At least 16 people were killed and more than 600 others fled their homes after a massive mound of garbage collapsed on part of a poor neighborhood near Sri Lanka’s capital during festivities to mark the local new year, officials said Saturday.

Four people were rescued from underneath the mound, but it was unclear whether any others were buried, said military spokesman Roshan Seneviratne. Soldiers were searching the site.

Seneviratne said 625 people whose homes were either destroyed or under threat were being housed in nearby schools.

The Disaster Management Center said at least 12 other people were injured in the incident, which happened Friday night in Meetotamulla, near Colombo. The site had been used to dump Colombo’s garbage for the past few years as authorities sought to give a face-lift to the capital.

However, residents living in tiny homes in the area had been protesting against waste being dumped there because of health hazards.
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Pope Francis, presiding at a Good Friday service, asked God for forgiveness for scandals in the Catholic Church and for the “shame” of humanity becoming inured to daily scenes of bombed cities and drowning migrants.

Francis presided at a traditional candlelight Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) service at Rome’s Colosseum attended by some 20,000 people and protected by heavy security following recent attacks in European cities.

Francis sat while a large wooden cross was carried in procession, stopping 14 times to mark events in the last hours of Jesus’ life from his sentencing to his death and his burial.

Similar services, known as the Stations of the Cross, were taking place in cities around the world as Christians gathered to commemorate Jesus’ death by crucifixion.

Pope speaks of shame, hope

At the end of the two-hour service, Francis read a prayer he wrote that was woven around the theme of shame and hope.

In what appeared to be a reference to the Church’s sexual abuse scandal, he spoke of “shame for all the times that we bishops, priests, brothers and nuns scandalized and wounded your body, the Church.”

The Catholic Church has been struggling for nearly two decades to put the scandal of sexual abuse of children by clergy behind it. Critics say more must be done to punish bishops who covered up abuse or were negligent in preventing it.

Violence ‘ordinary in our lives’

Francis also spoke of the shame he said should be felt over “the daily spilling of the innocent blood of women, of children, of immigrants” and for the fate of those who are persecuted because of their race, social status or religious beliefs.

At the end of this month Francis travels to Egypt, which has seen recent attacks by Islamists on minority Coptic Christians. Dozens were killed in two attacks last Sunday.

He spoke of “shame for all the scenes of devastation, destruction and drownings that have become ordinary in our lives.”

On the day he spoke, more than 2,000 migrants trying to reach Europe were plucked from the Mediterranean in a series of dramatic rescues and one person was found dead. More than 650 have died or are unaccounted for while trying to cross the sea in rubber dinghies this year.

Francis expressed the hope “that good will triumph despite its apparent defeat.”

Security increased

Security was stepped up in the area around the Colosseum after recent truck attacks against pedestrians in London and Stockholm. Some 3,000 police guarded the area and checked people as they approached. The Colosseum subway stop was closed.

Francis on Saturday is to say an Easter vigil Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and on Easter, the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar, he reads his twice-annual “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the City and the World”) message in St. Peter’s Square. 
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North Korea rolled out its military hardware Saturday at its annual Day of the Sun celebration commemorating the 105th birth anniversary of the country’s founder, Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of current leader, Kim Jong Un.

Goose-stepping soldiers and marching bands filled the square Saturday where North Korea’s young leader reviewed tanks, multiple-launch rocket systems and other weapons that rolled by.

New missiles

Weapons analysts said they believe some of the missiles on display were new types of intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, including a solid-fuel missile designed to be fired from a submarine, which would make it hard to detect.

Also on display, analysts said, were a midrange missile powerful enough to reach U.S. air bases in Guam, and a new solid-fuel midrange missile that could be fired from land mobile launchers, which would also make it hard to detect before it’s launched.

Military airplanes flew in formation above Kim Il Sung Square where the day’s festivities were held.

Verbal sparing

Pyongyang has been engaged recently in a game of back-and-forth threats with Washington.

The North has said it has developed a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland, but officials say that ability may take more time for development. That, however, did not stop a North Korean army official from warning the United States that any provocation would be met with retaliation. 

“Our toughest counteraction against the U.S. and its vassal forces will be taken in such a merciless manner as not to allow the aggressors to survive,” the official said, according to North Korea’s state news agency.
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Afghan officials say the number of militants known to have been killed by a huge U.S. bomb Thursday has nearly tripled.

Officials say at least 92 militants died in the blast – up from 36 reported Friday.  The area is still being cleared, so the death toll may increase.

There is no indication any civilians or military personnel were among the dead.

President Ashraf Ghani said Afghan and U.S. forces closely coordinated on the bombing, however his predecessor has strongly denounced the strike and the United States.

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday he is unleashing a campaign to force U.S. forces out of his country for dropping the so-called “mother of all bombs” on Afghan soil, calling it a “barbaric” act that was more aimed at testing “a new weapon of mass destruction” than targeting Islamic State fighters.

“I have decided as an individual to force America out of Afghanistan.  Whether someone joins me or not, I have decided to prevent the American cruelty (against Afghans). They are not only killing our people but destroying the environment and disrespecting our honor,” Karzai told a gathering in Kabul.

Karzai’s criticism has been echoed by Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan, who Tweeted, “I find the use of the largest non-nuclear bomb, the so-called “mother of all bombs,” on our soil reprehensible & counterproductive. If big bombs were the solution we would be the most secure place on earth today.”

The Afghan presidential palace responded to the criticism Saturday on it’s official Twitter account.  “Every Afghan has the right to speak their mind. This is a country of free speech.”

And the country’s Minister for Security Reforms Amrullah Saleh defended Thursday’s strike.

“Destroying few notorious cave networks along with dozens of terrorists to save ANDSF (Afghan National Defense and Security Forces) personnel by dropping a MOAB (mother of all bombs) was a wise tactical decision,” Saleh, a former Afghan spy chief, said in aTwitter post.  

U.S. forces dropped the GBU-43 Massive Ordinance Air Blast, a nine-meter giant weighing about 10 tons, on the Achin district of Nangarhar province Thursday night. The strike was described as part of a campaign to destroy the Islamic State Khorasan Province group, the local chapter of IS.

General John Nicholson, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, said Friday his forces had coordinated the attack with the Afghan government, “just as we have since we started these operations in early March.”

Nicholson said circumstances on the ground justified the use of the most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever used by the U.S. military.

“This munition, this weapon, was the right weapon against this target,” he said. “The enemy had created bunkers, tunnels, and extensive minefields and this weapon was used to reduce those obstacles so that we could continue our offensive into southern Nangarhar.”

U.S. President Donald Trump was asked Thursday whether the attack was intended to send a message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who is reportedly poised to conduct a new nuclear weapons test as early as this weekend. But Nicholson insisted the decision was based solely on the analysis of conditions in Nangarhar.

“It was the right time to use it tactically, against the right target on the battlefield,” he said.

Nicholson said the operation against IS in Nangahar has liberated more than 400 square kilometers since its inception.

 
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A plaque commemorating a 1932 coup in Thailand that saw absolute monarchy abolished and democracy established is missing, police in Bangkok said Saturday, prompting outcry from pro-democracy activists.

The 1932 coup, also known as the Siamese Revolution, was a crucial turning point in Thai history and ended nearly seven centuries of absolute monarchy, paving the way for political and social reforms.

Since then, Thailand has gone through a shaky experiment with democracy and has witnessed a succession of political protests and coups. The country has been governed by a junta since the latest coup, 2014, which saw the military overthrow a democratically elected government.

Plaque replaced 

The plaque, which was embedded in a square in central Bangkok, was removed and replaced with a new one, which highlights the importance of the monarchy.

“It is good to worship the Buddhist trinity, the state, one’s own family, and to be faithful to one’s monarch and allow oneself to be the engine that brings prosperity to the state,” the new plaque reads.

Police in the Dusit district where the plaque was located said they were not sure who removed it and were investigating.

Ultra-royalist groups had previously threatened to remove the plaque. And activists said that the plaque’s removal was a bid by royalist conservatives to rewrite history.

Royalists accused

“This is another attempt to alter the history of democracy in this country,” Than Rittiphan, a member of the student-led New Democracy Movement, which has protested against military rule, told Reuters. “It is nothing more than fascist rhetoric aimed at brainwashing the next generation,” he said.

The government, led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former army chief and staunch royalist, has stepped up prosecution of critics of the monarchy under a harsh royal insult law.

Anti-monarchy sensitivity

Rights groups say sensitivity over any activity deemed as anti-monarchy has grown since King Maha Vajiralongkorn ascended the throne following the death of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, last year.

Last week, the government announced a ban on all online interaction with three critics of the junta who live abroad.

King Vajiralongkorn signed a military-backed constitution into law this month, a step toward an election next year that the junta has said will restore democracy.

The new constitution is the 20th since the end of absolute monarchy and critics say it will give the military sway over politics for years to come.
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