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Sri Lanka’s main opposition party on Tuesday issued a no-confidence declaration aiming at ousting Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Cabinet and blaming them of failing in their constitutional duty to provide a decent living standards amid the island nation's worst economic crisis in memory. A group from United People's Force party, led by leader Sajith Premadasa, delivered the motion demanding the no-confident parliamentary vote to Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena. The move came amid countrywide protests demanding the resignations of Rajapaksa and his younger brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who the demonstrators hold responsible for the economic crisis. Also read: A political reckoning in Sri Lanka as debt crisis grows A majority vote in the 225-member Parliament would be needed to remove Rajapaksa and the Cabinet from power. The United People’s Force can only count on 54 votes but hopes to win votes from smaller opposition parties and defections from the ruling Sri Lanka People’s Front party. The ruling party had nearly 150 votes but that strength has declined amid the economic crisis and defections in a no-confidence vote are possible. A decision on when to hold the no-confidence vote is expected to happen after members of Parliament start meeting on Wednesday. The United People’s Force also delivered a no-confidence motion targeting the president, but it would not force him to leave office even a majority of lawmakers vote against him. Sri Lanka is on the brink of bankruptcy after the country's recent announcement to suspend payments on its foreign loans. The country faces repayments of $7 billion of foreign loans this year of the $ 25 billion it is scheduled to pay by 2026. Sri Lanka has less than than $ 1 billion in foreign reserves. Also read: Sri Lanka discusses loan from China to cover earlier debts The foreign currency crisis has limited imports and caused severe shortages of essential goods like fuel, cooking gas, medicine and food. People stand in long lines for hours to buy what they can and many return home with little, if any, of what they were seeking. The United People’s Force's motion also accuses top government officials of excessively printing money, hurting agricultural production by banning chemical fertilizer to make the production fully organic, failing to order COVID-19 vaccines in a timely manner and buying them later at higher prices. Protesters on Tuesday were in their 25th day of their occupation of the entrance to the president's office, demanding the resignations of Rajapaksa family members who have ruled Sri Lanka for the last two decades.

Muslims across India marked Eid ul-Fitr on Tuesday by offering prayers outside mosques, even as the celebrations this year came in the backdrop of a series of recent attacks against the community during the month of Ramadan. “We will not have the same kind of festivity” this time, said Mohammad Habeeb ur Rehman, a civil engineer in India’s financial capital, Mumbai. “This is the most painful Eid with worst memories for Indian Muslims,” he added. Anti-Muslim sentiment and attacks have surged across the country in the last month, including stone throwing between Hindu and Muslim groups during religious processions and subsequent demolitions of a number of properties mostly belonging to Muslims by authorities. The community, which makes up 14% of India’s 1.4 billion population, is reeling from vilification by hard-line Hindu nationalists who have long espoused an anti-Muslim stance. Some leaders of India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have tacitly supported the violence, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has so far been silent about it. Eid al-Fitr is typically marked with communal prayers, celebratory gatherings around festive meals and new clothes, but celebrations in India for the past two years have been marred by COVID-19 restrictions. In Indian-controlled Kashmir, the Muslim festival has been subdued for the past three years because of an unprecedented military lockdown after India stripped the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019, followed by the pandemic. The region also saw a rise in violence during Ramadan, with at least 20 militants, two civilians and five police and soldiers killed. “As we prepare to celebrate Eid, a strong sense of collective loss jars at us,” said Bashir Ahmed, a businessman in Srinagar. Kashmir is the Muslim-majority disputed region where a violent insurgency against Indian rule and New Delhi’s brutal crackdown has raged for over three decades. Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict. Read: Bangladesh celebrates Eid as pandemic fades Meanwhile in the capital, New Delhi, hundreds assembled in the Jama Masjid, one of India’s largest mosques, while offering Eid prayers there for the first time in over two years due to pandemic restrictions. Families came together early on Tuesday morning while many people shared hugs and wishes. Mohammed Hamid, a software engineer, said he was grateful to be offering prayers at the mosque again. “It’s a good feeling because there was a lockdown for the past two years. With the grace of God, we are able to offer Eid prayers here with the children and we are thankful,” Hamid said. The mood was cheerful in neighboring Bangladesh as millions traveled from the cities to towns and villages over the weekend to celebrate Eid. Huge crowds were seen in capital Dhaka’s main Kamalapur Railway Station and bus terminals. Like in India, Eid celebrations in Bangladesh for the last two years have been muted due to the pandemic. But this year, the government hasn’t imposed restrictions, instead advising people to follow basic health protocols. Khaleda Akter, a garment worker in Dhaka, said she was going to be traveling to her village and was excited to celebrate with her parents. “I am very glad that this year we can travel without any trouble,” she said.

Indian President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have greeted people on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr. "On the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, I extend my best wishes and greetings to all the fellow citizens, especially our Muslim brothers and sisters," the President said in his message. "On the auspicious occasion of Eid, let us resolve to rededicate ourselves to the service of humanity and to improve the lives of the poor and needy," he added. Modi, who's currently on a three-nation tour of Europe, also took to Twitter to convey his greetings to citizens on Eid. Also Read: Indian PM gets second dose of Covid vaccine "Best wishes on Eid-ul-Fitr. May this auspicious occasion enhance the spirit of togetherness and brotherhood in our society. May everyone be blessed with good health and prosperity,” the PM tweeted. Though Hindus make up nearly 80% of India's 1.30 billion population, Muslims comprise roughly 15%.    

A woman was rescued Sunday from the rubble of a building in central China more than 50 hours after it collapsed, leaving dozens trapped or missing, state media said. Separately, police arrested nine people including the building owner on suspicion of causing a major liability accident, the official Xinhua News Agency said. State broadcaster CCTV showed video of rescuers bringing the woman out on a stretcher about 4:30 p.m. Some could be heard shouting words of encouragement during the operation. She was taken to a hospital and is in stable condition, CCTV said. Also read: 4 students injured after abandoned building collapses in school premises She was the sixth person rescued from the building, which collapsed Friday afternoon in the inland city of Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. About 20 others remained trapped, and another 39 had not been accounted for as of late Saturday. Besides the owner, police said they had arrested three people in charge of design and construction and five others for what they said was a false safety assessment for a guest house on the building's fourth to sixth floors. In photos the building appeared to have pancaked down to about the second floor, leaving rubble strewn on the sidewalk. It had stood in a row of buildings about six stories tall. Also read: Worker dies falling off building in Jhenaidah Xinhua said the building had eight floors, including a restaurant on the second floor, a cafe on the third floor and residences on the top two floors. Other media reports said it was a six-story building. Tenants had made structural modifications to the building, but the cause of the collapse remained under investigation, Xinhua said. Police said the Hunan Xiangda Engineering Testing Co. issued the false safety report on April 13. The arrested included the legal representative of the company and four technicians suspected of providing the assessment. Following an increase in the number of collapses of self-built buildings in recent years, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Saturday that it was necessary to check such structures for any hidden dangers and fix them to prevent major accidents, Xinhua said. Poor adherence to safety standards, including the illegal addition of extra floors and failure to use reinforcing iron bars, is often blamed for such disasters.

Many Chinese are marking a quiet May Day holiday this year as the government’s “zero-COVID” approach restricts travel and enforces lockdowns in multiple cities. All restaurants in Beijing are closed to dine-in customers from Sunday through the end of the holiday on Wednesday, open only for takeout and delivery. Parks and tourist attractions in the Chinese capital are limited to 50% of their capacity. The Universal Studios theme park in Beijing, which opened last year, said it had shut down temporarily. The pandemic situation varies across the vast nation of 1.4 billion people, but the Transport Ministry said last week that it expected 100 million trips to be taken from Saturday to Wednesday, which would be down 60% from last year. Many of those who are traveling are staying within their province as local governments discourage or restrict cross-border travel to try to keep out new infections. China is sticking to a strict “zero-COVID” policy even as many other countries are easing restrictions and seeing if they can live with the virus. Much of Shanghai — China’s largest city and a finance, manufacturing and shipping hub — remains locked down, disrupting people’s lives and dealing a blow to the economy. The major outbreak in Shanghai, where the death toll has topped 400, appears to be easing. The city recorded 7,872 new locally transmitted cases on Saturday, down from more than 20,000 a day in recent weeks. Outside of Shanghai, only 384 new cases were found in the rest of mainland China. Beijing, which has tallied 321 cases in the past nine days, is restricting activity to try to prevent a large outbreak and avoid a city-wide lockdown similar to Shanghai. Individual buildings and housing complexes with coronavirus cases have been locked down. Visitors to many office buildings and tourist sites such as the Great Wall must show proof of a negative COVID-19 test within the previous 48 hours. Online booking agency Ctrip said last week that people were booking travel to cities that were mostly virus-free, such as Chengdu in Sichuan province and the nearby city of Chongqing. Other popular destinations included Wuhan, where the world’s first major outbreak of COVID-19 occurred in early 2020. About half the orders on the Ctrip platform were for travel within a province.

With India and Pakistan reeling under an extreme heatwave, the countries are working to roll out life-saving health action plans, the UN weather agency has said. The extreme heat is impacting hundreds of millions of people in one of the most densely populated parts of the world, threatening to damage whole ecosystems. Working closely with health and disaster management agencies, the national meteorological and hydrological departments in both countries, plan to roll out heat health action plans, which have been successful in saving lives in the past few years, said the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Friday. Both India and Pakistan have successful heat-health early warning systems and action plans already in place, including those specially tailored for urban areas. They reduce heat mortality and lessen the social impacts of extreme heat, including lost work productivity. The India Meteorological Department said maximum temperatures reached 43-46°C in widespread areas on April 28, and this intense heat will continue until May 2. Similar temperatures have also been seen in Pakistan, with daytime temperatures likely to be between 5°C and 8°C above normal in large swathes of the country, said the Pakistan Meteorological Department. In the mountainous regions of Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the unusual heat levels would accelerate snow and ice melt, with the possibility of triggering glacial lake floods or flash floods in vulnerable areas, it added. Air quality has also deteriorated, and large swathes of land are at risk of fire outbreaks. It is premature to attribute the extreme heat in India and Pakistan solely to climate change, said the WMO. "However, it is consistent with what we expect in a changing climate." The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in its recent Sixth Assessment Report, said heatwaves and humid heat stress would be more intense and frequent in South Asia this century. Also read: Deadly flooding, heatwaves in Europe, highlight urgency of climate action: WMO The current heatwave was triggered by a high-pressure system and follows an extended period of above-average temperatures. India recorded its warmest March on record, with an average maximum temperature of 33.1°C, or 1.86°C above the long-term average. Pakistan also recorded its warmest March for at least the past 60 years, with several stations breaking March records. In the pre-monsoon period, both India and Pakistan regularly experience excessively high temperatures, especially during May. India has established a national framework for heat action plans through the national disaster management authority which coordinates a network of state disaster response agencies and city leaders, to prepare for soaring temperatures and ensure that everyone is aware of heatwave protocols. The city of Ahmedabad in India was the first South Asian city to develop and implement a city-wide heat health adaptation, in 2013, after experiencing a devastating heatwave in 2010. This successful approach was then expanded to 23 heatwave-prone states and serves to protect more than 130 cities and districts. Pakistan has also made strides towards protecting public health from heat. In the summer of 2015, a heatwave engulfed much of central and northwest India and eastern Pakistan and was directly or indirectly responsible for several thousand deaths. The event acted as a wake-up call and led to the development and implementation of the Heat Action Plan in Karachi and other parts of Pakistan. Typical plans make sure the targeted intervention is a right fit and designed for the heat vulnerable population of a city. It first identifies the heat hotspots of the city, locates the vulnerable populations in these pockets, and assesses the nature and status of their vulnerability to extreme heat.

Rescuers retrieved a dozen bodies of women buried under tons of mud from a landslide that crashed onto an unauthorized gold mining operation on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, police said Friday. About 14 women were looking for gold grains Thursday in a pit roughly 2 meters (6.5 feet) deep at a small and unauthorized traditional gold mine in a remote village of North Sumatra’s Mandailing Natal district when a landslide plunged down surrounding hills and buried them, said local police chief Marlon Rajagukguk. A two-hour search and rescue operation managed to rescue two injured women and pulled the bodies of 12 other women from the rubble, Rajagukguk said. Also read: 2 workers killed in Rangamati landslide He said authorities have closed illegal gold pits in the area, which was a main source of gold to be panned traditionally by villagers before Thursday’s landslide happened. Informal mining operations are commonplace in Indonesia, providing a tenuous livelihood to thousands who labor in conditions with a high risk of serious injury or death. Landslides, flooding and collapses of tunnels are just some of the hazards facing miners. Much of gold ore processing involves highly toxic mercury and cyanide and workers frequently use little or no protection. Also read: Jade mine landslide kills 12 in Myanmar's northernmost state The country’s last major mining-related accident occurred in February 2019 when a makeshift wooden structure in an illegal gold mine in North Sulawesi province collapsed due to shifting soil and the large number of mining holes. More than 40 people died, buried in the mine pit.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will depart for a three-nation European tour of Germany, Denmark and France next week amid the Russia-Ukraine war. Modi will first travel to Germany on May 2, where he is slated to hold bilateral talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. From Germany, he will go to Denmark and will have a brief stopover in Paris on his way back home on May 4, according to the Foreign Ministry. "In Berlin, the Prime Minister will hold bilateral talks with Olaf Scholz, Federal Chancellor of Germany, and the two leaders will co-chair the sixth edition of the India-Germany Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC)," the Ministry said in a statement. Also read: Modi congratulates Prez Macron on his re-election Modi's visit will be an opportunity to enhance and intensify cooperation in a broad range of areas and for the two governments to exchange views on regional and global matters of mutual interest, according to the Ministry. "During his visit, the Prime Minister and German Chancellor Scholz would also jointly address a business event. The Prime Minister will address and interact with the Indian community in Germany," it said. From Germany, Modi will head to Copenhagen. Apart from holding bilateral talks with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, the Indian PM will participate in the second India-Nordic summit being hosted by Denmark, the Ministry said. At the India-Nordic summit, Modi will also hold talks with Premier Katrín Jakobsdóttir of Iceland, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of Norway, Premier Magdalena Andersson of Sweden and PM Sanna Marin of Finland. Also read:Biden urges Modi not to step up Indian use of Russian oil "The summit will focus on subjects like post-pandemic economic recovery, climate change, innovation and technology, renewable energy, the evolving global security scenario and India-Nordic cooperation in the Arctic," the Ministry said. On his return journey on May 4, the Ministry said, Modi will make a stopover in Paris and meet French President Emmanuel Macron, who was recently re-elected for a second five-year term, according to the Ministry. "India and France are celebrating 75 years of their diplomatic relations this year and the meeting between the two leaders will set a more ambitious agenda of the strategic partnership," the statement said.

Sherry Fonseka joined millions in 2019 in electing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a military strategist whose brutal campaign helped end Sri Lanka’s 30-year civil war 10 years earlier. Now he is one of thousands who, for weeks, have protested outside the president’s office, calling on Rajapaksa and his brother, Mahinda, who is prime minister, to resign for leading the country into its worst economic crisis since its independence from Britain in 1948. With the island teetering near bankruptcy, Fonseka, who owns a small garment business in the capital, Colombo, has resorted to spending his own savings to pay the salaries of his 30 employees. But he knows he will soon have to let them go and is clear about who is to blame. “All of us thought we made the correct decision (to elect Rajapaksa), but we’ve realized we were wrong. We should have the backbone to tell people, and the world, that we made a mistake,” he said. In recent weeks, protests have erupted across the country demanding that Rajapaksa quit. The protests highlight the dramatic fall of the Rajapaksas from Sri Lanka’s most powerful political dynasty in decades to a family grasping to retain power. Despite accusations of atrocities during the civil war, Gotabaya and Mahinda, who was previously president, remained heroes to many of the island’s Buddhist-Sinhalese majority and were firmly entrenched at the top of Sri Lankan politics before the revolt by previous supporters like Fonseka. “The pendulum has swung from ‘it’s all about the Rajapaksas, they are the people who saved this country,’ to ‘it is because of the Rajapaksas that the country is now ruined,’” said Harsha de Silva, an economist and opposition lawmaker. Also read: Sri Lanka discusses loan from China to cover earlier debts The unravelling of Sri Lanka’s economy has been swift and painful. Imports of everything from milk to fuel have plunged, spawning dire food shortages and rolling power cuts. People have been forced to queue for hours every day to buy essentials. Doctors have warned of a crippling shortage of life-saving drugs in hospitals, and the government has suspended payments on $7 billion in foreign debts due this year alone. “The Rajapaksas, like an octopus, have held on to every aspect of public life in Sri Lanka,” de Silva said. “They have been running it as if it was their kingdom. They wished and they did –- that’s how it was and people were with them.” President Rajapaksa has defended his government, partly blaming the pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine. “This crisis was not created by me,” he said in a speech last month, adding that his government was working hard on solutions. They include approaching the International Monetary Fund and World Bank for assistance, after repeated calls to do so. But as protesters seethed, the president and prime minister have changed tact in recent weeks. They have admitted to mistakes they made that exacerbated the crisis, such as implementing a short-lived ban last year on importing chemical fertilizers that badly hurt farmers and conceding that they should have sought a bailout sooner. Influential Buddhist monks have urged Rajapaksa to form an interim government under a new prime minister, signaling a further decline in the family’s image as protectors of the country’s 70% Buddhist-Sinhalese majority. Some observers say it’s too soon to measure how much support for the Rajapaksas has fallen among their hardcore base, but for many their response has been too little and too late. “There is now recognition across the government of several missteps, but it’s one that’s come at a huge cost to the people,” said Bhavani Fonseka, a senior researcher at the Colombo-based Center for Policy Alternatives. The Rajapaksas were a powerful land-owning family which for decades dominated local elections in their rural southern district, before rising to the helm of national politics in 2005 when Mahinda was elected president. He remained in power until 2015, overseeing the end of the civil war against ethnic Tamil rebels in 2009, before losing to the opposition led by his former aide. Suicide bombings that killed 290 people on Easter Sunday in 2019 paved the way for the Rajapaksas’ return, this time as Gotabaya launched a high-pitched nationalist campaign that tapped outrage and disillusionment with the previous government over the attacks. He vowed a return to the muscular nationalism that had made his family popular with the Buddhist majority, and also to bring the country out of an economic slump with a message of stability and development. Tourism had dropped sharply after the bomb attacks and Sri Lanka needed badly to boost revenue to service a slew of foreign loans for splashy infrastructure projects. Some involved Chinese money and were commissioned under his brother’s presidency, but had failed to create profits, instead collecting debt. Just days into his presidency, Rajapaksa pushed through the largest tax cuts in Sri Lanka’s history to spur spending even as critics warned that it would shrink the government’s finances. According to Nishan de Mel, executive director of Verité Research, Sri Lanka’s tax base fell by 30%. Also read:Sri Lanka halts stock trading as share prices plummet “When you do something like that, you have some kind of internal analysis or document that shows why these cuts could help the economy. There was nothing of that sort,” de Mel said. The move triggered immediate punishment from the global market as creditors downgraded Sri Lanka’s ratings, making it impossible for it to borrow more money as its foreign exchange reserves continued to dwindle. Then the coronavirus hit, further crushing tourism as debts snowballed. Analysts say the Rajapaksas’ response to the economic challenges underscored the limitations of their strongman politics and their family’s near-monopoly on decision making, heavily relying on the military to enforce policy and passing laws to weaken independent institutions. Three other Rajapaksa family members were in the Cabinet until early April, when the Cabinet resigned en masse in response to the protests. “Their entire political ideology and credibility is in serious crisis,” said Jayadeva Uyangoda, a veteran political scientist. But many fear that things will only get worse before improving. A divided and weak opposition without a majority in Parliament has kept the Rajapaksas in power. An IMF bailout could see austere measures intensifying hardships for people before there is relief. Meanwhile, the focus remains on the protests, which are drawing people across ethnicities, religion and class. For the first time, middle-class Sri Lankans have taken to the streets in large numbers, Uyangoda said. They include Wijaya Nanda Chandradewa, who joined the crowd outside the president’s office on Saturday. A retired government employee, Chandradewa said he fell for Rajapaksa’s promise to rebuild a Sri Lanka scarred by the 2019 bombings. “He said there will be one country and one law -- now there is neither the law nor the country,” Chandradewa said, adding that the only option now is for Rajapaksa to quit. “He showed us a fairyland and cheated us and misled us,” he said. “We have to fix our mistakes and build a system to bring in the right leader.”

Shanghai city authorities said Wednesday they will start rounds of COVID-19 testing over the next few days to determine which neighborhoods can safely be allowed a limited amount of freedom of movement, as residents in Beijing watch carefully on word for whether the capital city will lock down. On Wednesday, China reported 14,222 new cases, the vast majority of which were asymptomatic. The country is battling its largest outbreak since the pandemic was first reported in Wuhan in late December 2019. Shanghai’s vice head of its health committee, Zhao Dandan, announced Wednesday that the city would begin another round of testing for city residents over the next few days to determine which districts were lower risk. Areas that have been declared to have achieved “societal zero COVID” could see some measure of limited freedom. Also read: Surprisingly low Shanghai COVID death count spurs questions The phrase, used by Chinese health authorities, refers to when new positive cases are only discovered in people who are already under surveillance, such as in centralized quarantine or those considered to be close contacts. At this point, they are considered to have broken off chains of transmission at the community level. Shanghai’s total lockdown has been in place for near a month, taking a toll on residents who have been confined to their homes. While a small, lucky portion of people have been allowed to leave their homes in the past week, the vast majority of people remain confined. The flow of industrial goods has also been disrupted by the suspension of access to Shanghai, home of the world’s busiest port, and other industrial cities including Changchun and Jilin in northeast China. Officials reported 48 deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total to at least 238 in the city. Meanwhile, the capital city Beijing is in the middle of mass testing millions of residents after cases were discovered over the weekend. The city reported 34 new cases Wednesday, 3 of which were asymptomatic. In the last couple of days, nervous Beijing residents had started stockpiling food and supplies, following Shanghai’s troubles where residents struggled to get a continuous and reliable supply of food while under lockdown. Beijing city officials were quick to promise that they were ensuring grocery stores would be well-stocked. They said they were monitoring the Xinfadi wholesale market, where the city gets the vast majority of its supply from, at a press conference Tuesday night. Demand has soared, with city residents sharing online lists of what to stock. Farms on the outskirts of Beijing told the official Beijing Daily News that April and May are typically when demand peaks. Compared to the same period last year, the number of orders rose 20%, owing to the demand generated by the epidemic, according to one major farm the paper interviewed. Also read: Shanghai reports 1st deaths from current COVID-19 outbreak Another farm said it was even more. “Starting from yesterday, the number of orders we’ve received have clearly increased, roughly double the amount at this time last year,” supply chain manager Zhang Xinming told Beijing Daily News. It is unclear whether the entire city will be forced under lockdown. For now, officials have locked down only specific areas where positive cases were found. On Wednesday, Beijing’s Tongzhou district suspended classes for all its schools from kindergarten through high school. Given that China for now remains committed to its “zero-COVID” approach, “I do think we will continue to see the use of these lockdowns across the country,” said Karen Grepin, a public health expert at the University of Hong Kong. “If anything, the omicron variant has made it more challenging to control the virus and thus more stringent measures are needed if the goal is to continue to strive for local elimination.” The “zero-COVID” strategy has worked well against previous versions of the virus, ensuring that for most of the past two years, people in China were able to live a mostly virus-free life.