. Once home, the man, Chandra - or Agni ('Fire') to give hisÃâà...
BBC News
August 5, 2016
Reports say one suspected rebel was killed in the gun battle with security forces in Kokrajhar district. The NDFB wants an independent homeland for the Bodo ethnic group to be carved out of Assam. Assam police chief Mukesh Sahay told the BBC that the attack took place in a market in Balajan, an areaÃâà...
BBC News
October 28, 2015
Nepal's parliament has elected women's rights campaigner Bidhya Devi Bhandari as its first female president, in a move hailed as a milestone. She is the second person to hold the mainly ceremonial role. The 54-year-old is currently the vice-chair of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal (United MarxistÃâà...
BBC News
September 18, 2015
Nepal is on the cusp of adopting a new constitution. It potentially ends a saga that began shortly after the end of the Maoist war in 2006. But while many are happy that the new republic now has the much-heralded document, some, for varying reasons, remain deeply unhappy with it - and its birth-pangsÃâà...
BBC News
May 30, 2015
The principle of non-violence is central to Buddhist teachings, but in Sri Lanka some Buddhist monks are being accused of stirring up hostility towards other faiths and ethnic minorities. Their hard line is causing increasing concern. The small temple in the suburbs of Colombo is quiet. An image of theÃâà...
BBC News
February 23, 2015
His arrest adds to growing instability in the small coral atoll nation, the BBC's Charles Haviland reports. President Abdullah Yameen, elected in 2013, has recently become alienated from key former colleagues. He arrested his defence minister, accusing him of plotting a coup, and has been deserted byÃâà...
BBC News
January 4, 2015
President Mahinda Rajapaksa hopes to be re-elected to a third term in Sri Lanka's election on Thursday. But what sort of a country has Sri Lanka become under Mr Rajapaksa and his brothers? One day last month six astrologers were brought onto government television to discuss the prospects for theÃâà...
BBC News
November 20, 2014
A doorman who worked for 72 years at the most famous hotel in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, has died aged 94. Kottarappu Chattu Kuttan, who had started as a waiter, never retired from his job at the Galle Face Hotel. Guests would be greeted at the grand seafront entrance by the diminutive Mr KuttanÃâà...
BBC News
November 12, 2014
Of course it was not unexpected, I knew it was coming," recalls his friend, lawyer and election agent, Prins Gunasekara, speaking to the BBC history programme, Witness. Even as the Tamil conflict flared up in the north the island had been wracked by violence in the south. Wijeweera's Janatha VimukthiÃâà...
BBC News
January 13, 2014
Police in Sri Lanka say they have identified and intend to arrest 24 people, including eight Buddhist monks, allegedly involved in attacks on two churches on Sunday. No injuries were reported, but one pastor said he received death threats. Footage from southern Hikkaduwa town showed monks hurlingÃâà...
BBC News
October 17, 2012
When Sri Lanka's long civil came to an end in 2009, the town of Puthukudiyiruppu was left with a grim legacy. Landmines and other unexploded devices lie behind every tree, in every ditch, in houses, churches and temples. Many were randomly scattered by Tamil Tiger rebels in the final months before theirÃâà...
BBC News
August 14, 2012
It is just over three years since the Sri Lankan army decisively crushed the Tamil Tiger militants, ending a 26-year civil war. Hundreds of thousands of people were left displaced, and parts of the island were devastated. The BBC's Charles Haviland has been given access to the area of Putumattalan whichÃâà...
BBC News
August 28, 2011
A few nights ago Tuan Mohamed Saleh Nona Faris heard a rustling outside her house and saw a shadow move. "He looked like a gorilla, he was completely covered in black from top to toe. I couldn't see his face or hands," the elderly lady in the west coast fishing district of Puttalam said. She believes theÃâà...
BBC News
July 29, 2011
Former Tamil Tiger (LTTE) rebels in Sri Lanka say they cannot find jobs or reintegrate into society, a year after they were freed from government "rehabilitation" and detention camps. In a series of exclusive interviews with the BBC, some also said they were being harassed by the security forces, thoughÃâà...
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