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Worshippers are frisked on entering temple in Kandy where relic is held and photography is strictly prohibitedSri Lankan police have launched an investigation into a photo circulated on social media claiming to show a Buddha tooth relic, which has gone on display under tight security.The Criminal Investigation Department was ordered to determine whether the widely shared image was taken during the rare display of...

Home Office intervened after initial ruling allowing grandmother with terminal cancer to join family in GlasgowA Syrian refugee says the Home Office has “broken her heart” by trying to bar her mother, who has weeks to live, from coming to the UK to spend her final days with the grandchildren she has never met.Ola Al Hamwi fled Syria with her husband, Mostafa Amonajid, in...

After the Legalise Cannabis party’s strong 2022 election performance, Fiona Patten says she has ‘unfinished business’Polls tracker; election guide; full federal election coverageAnywhere but Canberra; interactive electorates guideListen to the latest episode of our new narrative podcast series: GinaGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastMore than a hundred peaceful picnickers gathered on the green grass of Melbourne’s Flagstaff Gardens support...

‘Easter truce’ ordered by Putin on Saturday but Ukraine president says Russian army continuing efforts to advanceGermany has been one of Ukraine’s main military backers, granting roughly €7.1bn (£6bn; $8bn) in military assistance in 2024 alone.But, fearing an escalation of the conflict, former German chancellor Olaf Scholz did not supply Taurus missiles, which have a range of around 500km (300 miles), despite Kyiv’s repeated...

Don Pettit became septuagenarian hurtling towards Earth after seven-month mission at International Space StationCake, gifts and a low-key family celebration may be how many senior citizens celebrate their 70th birthday.But Nasa’s oldest serving astronaut, Don Pettit, became a septuagenarian while hurtling towards Earth in a spacecraft to wrap up a seven-month mission onboard the International Space Station (ISS). Continue reading...

Scheme to boost British film industry leads to Universal Pictures pocketing millions of pounds for blockbuster Jurassic World: RebirthA leafy corner to the west of Watford was transformed into a jungle last year. Authentic-looking exotic flowers lined the floor, tree trunks soared up to an artificial canopy and reeds hung from their branches. Peering between them was Hollywood A-lister Scarlett Johansson.The extravagant construction was...

Dozens of MPs are angry at their party, despite frantic efforts by whips and government ministers to assuage them• ‘We just go to the park’: making the most of Easter in a child-poverty hotspotLabour MPs opposed to the government’s massive £5bn of benefit cuts say they will refuse to support legislation to implement them, even if more money is offered by ministers to alleviate...

Inmates complain of rashes and fever, echoing the events that led Dartmoor jail to close last yearThe government faces further potential legal action over concerns about levels of radon gas at a second prison, after Dartmoor jail was forced to close.Ministry of Justice officials have ordered radon detection equipment to be installed at Lindholme prison near Doncaster in South Yorkshire, where prisoners have reported...

This blog is now closed.Anywhere but Canberra: Australian voters on what matters to themInteractive guide to electorates in the Australian electionListen to the latest episode of our new narrative podcast series: GinaSee all our Australian election 2025 coverageGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastBandt asked about housing and gasStaying with the ABC where Adam Bandt was asked whether the Greens...

Opposition says trial was staged to entrench president Kais Saied’s authoritarian ruleA Tunisian court has handed down prison sentences of 13 to 66 years to politicians, businessmen and lawyers in a mass trial that opponents say is fabricated and a symbol of president Kais Saied’s authoritarian rule.Businessman Kamel Ltaif received the longest sentence of 66 years on Saturday, while opposition politician Khayam Turki was...

Aditya Wahyu Harsono, father of infant with special needs, surprised at work despite valid visa through June 2026An Indonesian father of an infant with special needs, who was detained by federal agents at his hospital workplace in Minnesota after his student visa was secretly revoked, will remain in custody after an immigration judge ruled Thursday that his case can proceed.Judge Sarah Mazzie denied a...

Lee defeated a moderate backed by outside groups working to push the Bay Area’s progressive politics to the center Barbara Lee, a trailblazing former member of Congress, has been elected as the next mayor of Oakland, California, after fending off an insurgent challenge from the center at a critical moment for the Bay Area city.Lee defeated the former city council member Loren Taylor after...

With Peter Dutton’s views on climate change in the spotlight, the focus has turned onto whether there will be any policies to reduce emissions in the next decadeElection 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaignPolls tracker; election guide; full federal election coverageAnywhere but Canberra; interactive electorates guideListen to the latest episode of our new narrative podcast series: GinaGet our afternoon election email, free app...

An increasingly confident prime minister has bounced back from his campaign missteps while a nervous-looking opposition leader is running out of time to make a comebackElection 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaignPolls tracker; election guide; full federal election coverageAnywhere but Canberra; interactive electorates guideListen to the latest episode of our new narrative podcast series: GinaGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily...

Organizers call for 11 million people to march and rally in this weekend’s effort to ‘protect democracy’Protesters poured into the streets of cities and towns across the United States again on Saturday, in the second wave of protests this month, as organizers seek to turn discontent with Donald Trump’s presidency into a mass movement that will eventually translate into action at the ballot box.By...

A 41-year-old man charged with murder after discovery at an address in the Penylan area of CardiffPolice investigating the murder of a woman from Cardiff who was last seen leaving work a week ago have found a body.Paria Veisi’s body was discovered by South Wales police at an address in Penylan, Cardiff, on Saturday, the force said. Continue reading...

The energy secretary has accused Reform UK’s leader of peddling dangerous falsehoods about renewable power• Tories and Reform use the steel crisis to knock clean energy. They’re wrong: it will secure all our futuresEd Miliband has torn into Nigel Farage and the Tories for peddling dangerous “nonsense and lies” by suggesting the UK’s net zero target is responsible for destroying Britain’s businesses, including its...

Thousands gather in Parliament Square in a show of unity after supreme court judgmentAfter last week’s supreme court decision, activists had been worried that trans people might become fearful of going out in public in case they were abused.They weren’t afraid in London on Saturday. Thousands of trans and non-binary people thronged Parliament Square, alongside families and supporters waving baby blue, white and pink...

Former president spoke at commemoration for the 168 people who died in the 1995 attack by far-right extremistBill Clinton called on Americans to put aside “whose resentments matter most” and issued a defense of government employees as he returned to Oklahoma City on Saturday for a remembrance service for the 30th anniversary of the deadliest homegrown terrorist attack in US history.“If our lives are...

Palestinians pushed into new misery as supplies of food, fuel and medicine run out in seven-week siegeGaza has been pushed to new depths of despair, civilians, medics and humanitarian workers say, by the unprecedented seven-week-long Israeli military blockade that has cut off all aid to the strip.The siege has left the Palestinian territory facing conditions unmatched in severity since the beginning of the war...

English-speaking minority refugees caught up in clashes between the military and separatists are stranded in neighbouring countryAmid the sound of children excitedly practising a drama for a forthcoming performance, a yam seller calls to passers by with discounts for their wares. Outside a closed graphic design shop overlooking them from a small hill, Solange Ndonga Tibesa tells the story of being uprooted from her...

US vice-president, who is a Catholic convert, discusses immigration and international wars with secretary of stateThe US vice-president, JD Vance, had “an exchange of opinions” with the Vatican’s secretary of state over current international conflicts and immigration when they met on Saturday, the Vatican has said.The Vatican issued a statement after Vance, a Catholic convert, met Cardinal Pietro Parolin and the foreign minister, Archbishop...

Alla Shyrshonkova was on a bus when Russian missiles hit the city. Now a toy bear and hippo mark the spot where 35 people, including two children, were killedLast weekend, Alla Shyrshonkova got on the 62 bus on a journey to her cottage near the Ukrainian city of Sumy. It was a warm spring day. “I thought I’d sit with friends, have some tea....

The progressive Democrat from Queens is the son of a famous film-maker and poised to take on frontrunner Andrew CuomoCan a 33-year-old cricket-playing socialist, who wants to freeze rent, make city transport free and once aspired to be a rapper win an already turbulent election to become the next mayor of New York?Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist and state assembly ­member in Queens, has...