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Buddhist-Muslim clashes continue in Sri Lanka

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Buddhist-Muslim clashes continue in Sri Lanka

Hard-line Buddhists have ties with their counterparts in Myanmar

Despite imposition of state of emergency in Sri Lanka, reports of violent mob attacks by Sinhalese Buddhists against Muslims in various parts of the country are pouring in. Ambetana in the central region witnessed hundreds of attackers shouting slogans and carrying sticks, stones and petrol bombs descending on the hill town. At least fifteen Muslim houses and a mosque were vandalized while several vehicles were set on fire.

According to Aljazeera correspondents in the region residents have said that some two dozen policemen and soldiers watched helplessly as the mob vandalised and set fire to Muslim homes and businesses in the town’s Welekada area in the town.

Fatima Zameera clutching her three-week old infant recounted the violence that swept her neighborhood said, “We were so scared. We have nowhere to go. They broke all the windows in my house. Our whole house is burnt.”

Buddhist-Muslim clashes continue in Sri LankaThe mob between 200 and 500-strong, overran Welekada defying a curfew and a state of emergency imposed by President Maithiripala Sirisena to quell anti-Muslim riots that began in the highland district of Kandy last weekend.

According to Colombo based Daily News, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, while delivering a special statement on the situation in Kandy on Wednesday, said that the Security Forces Chiefs and the Police have been instructed to take prompt action against acts of sabotage and be prepared to control any kind of unrest.

Wickremesinghe said that Security Forces Commander in the Central Province, Major General Rukman Dias has been appointed to coordinate security related activities between the Police and the Security Forces.

He further said that the Tri Forces, the Special Task Force have been deployed in the Kandy district in addition to the Police in order to ensure that the normal life of the community is maintained without any hindrance.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said several shops in the Katugastota area had been set on fire on Tuesday. He said that a hand grenade in the possession of a person who was among a group who had been acting violently had exploded. He said these incidents were being investigated by the Police. “In the other areas of the Kandy district, law and order and peace prevailed,” the Premier claimed.

The Premier said that temporary restrictions have been imposed against the use of social media which is being used by some elements to instigate violence by spreading false stories in order to mislead the public and spread hatred.

Read More: Sri Lanka declares  emergency to prevent spread of communal clashes

Sensing the growing trouble ahead, Minister for Public Administration and management Ranjith Madduma Bandara was sworn in as the Minister of Law and Order before President Maithripala Sirisena at the Presidential Secretariat Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, another Colombo based newspaper-The Island reports that Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has warned that some sinister forces, bent on destabilising the country, were trying to engineer another 1983 style conflagration to drum up international support for their constitutional reforms, aimed at dividing the country into several semi-independent states.

Former President said that the gravitation of a section of the Muslim population towards communal political parties had made it easy for the siniser forces to create tensions between the Sinhalese and Muslims by using agent provocateurs.

“I call on citizens belonging to all communities to reflect intelligently on what has been happening and to refrain from all acts of violence”, he said.

Mahinda Rajpaksa was country’s President from November 2005 to January 2015. He also held Premier’s position from April 2004 to November 2005.

The communal violence began on Sunday when a man belonging to Buddhist Sinhalese majority died after being beaten by some Muslim men over a traffic accident in the town of Teledeniya in Kandy, known for tea plantations and Buddhist religious sites.

On Monday, hundreds of Sinhala Buddhists, mostly outsiders poured into Kandy and attacked and torched dozens of Muslim businesses, houses and mosques. Body of a 23-year-old Muslim man was found in a burned building, and the government, fearing more violence, imposed a state of emergency on Tuesday. It also deployed the army and extended a police curfew in the region.

However, violence continued overnight on Wednesday with “several incidents” in four towns, said Ruwan Gunasekara, a police spokesman. Three police officers were injured in Menikhinna. Later in the day, Ambatenna was attacked and a Sinhalese man was killed there after a hand grenade he was carrying exploded.

Shukry Cassim, whose four-bedroom house was vandalised in Welekada, said he was “petrified”. “We don’t feel safe. All our children are traumatized. We don’t know where to go, or who to trust,” the 27-year-old accountant told Al Jazeera, standing in front of  his burnt car in his garage.

He further said, “We don’t know why this is happening. The mob is not from our area. We don’t know them. But they couldn’t have done this without the support of people from our area because they have targeted the Muslim houses, and excluded the non-Muslim houses.”

Ties between Muslims and Buddhists in the Kandy have been historically harmonious, he said, adding: “We share food during religious festivals, we play together and buy goods from each other’s shops.”

Analysts say tensions flared up between the two communities because of the rise of Buddhist militant groups following the end of the country’s three-decade war. One of these groups Bodu Bala Sena has links to Buddhist hard-line groups in Myanmar.

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World Earth Day 2024: Google Doodle showcases aerial view of planet’s natural beauty

Google celebrated Earth Day 2024 with a special doodle featuring an aerial view of our planet’s biodiversity.

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Google shared a doodle today to celebrate World Earth Day 2024, which showcased aerial photos of the planet’s biodiversity and natural beauty. Google reminded us of the importance of protecting planet earth for future generations with the help of this doodle.

The Google letters depict specific locations across the globe where people, communities, and governments work every day to help protect the planet’s natural beauty, biodiversity, and resources, according to the explanation of the annual Earth Day 2024 doodle on their website.

It said, these examples remind us that there’s much more to do to address the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, but also offer the promise of hope and optimism.

The islands of Turks and Caicos are represented by the letter “G.” The islands’ conservation efforts are concentrated on protecting important regions for biodiversity and addressing persistent environmental problems.

The largest reef in the southern Gulf of Mexico and a UNESCO biosphere reserve, Scorpion Reef National Park, is represented by the letter “O” in the Mexican flag.

The letter “O” features Iceland’s Vatnajokull National Park, which was designated as a national park in 2008 following decades of advocacy. The ecology within and surrounding the biggest glacier in Europe is safeguarded by this UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The letter “G” has the Jau National Park in Brazil on it. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the biggest forest reserves in South America.

The Great Green Wall of Nigeria is represented by the letter “L,”  and the Pilbara Islands Nature Reserves of Australia are represented by the letter “E.”

Meanwhile, Earth Day is a worldwide event that promotes protection of the environment every year. April 22 serves as a reminder of the importance of conservation efforts and sustainable practices to guarantee a healthier world and a brighter future.

The occasion inspires people across the world to come together and take action to protect the environment, strengthening our bonds with nature and promoting good change.

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Bigg Boss 14 contestant Rahul Vaidya struggles walking in knee deep water, compares Dubai rains with Mumbai floods

Singer and TV personality Rahul Vaidya was recently stranded in the Dubai rains.

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Rahul Vaidya, who was in Dubai ahead of his show which was scheduled to take place today, left the country due to heavy rains and reached Kolkata. The artist shared on social media his encounters in the UAE city, including challenges like walking through knee-deep water. Rahul provided an update regarding the heavy rainfall in Dubai on his Instagram profile.

The Bigg Boss 14 contestant revealed that he was in Kolkata and prepared to do an evening performance. Recalling the terrifying period he went through, Vaidya said there was a lot of confusion and panic in Dubai. The situation was similar to that when heavy floods hit Mumbai in 2005.

Vaiday also posted seval other images and videos of cars that were underwater and flooded roadways. The Bigg Boss 14 contestant, who shared his ordeal, claimed that even though it had just rained for two hours, the situation was dire.

In one of the video, which went viral he can be seen struggling in walking in knee-deep water. He can be also seen holding his sneakers in one hand and with other hand he was seen managing other things.

This is the result of the two hours of rain that it had, he can be heard saying in the video. Vidya also said he dosen’t believe Dubai is accustomed to a lot of rain. Everything had stopped working, he remarked.

After taking part in the first season of the singing reality show Indian Idol, Rahul Vaidya gained widespread recognition. In addition to Bigg Boss, he took part in Khatron Ke Khiladi 11.

Meanwhile, heavy rains that triggered flooding in the UAE and Bahrain, which left 18 people dead in Oman on Sunday and Monday, have paralyzed the financial hub of the Middle East, Dubai.

A lot of incoming flights were diverted from Dubai’s international airport because of the rain. At 7:26 p.m., the busiest airport in the world for foreign visitors stopped accepting new arrivals; a gradual resumption was announced for more than two hours later.

Images of planes navigating flooded tarmacs are making the rounds on social media.

According to pictures shared on social media, the flagship malls Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates both experienced heavy floods, while at least one Dubai Metro station had water up to the ankles.

There were several road collapses, severe flooding in residential areas, and numerous reports of leaks from windows, doors, and roofs.

Due to the unfavourable weather, schools around the United Arab Emirates were forced to close, and as more storms are predicted, the closures are anticipated to last until Wednesday. The government of Dubai allowed its staff to work remotely till this Wednesday.

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Dubai sky turns green during storm in UAE, video goes viral

The UAE witnessed record-breaking rainfall on Tuesday and the National Centre of Meteorology recorded 254 mm of rainfall in less than 24 hrs in the Khatm Al Shakla area in Al Ain.

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1 person was killed in UAE as it witnessed heavy rainfall on Tuesday, stranding commuters, flooding roads, disrupting trains and flights and resulting in water leakage from mall ceilings. The UAE witnessed record-breaking rainfall on Tuesday and the National Centre of Meteorology recorded 254 mm of rainfall in less than 24 hrs in the Khatm Al Shakla area in Al Ain. It is being said that the rainfall was the highest documented since the start of data collection in 1949.

The heavy rainfall in UAE came days after a similar situation in neighbouring Oman, where 13 people were killed in flash floods. Many parts of Oman saw torrential rains, which caused students to be trapped in buses and swept away motorists and trapped people in their homes.

Videos from Dubai circulating on social media showed widespread waterlogging on roads in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and other important cities. This left daily commuters in cars and other vehicles struggling to get back home. Dubai metro station too was seen flooded and closed.

One such video circulating on social media shows the aerial view of the city of Dubai from the top of a building. In the video the stormy winds are seen blowing over the city of Dubai. As the storm intensifies the Dubai sky turns green and ultimately gets covered by heavy rainfall. The video has gone viral on social media with more than 1.1 million views.

Another video showed water leakage from the ceilings of shopping malls, flooding the floors and destroying goods. A video which was shot in the famous Mall of the Emirates, showed pieces of ceiling falling as the rainwater gushed inside. Videos from many outlets of the Deira City Centre mall chain showed escalators being rendered unusable. Majid Al Futtaim, the company which owns the Mall of Emirates, said that the shopping complexes have been kept open and the customers are being sent away from the flooded areas. 

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