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Sri Lanka blocks social media after attacks on mosques, Muslim owned businesses

Agencies
May 13, 2019

Colombo, May 13: Sri Lanka said on Monday it was temporarily blocking some social media networks and messaging apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, after mosques and Muslim-owned businesses were attacked in the wake of Easter bombings by Islamist militants.

Several dozen people threw stones at mosques and Muslim-owned stores and a man was beaten in the town of Chilaw on the west coast on Sunday in a dispute that started on Facebook, sources told Reuters.

Authorities said they arrested the author of a Facebook post, identified as 38-year-old Abdul Hameed Mohamed Hasmar, whose online comment "1 day u will cry" locals said was interpreted as threatening violence.

Authorities arrested a group in the nearby areas of Kuliyapitiya and Dummalasuriya later on Sunday and early on Monday for allegedly attacking Muslim-owned businesses, a police source told Reuters.

Military spokesman Sumith Atapattu said people in the area then demanded the arrested men be released.

"To control the situation, a police curfew was imposed during the night," Atapattu said.

The flare-up in violence came three weeks after Sri Lankan Islamist bombers blew themselves up in four hotels and three churches, killing more than 250 people.

Since then, Muslim groups say they have received dozens of complaints from across the country about people being harassed. Other communities say they are fearful that the government, which failed to act on successive warnings about looming Islamist attacks, has not caught all potential militants.

Sri Lanka has used temporary bans on social media in an attempt to curb misinformation and rumours.

"Social media blocked again as a temporary measure to maintain peace in the country," Nalaka Kaluwewa, the director general of the Department of Government Information, told Reuters on Monday.

A violent clash erupted a week ago in Negombo, where more than 100 people were killed during Easter prayers, between Muslims and Christians after a traffic dispute.

The government also imposed a ban on social media after that clash.

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News Network
June 3,2020

New Delhi, Jun 3: India registered its highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases on Wednesday with 8,909 more cases reported in the last 24 hours, taking the country's tally to 2,07,615, while the death toll rose to 5,815 according to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood to 1,01,497 while 1,00,303 people have been cured/discharged/migrated.

According to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, out of all the states, Maharashtra has recorded the highest number of coronavirus cases with 72,300 patients followed by Tamil Nadu with 24,586 cases.

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Agencies
August 1,2020

Mexico City, Aug 1: The number of people, who have died of COVID-19 in Mexico, has risen by 688 to 46,688 within the past 24 hours, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said.

The number of victims in Mexico is now higher than in the United Kingdom, where 46,119 people have died of the disease. The largest number of fatalities - 153,311 - has been recorded in the United States, while Brazil comes second with 92,475 deaths.

Lopez-Gatell also said on late Friday that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases had increased by 8,458 to 424,637 over the past day.

A day earlier, the Latin American nation recorded 7,730 new cases of the coronavirus, with 639 fatalities.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, over 17.5 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 677,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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Agencies
March 10,2020

Bhopal, Mar 10: The number of MLAs who have resigned from the Congress in Madhya Pradesh climbed to 20 on Tuesday afternoon with another legislator quitting the ruling party, sources said.

While 19 MLAs, most of them believed to be loyal to expelled party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, have sent their resignation letters via e-mail to Raj Bhavan, Bisahulal Singh submitted his resignation letter as an MLA to the Assembly speaker.

"We have received resignations of 19 MLAs through e-mails with attachments," a Raj Bhawan official told PTI.

Sources in Congress produced a copy of Bisahulal Singh's resignation letter which he submitted to the speaker.

Former chief minister and senior BJP leader later announced that Singh (65) has joined the BJP.

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