Sri Lanka

The World Cup got a soft opening yesterday with a predicted 2.5 billion people poised to tune in to the six weeks of action but with the 49-match program facing a series of headaches.

Masses of cheering believers in the Philippines turned out to bid farewell to Pope Francis Jan. 19, a fitting end to a week in Asia that saw him draw record crowds and campaign relentlessly for the poor.
      

A million worshippers packed the Colombo seafront to greet Pope Francis as he canonised Sri Lanka's first saint on Jan. 14, in the biggest public celebration the city has ever witnessed.
      

Prayers, tears and solemn visits to mass graves marked the start of commemorations Friday across tsunami-hit nations for the 220,000 people who perished when giant waves decimated coastal areas of the Indian Ocean a decade ago.
      

Around 100 people were buried alive in a tea-growing region of Sri Lanka Oct. 29 as mudslides triggered by monsoon rains washed away their homes on a plantation, disaster officials said.
      
One witness spoke of hearing a noise like thunder as part of a mountainside collapsed onto the estate, burying some of the workers' homes in 30 feet (nine metres) of mud and debris.

Mudslides triggered by monsoon rains swept through a tea-growing region of Sri Lanka on Oct. 29, killing at least 16 people and leaving around 300 more feared missing, disaster officials said.
      
The landslides hit a well-known tea plantation east of Colombo in the morning, with some homes buried in 30 feet (nine metres) of mud, officials said.         

The fifth annual Embassy Tennis Tournament will be held on Sept. 13-14 and Sept. 20-21 at the Ankara Tennis Club, with a total of 30 ambassadors displaying their skills on the tennis court, rather than on the negotiating table.

As he set up shop in Kashmir's main city Thursday, Saleem Ahmed had little truck with Al-Qaeda's call to turn India's only Muslim-majority state a key battlefield of a new jihad across South Asia.
      

BLED/BELGRADE - Serbia's First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic will attend the Bled Strategic Forum on Tuesday and participate in a panel discussion on the topic 'The Future of the Western Balkans - How to Make Regional Cooperation Work?'.

Serbian FM to attend Bled Strategic Forum

BELGRADE -- Serbia's First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dačić will attend the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia on Tuesday.

He will participate in a panel discussion dubbed "The Future of the Western Balkans - How to Make Regional Cooperation Work?"