ANN/Eleven Media – A farm worker in Mon State’s Thanbyuzayat Township in Myanmar suffered severe injuries after stepping on a landmine in Wae Khami village, local sources reported.
The incident occurred on the afternoon of March 7 when 43-year-old U Nanda Htun was clearing weeds in a rubber plantation near the village. While working, he accidentally triggered a buried landmine, causing a powerful explosion.
The blast resulted in the loss of his left foot, while shrapnel wounded his right leg. He also sustained injuries to his left forearm and below his left elbow, according to a local resident.
“When the explosion happened, nearby plantation workers heard the blast and rushed to help. They found U Nanda Htun lying on the ground with severe leg injuries.
He was carried back to the village and taken to Thanbyuzayat Township Public Hospital by car,” the resident said. Due to the extent of his injuries, he was later transferred to Mawlamyine General Hospital for further medical treatment, the source added.
An army personnel handles an unexploded landmine in Manton, northern Shan State, Myanmar. PHOTO: AFP
DAMBULLA (AP) – After leaving school, Jeewanthi Adikari was determined to pursue her studies in accounting. But her life took a different path when she began a three-month training programme in hospitality.
She has since worked in different hotels throughout a career spanning over two decades. Now 42, she is in charge of Sri Lanka’s first resort fully operated and managed by women.
It’s an attempt to address gender disparities in a male-dominated tourism sector crucial for the country’s economic recovery after a major crisis.
“This is a place where women can realise their potential. They will not be inside the shell. Instead, they will come out and try to perform better,” said Adikari, who oversees the daily operations of Amba Yaalu, a resort located in Dambulla city that serves as a gateway to most of Sri Lanka’s tourist attractions.
Most Sri Lankan women don’t get a chance to work in the tourism industry, earn money and own a career.
In a country where 52 per cent of the 22 million people are women, they account for only about 10 per cent of the 200,000-strong workforce in the hospitality sector.
An employee dusts the living area at Amba Yaalu resort in the Kandalama locality in Dambulla, Sri Lanka. PHOTO: APA stewardess at Amba Yaalu resort attends to guests at a restaurant in the locality. PHOTO: APThe all-female staff of Amba Yaalu resort cheers as they pose for a photograph. PHOTO: AP
AMBA YAALU WANTS TO BE THE DRIVER OF CHANGE
Some 160 kilometres northeast of Colombo, the resort is nestled in a mango plantation and all work is managed by 75 women staff who garden, work in the kitchens, clean the facility, address the guests and provide security in the form of seven ex-military members.
The resort’s facilities also include training programs for women to develop their skills in different areas of hospitality.
The resort opened in January and has been seen as a move unlocking women’s potential and driving the tourism economy in the debt-stricken nation.
The idea was conceived by seasoned hotelier Chandra Wickramasinghe, who said he was “inspired by the power of women,” especially that of his mother who raised him and his seven siblings as a single parent.
“I knew what these ladies can do. I got the idea and put my team to work on it. We got a strong team to run it and it worked very well,” said Wickramasinghe, adding that the resort would enable women to thrive as leaders.
Social stigma, language barrier, work-life balance, lack of training facilities and low salaries have long kept the majority of Sri Lankan women away from the hospitality industry, especially those in the rural areas, said Professor of Tourism Economics in the University of Colombo Suranga Silva.
Much of this stems from a patriarchal structure and traditional gender roles deeply embedded in Sri Lanka’s society, even though many women have made their mark in the country’s politics and have held key positions in the government.
The island nation’s current Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya is a woman.
“Tourism industry can’t be isolated from women,” said Silva, adding that women’s employment in Sri Lanka’s tourism is very low compared to the global and regional levels.
LACK OF WOMEN PROFESSIONALS
Sri Lanka’s tourism and hospitality sector contributed 2.3 per cent to the country’s economy in 2023 – down from five per cent in 2018 – and the industry has traditionally been the country’s third largest foreign exchange earner.
But the shortage of skilled women and some of them leaving jobs after getting married have been challenges faced by the industry since the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings and the coronavirus pandemic.
Executive Chef Kaushalya Batagoda said the industry faces a shortage of female professionals to serve in the kitchen and as a result, most staff recruited to the resort’s kitchen were rookies still in training.
“But, the new generation has a passion for working in the kitchen,” she said, adding that she gets a lot of applications from women.
The resort has been lauded by women’s rights activists who have long been concerned about limited career choices for women in Sri Lanka. Activist Sepali Kottegoda said such business enterprises can “open up more safe employment opportunities for women.”
Silva said that “a dramatic change” is taking place as more young women are eager to join the industry, but suggested that the government and the sector must jointly provide training programmes for women to improve their skills and employability.
“This is purely to empower women,” Adikari said. “We invite women to come and join us, see whether they can perform better in the career, sharpen their capacities and skills and contribute to the industry.” – Bharatha Mallawarachi
XINHUA – Cambodian Minister of Information Neth Pheaktra called for concerted efforts to protect and preserve critically endangered Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphins.
“We urge citizens and local authorities to join in protecting and preserving these endangered dolphins along the Mekong River in order to preserve the rich biodiversity of the Mekong River,” he said.
Pheaktra said local communities would have greatly benefited from conservation because dolphins had been a key attraction for both domestic and international tourists.
“Tourists have come to visit these freshwater mammals every day, and their visits have generated jobs and income for local people,” he said.
The Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphins have been listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species since 2004.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries estimated that as of 2024, there were 105 Irrawaddy dolphins living along a 180-kilometre main channel of the Mekong River in northeast Stung Treng and Kratie provinces.
Mekong Irrawaddy dolphins swim in the Mekong River in Kratie province, Cambodia. PHOTO: XINHUA
UPI – An 18-year-old from India was awarded the Guinness World Record for the hairiest face on a person when officials determined he had 201.72 hairs per square centimetre of skin.
Lalit Patidar earned the male version of the record after living with a rare hair growth condition called hypertrichosis, which is also known as “werewolf syndrome”.
The condition is believed to only occur in one out of a billion people, with only about 50 documented cases since the Middle Ages.
Patidar has hair on over 90 per cent of his face, and has since he was a child.
He told Guinness World Records that other children at school “were scared of me but when they started knowing me and talking to me they understood I was not so different from them, and it was just on the outside that I looked different, but I’m not different inside.”
He said people still sometimes tell him he should have the hair removed from his face.
“There is not much to say to people about that. I tell them that I like how I am and I don’t want to change my look,” Patidar said.
A screengrab image shows Lalit Patidar during an interview. PHOTO: GUINNESS WORLD RECORD
JAIPUR (AP) – The film that was submitted as India’s official Oscar entry but failed to make the final list of nominees has swept the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards, which recognise outstanding work in the country’s film industry.
Director Kiran Rao’s critically acclaimed Laapataa Ladies – renamed Lost Ladies for its Oscar campaign – emerged as the biggest winner at the 2025 IIFA Awards, bagging 10 wins, including best picture and best direction.
The 2023 comedy is about two veiled brides who are accidentally swapped during a train ride, and tackles issues of patriarchy and gender roles, a shift from decades of male-centered mainstream Indian movies.
“It’s a rare privilege to win an award for a film like Laapataa Ladies. It’s been a wonderful night. It’s a rare privilege to make a film like this,” Rao said in her acceptance speech.
Rao’s film – a rare departure from most Bollywood films, which typically feature song-and-dance routines, violence and melodrama – also won in categories for best story, best screenplay and best actress in a leading role.
The annual ceremony of IIFA began in the western city of Jaipur on Saturday and concluded on Sunday.
Indian cinema’s most recognisable names took part in the glitzy event and Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and actor Shahid Kapoor were among those who performed at the ceremony. The event was hosted by veteran director and producer Karan Johar and actor Kartik Aaryan.
The awards show also presents an opportunity for Indian celebrities to showcase their fashion, and this year was no exception. Notable figures such as Madhuri Dixit, Katrina Kaif and Kareena Kapoor Khan displayed their fashion choices on the green carpet.
Bollywood personalities Karan Johar and Kareena Kapoor Khan share a light moment during the International Indian Film Academy awards in Jaipur, India. PHOTO: AP
KATHMANDU (AFP) – Nepal’s former king Gyanendra Shah was welcomed back to Kathmandu by thousands of supporters who have been staging pro-monarchy demonstrations in the Himalayan republic.
The nation became a secular republic in 2008 after Parliament abolished the monarchy as part of a peace deal that ended a decade-long civil war in which more than 16,000 people were killed.
However, support for the restoration of the monarchy has grown amid dissatisfaction over political instability, corruption and slow economic development.
Shah’s supporters cheered and waved Nepal’s flag, chanting ‘Come king, save the nation’ as he greeted them at the Kathmandu airport gate.
The former king had been touring the country in recent weeks and returned to the capital from Pokhara in central Nepal.
“The country faces instability, prices are high, people are jobless, and there is a lack of education and healthcare facilities,” said Rajindra Kunwar, 43, a teacher who had joined the crowd.
“The poor are dying of hunger. The law applies to the public, but not to politicians. That’s why we need the king back,” he said.
Shah, 77, has largely refrained from commenting on Nepal’s fractious politics and calls for the monarchy’s restoration, although he has made several recent public appearances with supporters.
“It is now time. If we wish to save our nation and maintain national unity, I call on all countrymen to support us for Nepal’s prosperity and progress,” the former king said in a statement on the eve of national Democracy Day commemorations last month.
Nepal’s former King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev waves as he arrives at the Tribhuwan International Airport in Kathmandu. PHOTO: AFP
GOLD COAST (AFP) – Torrential rain from the remnants of Cyclone Alfred flooded swathes of Australia’s east coast yesterday, as workers battled to restore power to more than 190,000 homes and businesses.
The weather system, which made landfall on Saturday, has battered a 400-kilometre stretch of coast for five days, claiming one life when a driver was swept off a bridge on Friday.
Even as the wind and rain eased, authorities issued a string of flood and severe weather warnings across the region, which straddles Queensland and New South Wales.
“This event is far from over,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a news conference in the flood-hit New South Wales city of Lismore.
“We need to continue to not be complacent.”
The tropical depression dumped 30 centimetres of rain in 24 hours over parts of Queensland’s capital city of Brisbane, the bureau of meteorology said.
Floodwaters swamped some streets in the city and its surrounds, stranding half-submerged cars in the worst-affected areas, images published in Australian media showed.
Emergency services rescued 17 people from fast-moving waters in Queensland overnight, the state’s premier, David Crisafulli said.
“Rainfall is leading to flash flooding as well as river flooding in parts of the southeast,” he told a news conference.
Erosion at Miami Beach after Tropical Cyclone Alfred on the Gold Coast in Australia. PHOTO: AFP
WEST PALM BEACH (AP) – Air Force fighter jets intercepted a civilian aircraft flying in the temporarily restricted airspace near Donald Trump’s Florida home on Sunday, bringing the number of violations to more than 20 since the president took office on January 20.
North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said in a statement that Sunday’s incident, which took place as Trump finished a round of golf at his West Palm Beach golf course, saw F-16s deploy flares to get the attention of the civilian pilot.
Jets also conducted an intercept on Saturday morning shortly after Trump arrived at the course from his private Mar-a-Lago club and residence.
The airspace intrusions in the heavily congested south Florida airspace have prompted fighter jet intercepts but did not alter Trump’s schedule or impact his security, officials said.
NORAD said the flares may have been visible from the ground but that they burn out quickly and don’t pose danger.
Federal officials maintain a permanent flight restriction over Trump’s club that expands to a radius of 30 nautical miles when the president is in residence. Violations, and intercepts, are relatively routine, but NORAD is raising alarm over the frequency of the intrusions since Trump’s inauguration, saying it has responded to more than 20 incidents and blames civilian pilots for not following regulations requiring them to check for airspace restrictions before taking off.
“Adherence to temporary flight restriction (TFR) procedures is essential to ensure flight safety, national security, and the security of the President,” General Gregory Guillot, the commander of NORAD and US Northern Command said in a statement. “The procedures are not optional, and the excessive number of recent TFR violations indicates many civil aviators are not reading Notice to Airmen, or NOTAMS, before each flight as required by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and has resulted in multiple responses by NORAD fighter aircraft to guide offending aircraft out of the TFR.”
President Donald Trump waves from his limousine as he arrives at a golf club in West Palm Beach. PHOTO: AP
ATLANTA (AP) – The body of an Atlanta teacher and coach who vanished last month while boating on Georgia’s Lake Oconee has been recovered from waters not far from where his fiancee was found dead shortly after their outing, a sheriff told news outlets on Sunday.
Sheriff Howard Sills of Putnam County told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Gary Jones’ body was found on Sunday afternoon in about 13 metres of water on the popular tourist lake southeast of Atlanta.
The discovery was made not far from where the body of Jones’ fiancee, Spelman College instructor Joycelyn Wilson, was found a day after the two went missing on February 8, the newspaper reported.
It comes a month to the day that Wilson’s body was recovered in the vicinity of where Jones’ empty two-seater fishing boat and his sneakers were found floating.
Sills said Jones’ body was found by Wisconsin search-and-recovery expert Keith Cormican, who used sophisticated underwater sonar in his effort, the newspaper reported.
The empty boat was discovered circling in the water, triggering an intensive search of the lake.
The sheriff’s office said previously that it had obtained video of Wilson and Jones launching their small boat from a marina. Authorities said at the time that they had been staying at a hotel on the lake, about 135 kilometres southeast of Atlanta.
The area where the body was found is nearly 5 kilometres northwest of a dam that separates Lake Oconee from neighbouring Lake Sinclair just to the south. Underwater timber still stands from when the Oconee River basin was flooded to build the lake nearly half a century ago.
BUENOS AIRES (AP) – Heavy rains that flooded a city on Argentina’s east coast in recent days have killed at least 16 people, officials said on Sunday.
Rescue teams were searching for dozens of others reported missing, including two girls and two adults. Authorities said they were swept away by floodwaters unleashed by rains that began pelting the city of Bahía Blanca on Friday. Crews have evacuated more than 1,450 people from the city located south of the capital of Buenos Aires.
Some 300 millimetres of rain have fallen in Bahía Blanca in recent days, when the historical monthly average is about 129 millimetres. No rain was forecast for the next 72 hours.
A flipped vehicle sits in flood waters after the storm. PHOTO: AP
