Colombo

The Netherlands returned formal ownership to Sri Lanka of six colonial-era treasures on Aug. 28, including a more than 275-year-old cannon inlaid with gold, silver, bronze and rubies.

At a ceremony at the cultural ministry in Colombo, Dutch deputy minister for culture, education and science, Gunay Uslu, signed over the ownership of the objects to Sri Lanka, local officials said.

The United States has announced $40 million in aid to buy fertilizer and other key agricultural inputs in time for the next cultivation season in crisis-hit Sri Lanka.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power, who is visiting Sri Lanka, made the announcement after she met farmer representatives in Ja-Ela outside the capital, Colombo.

Sri Lanka hiked fuel prices yesterday, creating further pain for ordinary people as officials from the United States arrived for talks aimed at alleviating the island's dire economic crisis.

The Bernier/Eliades contemporary art gallery in the downtown Athens neighborhood of Thiseio is hosting an exhibition of watercolors by Athens-based Italian artist Paolo Colombo. Colombo worked with some of the pioneers of the Arte Povera movement in Torino during his youth.

A group of visiting students from a high school of the Romanian city of Iasi on Tuesday were safely repatriated from Sri Lanka to Romania, according to the Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE).

An explosion happened inside a bus during attempt to dismantle an explosive device in it, near the church in Sri Lanka, where on Sunday dozens of people were killed in an attack, Reuters reported by referring to eyewitnesses.

The attacks were carried out by members of a domestic militant group called National Thowfeek Jamaath, a government official said, аccording to ABC news. 

All of the bombers were Sri Lankan citizens, but authorities suspect foreign links, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said.

According to information from our embassy in India, there are no reports of injured Bulgarian citizens at the time of terrorist attacks in churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. At least 290 deaths have been reported as a result of the explosions.

Sri Lankan police and media reported a series of explosions in the Colombo capital city and elsewhere in the island state.

There were explosions in at least three churches and three hotels, police say.

Sri Lanka's government on Jan. 26 destroyed its biggest ever illegal ivory haul in the first public crushing of poached tusks in South Asia, intended to send a stark message to smugglers.

The international trade in ivory has been banned in most of the world since 1989, but illegal smuggling persists in many parts of Asia where ivory is highly prized for medicinal and decorative uses.