Maithripala Sirisena says investigations into alleged abuses weakened armed forces

Sri Lanka’s president has said investigations into civil war-era human rights abuses weakened the country’s security apparatus and left it vulnerable to last Sunday’s suicide bomb attacks, as members of the government continued to try to diffuse blame for the attacks.

Maithripala Sirisena told Sri Lankan media outlets on Friday morning that there were up to 140 supporters of Islamic State in the country and that about 70 had been arrested.

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In this beautifully shot but underwhelming story, a black-white duo enter the gruelling Dusi canoe marathon hoping to heal their nation’s wounds

‘Two people combine to make the power,” growls seasoned Afrikaner canoeist Steve (Grant Swanby) to his Soweto protege Duma (Lemogang Tsipa), as they struggle to get their paddles in sync and the future of South African race relations hangs by a thread. Inspired by a true story of an unfancied black-white duo who managed to win the gruelling 120km Dusi canoe marathon in 2014, Beyond the River sadly can’t muster more than bland motivational soundbites about how sport can heal the nation’s wounds. Resplendently photographed by Trevor Calverley, it feels as if there’s no racial divide that can’t be conquered by a soaring drone shot of glorious veldt.

Duma is drifting into a life of crime, illegally stripping cables for the metal, when he’s forced into returning to the canoe training he ditched following his mother’s death. After providing logistical support for Steve at the Dusi, he proposes teaming up with him for the following year’s race. Steve isn’t threatened by the idea, unlike racist colleagues in the boathouse who make jokes about “African time”. But, set in his ways and nursing a private trauma, Steve is not ready to accept that their partnership might work better with the man once nicknamed “Helicopter”, for his flailing arms, at the front of the boat.

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As the right enlists bullfighters as candidates, animal welfare champions are polling well

If the polls and pundits are correct, Spain’s Vox party will achieve its much-prophesied breakthrough in Sunday’s general election, becoming the first far-right grouping to win more than a single seat in parliament since the country embarked on its post-Franco return to democracy.

Although Vox’s chances of attracting around 11% of the vote have hogged the headlines, another small party – and one with a markedly different worldview – is also gearing up for a historic day at the ballot box.

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Bastion of president’s base riven by financial woes and rows over its political campaigning

When Donald Trump addresses cheering throngs at the National Rifle Association annual meetings on Friday, he will again be throwing red meat to his base before an election. This time, however, it could be argued that the NRA needs Trump more than Trump needs the NRA.

The world’s most powerful gun lobby is in disarray. The organisation is still reeling from disclosures that Russian operatives tried to use contacts in the NRA to influence US elections. Its leaders have been accused of straying from the association’s original mission of gun safety and shooting sports by wading into politics and “culture wars”. And, plagued by financial troubles, the NRA is suing its longtime public relations firm over its refusal to hand over financial records to account for bills worth millions of dollars.

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Sierra Leone is nearing the end of a one-month ban on industrial fishing that local fishermen hoped would replenish stocks but whose impact has been limited by its short span and the financial muscle of foreign companies.

Homes were destroyed and some areas were cut off and without power in Mozambique on Friday after Cyclone Kenneth made landfall, the second major storm to hit the country in six weeks.

As an archaeologist, I’ve seen Yemen’s rich heritage. But for too many world leaders, only arms sales really matter

Like everyone else the world over, I watched in horror last week as Notre Dame burned and its spire fell. I saw the stunned reactions of onlookers on the news, on social media and in front of television sets and phone screens on the streets of Nice, where I live. A part of France’s national identity and an international symbol of Paris was collapsing before our eyes.

This accidental burning of one of the most important French cultural and religious monuments struck a painful chord in just about everyone I know: I was getting messages of grief from friends in Sudan, Yemen, the US and South America. The unthinkable sight of Notre Dame burning evoked photographs of burning buildings during wartime, and nostalgia for all the valuable historical objects within them that had been turned to ash. One could not look at this sight without feeling grief.

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During initial tests of their 8.1-metre (27-foot) tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from LinkSpace, a start-up led by China's youngest space entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its safe return. Just in case.

The European Economic Area wants to sign a memorandum of understanding on China's Belt and Road initiative as a whole and not as individual states, German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Friday.

Some adults whose claims were rejected went without food for up to five days, claim activists

Hungarian authorities are systematically denying food to failed asylum seekers detained in the country’s border transit zones, say rights activists.

The policy, whereby adults whose asylum claims have been rejected are denied food, was described as “an unprecedented human rights violation in 21st-century Europe” by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights organisation working to offer legal support to those in the transit zones.

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New observations captured by scientists suggest that the universe is actually expanding quicker than the laws of physics should allow.

Sri Lankan police are searching for 140 suspects thought to have links with the Islamic State terror group after the Easter Sunday bombings, the country's president has said.

Nicole Garcia Aguilar fled Honduras after being subjected to sexual assault and attempted murder linked to her gender identity

A Honduran transgender asylum seeker who was released last week after a year incarcerated in immigration centres has been re-detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

The move was condemned by her legal team as punitive and damaging to the young woman’s physical and mental health.

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Britain is committed to help realise the potential of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday.

Japan expanded its search for a missing F-35 stealth fighter on Thursday with a maritime survey vessel joining a navy ship and a U.S. Navy salvage team is expected in the area in coming days, a Japanese air force spokesman said.

Myanmar began releasing prisoners on Friday after the president announced he would pardon nearly 7,000 people in addition to thousands released earlier this month.

A rescue helicopter plucked a Malaysian climber from Mount Annapurna in west Nepal on Friday, where he was stranded for two days after climbing the world’s tenth highest mountain this week, officials said.

Should a lone yachtswoman act when authorities tell her to sail away? Wolfgang Fischer’s drama steers into Europe’s migrant crisis with conviction

Our creatives continue to form more imaginative and compassionate responses to the issue of mass migration than our politicians. Like recent TV conscience-prickers Home and Don’t Forget the Driver, Austrian director Wolfgang Fischer’s quietly gripping second feature immerses us in the debate around freedom of movement.

Cinematically, it’s not unlike a clever rethink of JC Chandor’s All Is Lost; that terrific survival drama exerted a form of white privilege by having Robert Redford wrestle tempestuous seas on his lonesome, with no one else around to steal his thunder or closeups. Fischer and co-writer Ika Künzel float the notion there might be something more compelling and provocative in the sight of a struggling sailor encountering others in far worse conditions. For the earlier film’s collision of hulls, substitute a seismic and troubling collision of worlds.

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