Intelligence agencies are now scrambling to understand why Sri Lanka, which had been relatively unscathed by Islamic State’s radicalism, was targeted in Sunday’s attacks.  

But for those who understand how the group works, it is perfectly obvious.

After the group lost all the territory it once held across Iraq and Syria last month it has been keen to remind the world that it was always more than a physical presence, rather an ideology.

No one had expected Sri Lanka, which had just begun to attract tourists again after its brutal decades-long civil war. It sends the terrifying message – nowhere is safe.  

The path from Sri Lanka to Syria is not a well-trodden one.

Sri Lankans have not often featured in Isil propaganda over the years, nor have they been particularly active proponents of the jihadist cause on social media.

Perhaps this is what made it so easy for the small South Asian island’s authorities to ignore the problem.

The government issued a specific warned in 2016 that 32 Muslims from “well-educated and elite” families had gone to Syria, though there are now thought to have been scores more to have joined them.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, told reporters that "they think one or two of them (the bombers) have been to Syria, some of them have been out there, not all."

It raises the possibility that the Easter Sunday bombers could have either been Isil returnees or at least were directed by the group’s leaders.

Two of the hotel bombers were reported to have been the sons of a “wealthy” Colombo spice trader.

The pair were key members of the Islamist National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), which the government has previously blamed for defacing Buddhist statues.

Sri Lankan intelligence agencies are now investigating the link between NTJ and Isil after the brothers were shown pledging allegiance to the latter’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The jihadist group published a picture of them on Tuesday, naming them by the nom de guerres Abou Obaida and Abou Baraa.  

The local Muslim community had been complaining to authorities about NTJ and its leaders, but it appears now their warnings were not taken seriously.

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Around 1,000 Muslim refugees in Sri Lanka have been forced from their homes in retaliatory attacks following the Easter Sunday bombings, according to Human Rights Watch.

Mobs threatened to destroy the houses of Afghans, Pakistanis and Iranians – most of whom are part of minority Muslim sects such as the Ahmadiyya – who had fled to Sri Lanka after suffering persecution in their homelands.

Some also reported that they had been beaten up by gangs wielding sticks and stones.

A small number of Christian refugees from the three countries have also been caught up in attacks through mistaken identity.

“The people in Pakistan attacked us and say we’re not Muslims,” said Tariq Ahmed, a 58-year-old Pakistani Ahmadiyya told Associated Press.

“Then in Sri Lanka, people attack us because they say we are Muslims.”

Around 650 refugees have sought shelter at a mosque in the city of Pasyala, near Negombo.

Others are believed to be staying in police stations or local schools while 30 Iranians have barricaded themselves inside their homes.

Human Rights Watch called on the Sri Lankan government to protect its 1,600 asylum seekers as well as the broader population.

“Sri Lankan authorities not only have a responsibility to apprehend those responsible for the heinous East Sunday attacks but also to protect all those now at heightened risk,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, Director for South Asia.

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“This means providing safe and secure shelter for refugees and asylum seekers, but also taking prompt legal action against anyone who threatens them.”

Anti-Muslim backlash in Sri Lanka is at an all-time high as a result of the horrific Easter Sunday terror attacks.

Nine suicide bombers with links to Islamic State blew themselves up in churches and hotels, killing 253 people.

The Sri Lankan government has declared a state of emergency while it attempts to re-establish control.

An entire island-wide curfew was in place until Sunday and is still being upheld in three districts of the country.

A ban on clothing which conceals the face, including the burqa, has also been introduced while police hunt for suspects. 

So far, over 100 people have been arrested in conjunction with the attacks while 15 suspected militants and their families died during a police raid in the east of the country on Friday.

Around 30 people were treated for hypothermia at an outdoor techno music festival in France after unexpected snowfall left many ravers sheltering under survival blankets distributed by the Red Cross.

Around 10,000 people attended the unauthorised Teknival 2019 festival in the central Creuse region at the weekend, where temperatures dropped to -3 degrees Celsius (27 degrees fahrenheit) overnight on Saturday to Sunday.

Around 30 people were treated for hypothermia at the scene and two were taken to hospital, local officials told AFP, with the several centimetres (inches) of snow turning the festival camping experience into an endurance test.

Organisers put a heated tent on the muddy hill-top site, which belongs to the French military, and the Red Cross distributed 500 survival blankets to revellers at the scene.

Teknival is an unauthorised electronic music festival that is held annually at a secret location which is revealed only at the last minute.

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French authorities had attempted to prevent this year’s edition and police succeeded in stopping several trucks carrying sound systems from arriving.

Last year, to mark its 25th year, the festival was held at a military base in northern France. Organisers were accused by local conservation groups of disturbing a nearby nature zone and unsettling the local birdlife.

Sudan’s ruling military council and protest leaders today said they were on the verge of a deal to form the country’s first civilian government since Omar Bashir’s dictatorship was overthrown last month.

The Transitional Military Council and representatives of the Forces for Freedom and Change were expected to begin talks on the proportion of military and civilian members on the interim sovereign council, which will fulfill the role of head of state until elections are held, on Wednesday evening. An announcement was expected overnight.

"We vow to our people that the agreement will be completed fully within 24 hours in a way that it meets the people’s aspirations," General Yasser al-Atta, one of the members of the council, told reporters on Wednesday.  

The breakthrough came despite clashes between pro-democracy demonstrators and security forces earlier in the week.  

Five protesters and one army officer were killed when men in uniform attacked the crowd with whips, tear gas, and live ammunition on Monday.  

Protest leaders blamed the violence on elements of the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary militia run by the deputy head of the transitional military council.

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The clashes came a day after protesters expanded their barricades into Nile Avenue, a central arterial road, in a bid to put pressure on the generals to accept a transition to civilian role. The military council called the demonstrators’ move "unacceptable."

The predominantly youthful protesters, who are represented by a coalition of opposition parties, trade unions, and activist groups called the Forces for Freedom and Change, say they will maintain a vast sit-in protest outside military headquarters in Khartoum until a full democratic transition is delivered.

On Tuesday military and civilian negotiators that they had agreed to a three-year transition period before elections are held, and that there would be a 300 member transitional parliament with 200 seats reserved for groups that had backed the revolutionaries’ Freedom and Change manifesto.

The first six months of the transition would be devoted to reaching peace accords with rebels in war zones including Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

The composition of the sovereign council, which would play the role of a "president", has been the most bitterly contested element.

Both sides have demanded a majority of seats on the council, with the military arguing only soldiers can guarantee national security and protesters warning that a regime committed to democratic transition must be led by civilians. 

The new council will appoint a separate transitional civilian government headed by prime minister, which would be responsible for day-to-day governance and preparations for elections after a three-year transition period. 

Luxury fashion house Prada said on Wednesday it will remove animal fur from its collections, joining a lengthening list of designers to make that choice.

Prada’s decision, to take effect with its women’s Spring-Summer 2020 collection, was welcomed by several animal protection associations, a statement said.

The Italian fashion house said its decision stemmed from “a positive dialogue” with the Fur Free Alliance (FFA) of more than 50 associations in about 40 countries, notably the Italian group LAV and The Humane Society of the United States.

Other major names to have renounced the use of animal fur include Armani, Burberry, DKNY, Donna Karan, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Gucci, Michael Kors and Versace.

Prada “is committed to innovation and social responsibility, and our fur-free policy … is an extension of that engagement,” artistic director Miuccia Prada was quoted as saying in the statement.

“Focusing on innovative materials will allow the company to explore new boundaries of creative design while meeting the demand for ethical products,” she added.

The Prada statement included reactions from several animal protection groups, with FFA program manager Brigit Oele saying: “This global movement is gaining momentum fast, and it’s very unlikely that fur will ever return as an acceptable trend. This is a great day for animals!”

The fur industry has scorned the trend towards fur-free fashion, and Mark Oaten of The International Fur Federation said in a statement: “I am surprised that a brand who care about sustainability are banning a natural product like fur.

“Now Prada customers will only have plastic fur as an option, which is bad for the planet. I urge Prada to think again and trust its own consumers to decide if they want to buy real or fake fur.”

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Fur represents a fraction of most fashion groups’ sales in fact, and while figures for Prada were not available, at rival Gucci which stopped using fur in 2018, it accounted for just 0.16 percent of the total.

Bangladesh police on Wednesday charged 16 people, including the headmaster of an Islamic seminary, over the shocking murder of a 19-year-old girl burned to death.

The killing of Nusrat Jahan Rafi last month sparked protests across the South Asian nation, with the prime minister promising to prosecute all those involved.

Rafi was lured to the rooftop of the Islamic seminary she attended where her attackers asked her to withdraw a sexual harassment complaint filed with police against the head teacher.

When she refused, she was doused in kerosene and set on fire.

She died five days later, triggering outrage. Her death highlighted alarming rise in sexual harassment cases in the country.

Bangladesh’s Police Bureau of Investigation said they would file the chargesheet in a court in the country’s on Wednesday against the 16 people who include two girls who were classmates of Rafi.

"They are charged under the women and children repression law and we’ll recommend death penalty for all 16 accused," PBI lead investigator Mohammad Iqbal told AFP.

Mr Iqbal said the Principal of the Sonagazi Islamia Senior Fazil Madrasa Siraj Ud Doula where Rafi was a student ordered the murder from jail.

Rafi had gone to police in late March to report the alleged sexual harassment against the teacher, and a leaked video shows the local police station chief registering her complaint but dismissing it as "not a big deal".

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Parisian parents are outraged that a school lunch consisting of “industrial triangular sandwiches” was served to their children instead of a balanced, cooked meal this week.

Few Britons remember school dinners with any real pleasure, but French schools have long enjoyed a reputation for feeding pupils appetising, varied meals in keeping with the tradition of Gallic gastronomy.

Parents were aghast when their children told them they had been given “an industrial, pre-packed triangular sandwich of the kind sold at motorway service stations,” said one mother, Anne.

“The children had been promised what was described as a special picnic meal, but this is verging on a scandal.”

The caterers that supplied the lunches to 14,000 pupils in Paris’s 18th arrondissement are now facing a torrent of protests.

Many parents have joined a campaign group and are urging other parents to refuse to pay for the meals. The offending sandwich was served with tomatoes, bread and butter, a slice of watermelon and an apple.

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“The tomatoes were supposed to be ‘organic and local’ but in fact they were Spanish,” said Anne, who declined to give her surname.

For many parents, already concerned about what they said was the poor quality of food supplied by the Sogeres catering company, the sandwich was the last straw.

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Jean, another parent, said: “Our children have often been given food cooked several days in advance, reheated and served on plastic trays. This is unacceptable.”

A parents’ association launched a petition last year in protest at school lunches which they said were “packed with hydrogenated fat, sugar, additives, salt, preservatives and food dyes”.

The local town hall, which is responsible for overseeing school canteens, apologised to parents and promised that from September, “all sandwiches served to pupils will be fresh”.

But a spokesman defended the decision to serve sandwiches on the grounds that it had been authorised by a committee responsible for approving school menus, which includes parents.

“As schools were closed on Thursday and Friday last week, Monday’s meals had to be delivered to schools by Wednesday, so a hot meal would have been impossible,” the spokesman said.

But he added that the use of plastic packaging in the meal was “deplorable… at a time when we are trying to reduce the volume of plastic in the canteens”. 

The French education ministry generally insists on three-course lunches “suitable for children’s nutritional needs… [including] a main course with a side dish and a dairy product.”

Rebeca Plantier, an American expatriate author who wrote a book titled “French School Lunch”, said she was stunned to see her children’s primary school canteen.

“I walked into the dining room to see tables of four already set — silverware, silver bread basket, off-white ceramic plates, cloth napkins, clear glasses and water pitchers laid out ready for lunch.”

Ms Plantier said the culture of eating inculcated into French children helps to explain why fewer are overweight or suffer from diabetes than in Britain or the United States.

“Eating moderate quantities of fresh and freshly prepared food at set times of the day is definitely one of the most convincing reasons why they stay lean.”

Lunch menus at her children’s school are generally set two months in advance and “sent to a certified dietician who makes small corrections,” she said. “Treats are included — the occasional slice of tarte, a dollop of ice-cream, a delicacy from the local pastry shop.”

Lawyers for the 12 Catalan independence leaders charged with rebellion today denied their clients had engaged in a ‘coup d’etat’ as the controversial trial drew to a close.

The supreme court has heard testimony from more than 400 witnesses, including former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, since the trial into the holding of an unlawful referendum in 2017 opened in February.

But the political consequences of the court action remain uncertain and Spain’s divisions are as deep as ever on how to approach the desire for independence among many Catalans.

“The best thing for everyone would be to take the question back to the realm of politics, dialogue and agreement,” said Oriol Junqueras, the former deputy president of Catalonia, in his closing remarks before the seven judges retired to consider a verdict that is not expected until after the summer.

Mr Junqueras, for whom the public prosecutor is asking for 25 years in jail on counts of rebellion and misuse of public funds, is at the centre of the latest row surrounding the trial after the Spanish government’s legal representation said it backed the Catalan politician’s request to take up his seat as an MEP.

Conservative opposition Popular Party leader Pablo Casado demanded that Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, overrule the government’s legal representative because “the majority of Spanish democrats and the majority of Spain’s parliament and the European Parliament do not want Catalonia’s xenophobic exclusivism to affect our institutions”.

If the supreme court decides to allow Mr Junqueras to take up his role as an MEP, the Spanish judiciary would then have to ask the European Parliament to lift his immunity from prosecution.

While prosecutors argued that the accused had orchestrated a violent uprising by deliberately bringing Catalan independence supporters onto the streets to obstruct Spanish security forces as they attempted to prevent the referendum from taking place, defence lawyers claimed the trial was an attack on their clients’ political ideas, which were wholly peaceful.

Last month the UN’s working committee on arbitrary detention criticised the judicial proceedings and called for three of the nine Catalan leaders currently in custody to be released immediately.

Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia’s former president who was accused of declaring independence in October 2017 before fleeing Spain, said on his Twitter account that the “farce of the trial is over [but] the shame will stay with the Spanish state”.

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Joe Biden, the former US vice president, said on Wednesday he had nothing to apologise for after coming under fire for remarks about his time working civilly with segregationists serving in the Senate in the 1970s.

The Democratic frontrunner came under sharp criticism from some of his presidential rivals, with US Senator Cory Booker calling on him to apologise.

"Frankly, I’m disappointed that he hasn’t issued an immediate apology for the pain his words are dredging up for many Americans. He should," Mr Booker, who is black, said in a statement.

The criticism exposed bubbling racial and generational tensions within the Democratic field that is the most diverse in history. Mr Biden, 76, is leading in early opinion polls in the crowded Democratic contest to take on Republican President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday evening, Mr Biden was asked about Mr Booker’s demand that he apologise. "Apologise for what? Cory should apologise. He knows better. Not a racist bone in my body. I’ve been involved in civil rights my whole career," Mr Biden said.

BREAKING: @JoeBiden responds to Dem rival criticism on comments re: “some civility” w/segregationist senators: “Apologize for what? @CoryBooker should apologize” @CBSNews (w/@JuliaCherner) pic.twitter.com/zFaEXpSNXM

— Bo Erickson (@BoKnowsNews) June 19, 2019

At a fundraiser in Potomac, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, Mr Biden cited civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as a personal "hero" and an inspiration for his political career.

Mr Biden’s campaign said he was not endorsing the positions of the segregationists he named but using them as an example of someone with whom he disagreed.

"And I think anyone who served with Joe Biden, you know, whether it was in the Senate or whether they worked with him during his eight years as Barack Obama’s vice president, knows that this is a man who is committed to equality and civil rights in this country," Anita Dunn, a senior Biden aide, told MSNBC.

At issue are Mr Biden’s remarks at a New York fundraiser for his presidential campaign on Tuesday night.

Mr Biden said US leaders had lost the ability to work together. He pointed to two segregationists from the South who were serving in the Senate when he was first elected – Democratic Senators James Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia.

Eastland described black people as inferior and fought against efforts to desegregate the South. When Biden joined the U.S. Senate in 1973, he and fellow Democrat Eastland served on the same committee.

"At least there was some civility. We got things done. We didn’t agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished," Mr Biden said. "But today, you look at the other side and you’re the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don’t talk to each other anymore.”

It’s past time for apologies or evolution from @JoeBiden. He repeatedly demonstrates that he is out of step with the values of the modern Democratic Party. (2/2)

— Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) June 19, 2019

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination, criticised Biden’s remarks.

"It’s past time for apologies or evolution from @JoeBiden," de Blasio wrote on Twitter. "He repeatedly demonstrates that he is out of step with the values of the modern Democratic Party."

De Blasio called out Biden for invoking Eastland, posting a photo of himself on Twitter with his wife, who is black, and his two multiracial children.

"It’s 2019 & @JoeBiden is longing for the good old days of ‘civility’ typified by James Eastland. Eastland thought my multiracial family should be illegal & that whites were entitled to ‘the pursuit of dead n*ggers,’" Mr de Blasio wrote on Twitter.

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