Tensions are rising in Sudan after talks broke down between protesters and the country's military rulers who earlier in April ousted President Omar al-Bashir after months of street protests against his rule.

Large crowds lit up the night sky with their cellphones, singing and chanting as protest leaders delivered fiery speeches in the capital, Khartoum, on Sunday night.

An improvised pipe bomb discovered close to Colombo's main airport was successfully defused by the Sri Lanka airforce, police said.

Abdullah Ahmadi, an Afghan living with his wife and five children in an apartment in the Athens suburbs allocated by the UN refugee agency, is about to lose his home for the past three years.

Top Muslim leaders in Sri Lanka on Monday demanded "maximum punishment" for the perpetrators of suicide bomb attacks on Christian churches and luxury hotels in the country that left at least 290 dead.

The comments came as the government refused to give details of at least 24 people arrested over the Easter Sunday attacks for fear of fanning ethnic tensions. Scores of Christians were among the dead.

Turkish police on Monday arrested six people, including a member of the ruling AKP party, after an attack on opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, local media and party officials said.

A comedian with no political experience won a landslide victory in Ukraine's presidential election, drawing congratulations from global leaders while dealing a stunning rebuke to his country's political establishment. 

On the neighbouring mound to Mansu hill, where giant statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il look out over North Korea's capital, stands the Liberation Tower.

Moscow has a chance of improving ties with Ukraine under the leadership of Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Monday,  adding however that he has "no illusions".

South Korea will this week celebrate the first anniversary of a landmark summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un -- but Pyongyang may not take part, Seoul said Monday.

The Sri Lankan government believes a local Islamist extremist group called the National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ) was behind the deadly suicide bomb attacks that killed nearly 300 people, government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said Monday.