BOMBS: Happy Easter from Sri Lanka (video)

DW; BBC News (BBC.com/news/world-asia); CBS News; Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

Pope Francis visits Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka to spread colonial-era Catholicism

Buddhist monk, Roman Catholic Pope Francis, and Hindu sadhu in Sri Lanka

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Sri Lanka explosions: More than 200 killed as churches and hotels targeted

Deadly explosions strike across Sri Lanka

At least 207 people have been killed and 450 hurt in explosions at Christian churches and secular hotels in predominantly Buddhist Sri Lanka, police say.

 

Eight blasts were reported, including at least three churches in the cities of Negombo, Batticaloa, and Colombo's Kochchikade district during Easter services.

• Explosions kill at least 138 in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday

The Shangri-La, Kingsbury, and Cinnamon Grand [Sri Lanka is the origin and source of cinnamon] hotels and one other, all in the capital, Colombo, were also targeted.

A national curfew has been put in place "until further notice," and social media networks have been temporarily blocked.

• [NOTE: This was done to stem the spread of rumors on social media, in the event people want to jump to conclusions and blame Islamist radicals, which have never been a problem on the island, or the Hindu Tamil Tiger rebels with whom they fought the longest civil war in Asia, a war that wrapped up nearly a decade ago with many Hindus still being oppressed and abused by the Sinhalese Buddhist majority and the Sinhalese-dominated government, military, and police. It is possible that Buddhist extremists led by politicized monks are to blame.]

A foreign ministry official said 27 foreign nationals were among the dead.

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Reports say seven people have been arrested, but it not yet clear who is responsible for the attacks.
 
Sri Lanka's defense minister has said the attacks were probably carried out by one group.

What's the latest from the scene?

Pope Francis in gold Buddhist robe, Sri Lanka

The first reports of explosions came at about 08:45 (03:15 GMT) local time -- with six blasts reported close together at churches and luxury hotels.

St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo was severely damaged in one explosion, with dozens killed at the site.

Images from inside showed blood on the pews and the building's ceiling shattered. More

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The Bhutan Insurgencies

As refugees depart for US, camps in Nepal foster new resistance

Don Duncan, GlobalPost


School children (above) in the last "Himalayan Buddhist kingdom" (WFP); Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal (boiseweekly.com); King Wangchuck of Bhutan passes throne.

BHUTAN — The impressive necklace of cliff-perched fortresses that dot this Himalayan nation's mountainous perimeter are a testimony to Bhutan's long-standing effort to keep out foreigners. In the 1980s, however, the tiny Buddhist kingdom of just 600,000 sandwiched between the People's Republic of China and India, found itself with what it considered to be a foreigner problem.

Bhutan's minority population of ethnic Nepalese had mush-roomed to represent one-third of the population, causing then-King Jigme Singye Wangchuck (left, seen crowning his son) to start a "one nation, one people" policy to deport and strip many of their Bhutanese citizenship.

The campaign ended with the expulsion of about 105,000 Nepalese through beatings, torture, and murder committed by the Royal Bhutan Army that lasted until the early 1990s, human rights groups and deportees say.

"We left because we were scared that they would imprison us, that they would beat us, that I would be raped," said Matimya Moktan, 41, who arrived in Nepal in 1991 and now lives in a small mud stick hut with her three children and husband in one of seven refugee camps in eastern Nepal. More>>