Sri Lankan authorities arrested a senior Buddhist monk on Saturday for the alleged sexual abuse of an underage girl, police said, marking the highest-profile case involving clergy in the country, reports AFP.

Pallegama Hemarathana, 71, was arrested at a private hospital in the capital Colombo, where he had sought treatment over the weekend amid an investigation into the alleged abuse of the 11-year-old girl in 2022.

The crime is alleged to have taken place at a highly venerated temple in Anuradhapura, around 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of Colombo, where Hemarathana is the chief priest.

"We will be guided by the magistrate on further action," a police statement said Saturday.

The monk will soon be presented before a judge.

Authorities added that the victim's mother has also been arrested for aiding and abetting the monk.

The development comes a day after a local court in Anuradhapura imposed a foreign travel ban on the monk.

There have been several cases of clergy abusing children in Sri Lanka, but the latest arrest involves the most senior monk to be accused of such a crime.

The 71-year-old is the chief custodian of a tree believed to have been grown from a sapling of the Bodhi tree in India that sheltered the Buddha when he attained enlightenment more than 2,500 years ago.

He is also the chief of eight highly venerated temples that are on a key Buddhist pilgrim route.

END/AFP/ASA

At least 34 people, including two babies were killed when a contraband fuel depot exploded into flames in southern Benin near the border with Nigeria on Saturday.

According to Beninese Interior Minister Alassane Seidou, “a serious fire occurred in the town of Seme Podji. Another 20 people were seriously wounded in the incident.”

"I can't really give you the cause of the fire, but there is a large gasoline warehouse here and cars, tricycles and motorcycles come from morning to evening,” he added.

Nigeria is a main oil and gas producer where fuel smuggling is very common along its borders, particularly when the government maintains a subsidy to keep fuel prices low.

The majority of the victims were burnt and they could not be not be identified.

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