Things you need to know about Sri Lanka bombings.

A series of eight devastating bomb blasts ripped through several high-end hotels and three churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on Sunday, killing more than 200 people and wounding 450 others.
It was the first major attack on the Indian Ocean island since the end of a civil war 10 years ago.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility.
The government declared a curfew in the country's capital, Colombo, and blocked access to social media and messaging sites, including Facebook and WhatsApp.
Here's what you need to know.
What happened?
The first blast was reported at St Anthony's Shrine, an historic Roman Catholic church in Colombo, just as church services began around 8:45am local time (03:15 GMT). Much of the church roof was blown out in the explosion, with roof tiles, glass and splintered wood littering the floor along with pools of blood.
The other two occurred at St Sebastian Catholic Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo where footage showed people dragging the wounded out of blood-splattered pews, and at the Protestant Zion Church in the east-coast town of Batticaloa.
Soon after, police confirmed blasts at three high-end hotels in the capital - the Cinnamon Grand, the Shangri-La, and the Kingsbury.
Hours later, a blast was reported at a guesthouse near the national zoo in Colombo's Dehiwala district.
The eighth explosion took place at a house in Colombo. Police and media said three officers were killed.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said eight people were arrested in connection with the string of deadly blasts.
"So far the names that have come up are local," but investigators will look into whether the attackers had any "overseas links", he said.
Harsha de Silva, Sri Lanka's minister of economic reforms and public distribution, said he had been to two of the attacked hotels and was at the scene at St Anthony's, where he described "horrible scenes".
"I saw many body parts strewn all over," he tweeted, adding there were "many casualties including foreigners".
Who were the victims?
The blasts hit the churches when they were full of worshippers who gathered for Easter services. A detailed breakdown of casualties in the eight blasts was not immediately available.
"Altogether we have information of 207 dead from all hospitals. According to the information as of now we have 450 injured people admitted to hospitals," said Ruwan Gunasekara, the police spokesman.
Nearly all victims were Sri Lankans. Officials said the dead also included 27 foreigners.
At least 27 of the dead were foreigners. Sri Lanka's foreign ministry said they include three Indians, one Portuguese national, two Turkish nationals, three British nationals and two holding US and British nationalities.
A Dutch national and a Chinese national were also reported among the victims.
Sri Lankan security personnel walk through debris following an explosion in St Sebastian's Church in Negombo, north of the capital, Colombo [AFP]
Who did it?
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene described the blasts as a "terrorist attack" by religious groups.
At least 13 suspects are now in custody.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told reporters that "so far the names that have come up are local", but investigators will look into whether the suspected attackers had any "overseas links".
He also acknowledged that "information was there" about possible attacks. "While this goes on we must also look into why adequate precautions were not taken," he said.
How did Sri Lanka react?
In a Twitter post earlier on Sunday, Wickremesinghe said: "I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong."
President Maithripala Sirisena said he had ordered the police special task force and the military to investigate who was behind the attacks and their agenda.
In addition to the curfew, the military was deployed and security was stepped up at Colombo's international airport.
Sri Lankan military officials stand guard in front of the St Anthony's Shrine [Dinuka Liyanawatte/ Reuters]
What are world leaders saying?
Countries around the world condemned the attacks, and Pope Francis added an appeal at the end of his traditional Easter Sunday blessing to address the massacre.
Speaking from the loggia of St Peter's Basilica, Francis said: "I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence."
US President Donald Trump tweeted his condolences on the "horrible terrorist attacks", while Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow remains a "reliable partner of Sri Lanka in the fight against international terrorism".
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the bombings "an assault on all of humanity".
British Prime Minister Theresa May, condemning what she called the "truly appalling" attacks, said: "The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time."
Relatives of a blast victim grieve outside a morgue in Colombo, Sri Lanka [Eranga Jayawardena/AP]
Saad Hariri, Lebanon's prime minister, called the attacks "blind terrorism" and offered solidarity to Sri Lanka's people.
New Zealand , Germany, the United Kingdom , Iran, Bahrain, Qatar, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates also denounced the attacks.
What is Sri Lanka's religious and ethnic mix?
The attacks on Sunday recalled the worst days of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war, which claimed up to 100,000 lives.
The island nation has a population of nearly 23 million, of which nearly three-quarters are ethnic Sinhalese. The Tamils, the second-largest ethnic group, make up more than 15 percent of the population and live mainly in the north and northeast of the country.
Muslims account for 10 percent of the population, and Christians about six percent.
The mistreatment of Tamils following independence from the British helped nurture the growth of armed separatists, leading to nearly three decades of armed conflict. The government defeated Tamil separatists
in 2009.
After the civil war ended, a religious divide quickly took hold, with hardline Buddhist monks rallying Sri Lankans against Muslims.
In 2018, anti-Muslim violence flared across the hills of central Sri Lanka, fed by rumours spread over social media about attacks on Buddhists. A state of emergency was briefly declared in the wake of those attacks.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

THE MOMENT WHERE FIGHT TO DEATH IS YOUR ONLY MEANS OF SURVIVAL

Okay, this is not a martial art blog but a military one, but anything goes here as long as it is military related. Yeah I repeat martial art is related to the military, you should know that in courses Special Forces take and even the regular force.

However martial art is not just for men of war, it’s for everybody who values it. It’s been practiced all over the world. Many schools in China, India and mostly America the best market for the art and then few in my country here Nigeria. Increasing Terrorist attack and insecurity is causing people to take martial art classes. There are many martial artist masters but am not fortunate to be a master, many YouTube videos have provided martial art master to portray their technique more effective than their counterparts, without me digressing too much, Terrorist attack and mass shooting is getting more alarming even to the most unlikely countries where no one believe could happen .Self-defense and security consciousness is needed for every individual to prepare for the worst. In this article I want to treat an aspect that has to do with what to do in a close encounter with the attacker and as for the title above:  

What is the right moment where fight to death is the only means of survival or an advantage. Answer: when all odds are against you.

1.       PRETENDING TO BE DEAD: This art of defense is good, cunning and popular. effective if well played, funny enough some martial artist implore people to pretend to be dead amidst other dead bodies in a mass shooting or kidnapping spree but how good is that. In the Al-Noor terrorist attack in New Zealand attack, if you were able to watch the live video before the social media start deleting them, you will realize this technique doesn’t work in this scenario, the attacker (Breton Tarrant) was a mad man so over determined that he went into the AL Noor mosque twice to shoot all the dead bodies he once killed; such a heartless man. Anyone who applied the law of pretending to die is indirectly making the pretense a reality because Tarrant will sure come back after a round of shooting to shoot the dead bodies. The only art possible there is fighting to death; unfortunately the attack came as a surprise because no one in the mosque or nobody in Zealand expects a terrorist attack including me. The attack was too fast for any hero to think and rise, everyone was crippled with fear.

 However nobody is in any position to criticize any of the victims for not devising a means to fight back simply because being you are not there to witness the horrific event that can make you mess up your trousers.

Kudos to that guy at Linwood Mosque, he threw something at the attacker, he deserve a medal honor.

The only solution depends on the situation, if the scenario provide for pretense especially if the goal of the mass shooter is to kill as many as possible which is not to come and check whether any survived.so the chance of pretense is good here, but as I said earlier, am not a master, access your situation first.

2.       FIGHTING BACK OR SUICIDAL ATTACK: okay how about fighting back, if I say it depends on your martial art skills, that will be bad because fear can make a martial art lesson disappear in seconds, if I say it depends on your martial art or combat experience, then I may be right, however let consider those with no martial art training. What should they do.

Remembering the 9/11 attack in the USA, one of the planes (flight 93) hijacked heading towards a particular target didn’t go well as expected by the hijackers, why? The passengers knew in through their phones that that morning, Flights 11 and 175 had already crashed into the World Trade Center and Flight 77 was within 9 minutes of striking the Pentagon therefore flight 93 passengers revolted against the hijackers, although they couldn’t save themselves but they were able to give the hijackers a tough time controlling the plane effectively to its target. Out of panic of being run over by the revolting passengers, the hijackers crash-landed the plane into a field in  stone creek Pennsylvania. The act of the passengers made them became heroes.

Another example, in the Ancient Yoruba Kingdom in Nigeria, Warriors and Kings whenever they become betrayed and sold-out by somebody close to them, although dying, stabbed, poisoned, shot they make sure they finish up the traitor and then give up.

That’s the warrior mentality you should have in critical situation, and you may feel like what if I die, also think of what if you win. However this just an advice ascertain the situation and don’t forget the S.E.R.E survival Evasion Resistance and Escape. I remain Afolabi Micheal.

No website is an island of knowledge, feel free to drop your comments , don’t forget to share.

TOKYO – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is cautiously turning up the heat after his unsuccessful summit with President Donald Trump in Hanoi two months ago.
Returning to military optics for the first time in five months, Kim on Tuesday paid a surprise visit to an Air Force base to inspect fighter combat readiness and followed that up the next day by supervising the test of what the North's official media described ominously but ambiguously — and without any photos or video — as a new type of "tactical guided weapon."
The military-related posturing comes after Kim expressed deep disappointment earlier this month with what the North claims was an inflexible, "gangster-like" demands by the U.S. in Hanoi.
It also comes amid reports that Kim may hold his first summit with Putin next week in Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East.
Putin has been something of an outsider over the past year as Kim has held multiple summits with the leaders of China, the United States and South Korea. But he could provide important political cover or economic aid for Pyongyang — and a potential headache for Trump — if he chooses to play a bigger role.
Though Kim claims he still has a good personal relationship with the U.S. president, he and senior North Korean officials have shown increasing frustration with Trump's top advisers, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton.
"The Hanoi summit gives us a lesson that whenever Pompeo pokes his nose in, the talks go wrong without any results even from the point close to success," Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the American desk at the North's Foreign Ministry, was quoted as saying on Thursday. "I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but (some) other person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us."
In an address to the Supreme People's Assembly, the North's version of parliament, Kim gave the U.S. until the end of the year to come up with a more mutually acceptable negotiation strategy.
For Pyongyang, that would mean lifting the sanctions it has imposed against the North over its development of nuclear weapons and missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.
Kim indicated, however, that he would in the meantime maintain his self-imposed moratorium on nuclear tests and long-range missile launches and he appears to be standing by that vow.
U.S. military officials said they did not detect any significant missile launches on Wednesday and the North's description of the "newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon" suggested it might have instead been an anti-tank guided missile or other short-range system.
If so, it was likely intended to be a response to recent military drills by U.S. and South Korea.
Just before the reports of the weapon test, a North-run propaganda website said the drills fuel "the mood for a fight and risks of war."
Washington and Seoul have renamed and scaled back their joint maneuvers since early last year, when the South hosted the Winter Olympics. They have continued that policy since Kim's first summit with Trump, in June last year, but the North claims even the smaller versions run counter to the spirit of dialogue.
Since Hanoi, Kim and senior North Korean officials have also been openly critical of South Korea and efforts by President Moon Jae-in to play the role of middleman, saying he has adhered too closely to his American allies and dragged his feet on inter-Korean projects that would provide the North with crucial investment to build its sagging infrastructure.
Moon has expressed an eagerness to engage with the North on such projects, but Washington wants it to stick to sanctions.
North and South Korean leaders have met three times and Moon has said he is ready to meet again at any time. Trump has also suggested he wants a third summit. But there are growing worries that the progress could be killed by mismatched demands between Washington and Pyongyang over sanctions relief and disarmament.
Washington says it won't allow the North's desired sanctions relief until the nation commits to verifiably relinquishing his nuclear facilities, weapons and missiles. Kim has shown no signs that he's willing to give away an arsenal he may see as his strongest guarantee sur