Sri Lankan student killed by initiation ceremony

A group of twenty-four college students in Sri Lanka have been remanded in custody in connection with the death of one of their colleagues following an initiation ceremony.

The nineteen-year-old student Thushara Wijetunge died from kidney failure three weeks after he was forced to do strenuous exercise in the sun after drinking several bottles of coconut liqueur.

He's the second student to die in a Sri Lankan college this month as a result of such inititation rites.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service