World AM News Briefs For Tuesday, 23 April 2019

Hello Australia!! - Australians are victims of Sri Lanka's Easter Bombings - The White House cranks up pressure on Iran - Who spoiled the Game of Thrones? - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

The death toll in the Sri Lanka suicide bombings has climbed to 290 lives lost, and authorities develop a clearer picture of who is responsible.  The government blames a little-known local jihadist group called "National Thowheed Jamath".  But until Easter weekend, the group was mostly known for vandalizing Buddhist temples in the island nation, leading investigators to believe that it has linked up with big league international terrorists.  There has been no claim of responsibility.

Two Australians were among the 290 killed in the Easter Bombings on Sri Lanka.  SBS reports that Manik Suriaaratchi and her daughter Alexendria were inside a church in Negombo when the bombs went off.  Her husband was uninjured because he was parking the car at that moment.  Among the 500 injured were two more Aussie women, one in her 50s and the other in her 20s according to the ABC.   A number of Brits and Americans were killed or injured in the attacks.

Moving On..

The earthquake that hit northwest of Manila killed at least five people in the Philippines.  The Philippines Institute of Volcanology and Seismology ranked it as a magnitude 6.1 temblor.

Amazon is doing a mea culpa after the latest episode of "Game of Thrones" was accidentally uploaded several hours too early.  "We regret that for a short time Amazon customers in Germany were able to access episode two of season eight of Game of Thrones," an Amazon spokesman said.  The ep was taken down, but not before several people watched it and shared some spoilers on the internet.  Producers of the popular show are trying to keep Pentagon-level secrecy on this, the eighth and final season, by refusing to even reveal the titles of the new episodes until they've aired simultaneously on HBO and its international partners.  Last week, the US service DirectTV uploaded the first episode of the season four hours too early.

The White House is ending exemptions from sanctions for countries still buying oil from Iran.  That's going to impact China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Turkey, which have been informed that they could face US economic sanctions from next month if they continue to purchase oil from Tehran.  China foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that Beijing's dealings with Iran are "reasonable and legitimate, which thus deserves respect".

UK Prime Minister Theresa May is facing a new threat to her leadership from within her own Tory party, this time from Conservative Grassroots organizations.  More than 70 local association chiefs are angry at her handling of Brexit, so they have called for an extraordinary general meeting to discuss her leadership.  The UK's withdrawal from the European Union supposed to have taken place at the end of March, and then was delayed two weeks, and delayed again until 31 October, as Ms. May was unable to sell the deal she reached with European leaders to Parliament - much to the consternation of Tory Brexiteers.