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Added on the 22/04/2019 06:16:18 - Copyright : Wochit
Police stand guard outside St. Anthony's Shrine in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo and a bomb disposal unit is on site as the death toll in a string of bomb blasts that hit churches and hotels in the city rises to at least 52 according to police. IMAGES
parc national d'uda walawe ratnapura sri lanka
Papua New Guinea's prime minister James Marape declares a 14-day state of emergency in the capital Port Moresby, after 15 people were killed in riots as crowds looted and burned shops, adding that more than 1,000 troops are on standby "to step in wherever necessary" under the emergency decree. SOUNDBITE
Chinese research ship Shi Yan 6 arrives in Sri Lanka, entering the port of Colombo a year after a similar port call by a spacecraft-tracking vessel raised security concerns from neighbouring India. New Delhi is suspicious of China's increasing presence in the Indian Ocean and its influence in Sri Lanka, which is strategically placed halfway along key east-west international shipping routes. IMAGES
The World Health Organization declares that mpox no longer constitutes a global health emergency, almost exactly a year after the disease formerly known as monkeypox started spreading across the world. Following falling cases numbers, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tells an online press conference he is "pleased to declare" that he had accepted the advice of the UN agency's emergency committee on mpox to lift its highest level of alarm. SOUNDBITE
The Covid-19 pandemic, which for over three years has killed millions of people, wreaked economic havoc and deepened inequalities, no longer constitutes a global health emergency, says World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. SOUNDBITE