Asia’s Christians face increased political violence

Sri Lanka's main elephant orphanage recorded a rare twin birth Tuesday as a 25-year-old named Surangi delivered healthy male calves, the first elephant twins born in captivity in the country for 80 years. Official records show there are about 200 domesticated elephants in the island country and an estimated 7,500 in the wild.

Sri Lanka's aim to become the world's first 100 percent organic food producer is threatening its famous tea industry. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's ban on chemical fertiliser earlier this year has sparked concerns of a severe reduction in tea, the island's main export commodity, as well other crops by the end of this year.

Nine people are dead and two others missing after floods in Sri Lanka and parts of southern India caused by more than a week of pounding rains. Nearly half of Sri Lanka's 25 districts have been hit by the deluge, with the worst affected areas in and around the island's tea-growing Central Highlands.

At least six people, including four school children, were killed and scores missing after a ferry capsized in eastern Sri Lanka on Tuesday, officials said. Sri Lanka navy officials and divers conducted a search and rescue operation after the incident, authorities said.

A surge in attacks on Christians in India is part of a much broader malaise, experts say. "The objective is clear: to isolate and demonize minorities so that a Hindu state is established," a political scientist told DW.

In India, new laws cracking down on religious conversion are emboldening right-wing Hindu groups to carry out attacks on Christian churches. Critics say the groups abuse the laws to push their own agenda, without facing any consequences themselves.

Sri Lanka's ongoing economic meltdown is getting worse day by day. It's the worst financial crisis this island nation of 22 million people has faced since its independence seven decades ago. The country's foreign reserves have been dangerously low in recent months, and experts fear the country is on the verge of default.

In Sri Lanka, 13 years after the end of the civil war with the Tamil Tigers that lasted a quarter of a century, reconciliation appears elusive. Elected in 2019, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, seen by the Sinhalese majority as a hero and accused by the Tamil minority ​​of war crimes during the conflict, embodies this divide. FRANCE 24's Thomas Denis reports, with Navodita Kumari.

Russia's war in Ukraine has sent shockwaves around the world and hit the global economy hard. In economically depressed Sri Lanka it's exacerbating an already existing economic crisis.

Sri Lanka's cabinet ministers have resigned from their posts as an economic crisis deepens in the country. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksahas has yet to step down, despite growing demands for his resignation.

Sri Lanka's government said restrictions on access to social media platforms came a day after protesters defied a nationwide curfew to demand government accountability.

Sri Lanka's president said a nationwide state of emergency was necessary to ensure order in the country, a day after protesters clashed with the police. Sri Lanka is in the throes of a financial crisis.