Muslims flee town in Sri Lanka as tensions rise after bombings

Hundreds of Muslims have fled the Sri Lankan port city of Negombo, and Catholic churches across the country have been ordered to stay closed, in the aftermath of the deadly Easer Sunday bombings.

The bombings, which killed 359 people and injured 500, shattered the relative calm that has existed in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka since a civil war against mostly Hindu, ethnic Tamil separatists ended 10 years ago, and have raised fears of a return to sectarian violence.

Qanta Ahmed: Sri Lanka attacks illustrate Islamist war on Christianity that is opposed by most Muslims

The horrific Easter Sunday bombing attacks that killed more than 350 people and wounded over 500 at churches and high-end hotels in Sri Lanka are the latest evidence of the war being waged on Christianity, Western society and others by radical Islamists.

As a Muslim woman born in Britain to Pakistani immigrants – and now a proud American citizen living in the New York City area – I know that murderers like those who staged the Sri Lanka attacks represent a tiny fringe element of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims.

'Start Here': Giuliani slams subpoenas as Kim Jong Un visits Vladimir Putin

North Korea's Kim Jong Un traveled 400 miles by train to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin just two months after Kim's summit with Trump in Vietnam screeched to a halt.

As congressional Democrats escalate investigative efforts of the president and his administration, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's personal attorney, says on "Start Here" that the White House "can object to subpoenas on any number of grounds." "You can only go so far in harassing the president without violating the Constitution," he adds.

Death toll in Sri Lanka bombings revised down to 253

Sri Lankan authorities have revised the death toll from Easter Sunday’s string of bombings down to 253 people from the previous estimate of 359.

“The death toll from the Easter Sunday attacks is at least 253, our first estimates were 290 and it will be reduced to 253,” the director-general said in a statement. The country’s director general for health services issued the correction on Thursday, citing the difficulty of identifying victims due to the nature of the bombings, some of which took place in closely confined spaces and left some bodies in pieces.

Sri Lankan authorities bring in more people — including foreigners — for questioning after bombings

Sri Lankan authorities swept up more people, including foreigners, for questioning on Thursday as they probed deeper into the Easter Sunday bombings, which killed 359 people in potentially the deadliest operation claimed by Islamic State.

WATCH: ISIS claims responsibility for Sri Lanka attacks as new video released purportedly showing 2 more suspects. An explosion occurred in a town east of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, on Thursday but there were no casualties, a police spokesman said, adding it was not a controlled explosion like other blasts in recent days and was being investigated.

Ocasio-Cortez-aligned group attacks Biden, says he’s ‘out-of-touch’ with Democratic Party

A progressive political group that boosted New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's bid for Congress last year vowed to oppose former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, blasting him as part of the “old guard” and accusing him of standing in opposition to the “center of energy” in the Democratic Party. “While we're going to support the Democratic nominee, we can't let a so-called 'centrist' like Joe Biden divide the Democratic Party and turn it into the party of 'No, we can’t,’” the group Justice Democrats said Thursday.

Sri Lanka's crisis of leadership opens space for nationalist...

Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother, then the defense secretary, crushed Tamil Tiger separatists with such ferocity ten years ago that Western powers sought war crime trials against them and greeted their defeat in elections later with barely concealed glee.

Sri Lanka, a country of 21 million, has been a tinder box of sectarian and ethnic tensions, first between the Sinhalese Buddhist majority and minority Tamil groups and in recent years between the Sinhalese and the Muslims.

Foreigners caught up as Sri Lanka searches for clues to Easter...

Sri Lankan authorities swept up more people, including foreigners, for questioning on Thursday as they probed deeper into the Easter Sunday bombings, which killed 359 people in potentially the deadliest operation claimed by Islamic State.

The one man in the video with his face uncovered has been identified as Mohamed Zahran, a preacher from the east of Sri Lanka known for his militant views who officials believe was the attack’s mastermind.

Sri Lanka lowers Easter attack death toll while suspects still at large

The search for suspects tied to the deadly Easter bombings in Sri Lanka has intensified amid concerns about possible further attacks.

Sri Lankan officials lowered the death toll in the Easter Sunday attack down to 253 from the previous figure of 359, officials said on Thursday. The country's Health Ministry said that the state of the bodies made it difficult to give a precise figure and that some bodies had been double-counted.

Prince William visits survivors at New Zealand mosques attacked by gunman in March

Extremist ideology must be defeated, Britain’s Prince William said during a visit to a New Zealand mosque on Friday where dozens were killed in a mass shooting last month after earlier meeting survivors of the massacre.

William, the Duke of Cambridge, spoke at Al Noor mosque in the South Island city of Christchurch, one of two mosques where 50 people were killed by a lone gunman during Friday prayers on March 15.

South Lanka authorities were trying to head off bombers when they...

Most of the victims were Sri Lankans, although authorities have said at least 38 foreigners were also killed, many of them tourists sitting down to breakfast at top-end hotels when the bombers struck.

“The local Sri Lankan people have attacked our houses,” one of them, Adnan Ali, told Reuters on Wednesday, as he prepared to board a bus.

Footage shows refugees hiding as Libyan militia attack detention centre

Young refugees held in a detention centre in Libya have described being shot at indiscriminately by militias advancing on Tripoli, in an attack that reportedly left at least two people dead and up to 20 injured.

“We are working to verify information and are looking at all possible options to support a medical response, however, due to the fighting, our teams have been unable to access the people in this detention centre for the past two weeks.”

Sri Lankans urged to avoid mosques, churches amid warnings of possible car bombs

Muslims in Sri Lanka were urged to pray at home on Friday and not attend mosques or churches after the State Intelligence Services warned of possible car bomb attacks, amid fears of retaliatory violence for the Easter Sunday bombings.

The U.S. embassy in Sri Lanka also urged its citizens to avoid places of worship over the coming weekend after authorities reported there could be more attacks targeting religious centers.

Sri Lanka toll revised down by 'about 100'

Sri Lanka has revised down the death toll from Sunday's blasts by more than 100, to "about 253", the health ministry says.

Auranzeb Zabi, an Ahmadi Pakistani refugee who has lived in Sri Lanka for two years, told the New York Times he had been forced from his home in Negombo on Wednesday by a mob with weapons. Associated Press reports that a group of 200 have been sheltering inside their mosque inside Negombo while 500 more are said to have sought shelter 20 miles away.

Sri Lankan officials lower bombings death toll to 253; cite difficulty identifying victims

Sri Lanka on Thursday lowered the death toll from the Easter suicide bombings by nearly one-third, to 253, as authorities hunted urgently for a least five more suspects and braced for the possibility of more attacks in the coming days.

READ MORE: Sri Lanka failed to heed warnings of bombings that killed 290 people, official says. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said militants who may have explosives remain on the loose in the country and “may go out for a suicide attack.” “We have rounded up a lot of suspects, but there are still active people on the run,” Wickremesinghe said in an interview with The Associated Press.