The images capture the final seconds of serenity before the calm was shattered with a series of coordinated attacks that would between them claim more than 350 lives at six sites across Sri Lanka.

Security camera footage from outside St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo shows a bearded man in a light blue shirt, navy trousers and sandals appear on a pathway and cross a courtyard outside the church.

As he approaches his target, he passes a young girl and briefly pats her head and shoulder, with the young girl glancing up at him as he continues on towards the church.

    The girl is the granddaughter of Dilip Fernando. The 66-year-old retiree had come to St Sebastian’s for Mass, but seeing how crowded it was, decided to try and find a service elsewhere.

That decision probably saved their lives. Some of his family, including his granddaughter, stayed but were outside the church and survived.

Inside, the service was drawing to an end and the hundreds who crammed in to celebrate Easter Mass were preparing to leave.

Those who could not find a seat in the packed church had gathered outside to listen, some holding children in their arms.

Captured from another camera, the suspect can be seen leaning forward while walking, the straps of his backpack fastened across his waist and chest, indicating the weight of the deadly load.

Those gathered outside the church scarcely give him a second glance, while inside, the pews are packed with worshippers, young children fidgeting and ceiling fans whirling against the heat.

The suspect walks past two open doors connecting the church to the covered passageway outside, and enters the church through the third.

He takes a few steps towards the central aisle and the altar.

Then the footage stops.

The bomb he detonated ripped through the church, killing dozens in what is believed to be the deadliest attack in Sunday’s carnage.

Fernando’s extended family, who were sitting outside the church, said they had seen the bomber.

“At the end of the mass they saw one young man go into the church with a heavy bag,” Fernando said.

“He touched my granddaughter’s head on the way past. It was the bomber.”

    Following the unanimous vote, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe voiced “sincere regret” and said the government “apologised wholeheartedly” over the notorious policy.

Some 16,500 mentally disabled people were sterilised without their consent under the law that remained in force until 1996, according to health ministry data.

Each victim will receive 3.2 million yen ($29,000) under the measures passed on Wednesday — an amount derided by campaigners as “failing to meet the seriousness” of the damage suffered.

    The issue hit the headlines last year after a Japanese woman, now in her 60s, sued the government over a sterilisation operation carried out in 1972 after she was diagnosed with a mental disability.

Lawyers and campaigners have long criticised the government and parliament for failing to compensate victims long after the eugenics law was abandoned in 1996.

About 20 victims have so far filed lawsuits across the country seeking compensation of up to 38 million yen.

The first verdict over the issue will be announced on May 28, and plaintiffs’ lawyers have vowed to seek compensation they say matches the gravity of the harm suffered.

“It is understandable that lawmakers have been hurrying to enact the law to pay one-off compensation to ageing victims,” lawyers said in a statement before the legislation was passed.

But without sufficient compensation, it is not a “true solution to the issue,” they charged.

Tokyo has pledged to pay the compensation “swiftly” but the government will likely continue to battle in court against victims claiming more.

Germany and Sweden had similar eugenics laws and governments there have also apologised and paid compensation to the victims.

Under Japan’s law, some leprosy patients were also forced into abortions under policies that forbade them from having children.

In 2005, a Japanese court for the first time ordered the state to pay damages to a former leprosy sufferer affected by this law.

With the signing of these two agreements, Asean’s GDP is expected to increase by five per cent in the next five years, said Asean secretary-general Lim Jock Hoi.

The first agreement, the Asean Trade in Services Agreement [ATISA], aims to raise the standards and efficiency of services regulations within the region. This will, in turn, expand opportunities for services trade and investments for the region’s private sector.

“The role of services trade in the Asean economy is becoming more and more important,” acting Commerce Minister Chutima Bunyapraphasara said yesterday during the ATISA signing ceremony.

“Asean export of services has more than tripled from US$113.4 billion (Bt3.62 trillion) in 2005 to $360.5 billion (Bt11.51 trillion) in 2017. However, intra-Asean share of trade in services has remained stable over the years,” she stated. Hence, the ATISA is designed to address this issue.

The ATISA will replace the current Asean Framework Agreement on Services (AFAS), which has been in use since 1995.

The new agreement lays out the principles that will help boost trade in services, such as requiring equal treatment of foreign and local businesses. Another principle of the ATISA is to promote transparency and efficiency in services trade regulations and support the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Furthermore, the ATISA also requires member countries to publicise their trade and services regulations.

The ATISA will come into effect 180 days after the signing ceremony. Asean members are given five years to consider which regulations on services trade they would like to preserve after the agreement is effective.

“This agreement will allow Thai investors to find further opportunities to invest in sectors such as healthcare, tourism and hospitality within Asean,” Chutima said.

The second agreement, the Fourth Protocol to Amend the Asean Comprehensive Investment Agreement [ACIA], is aimed at making the region more attractive for investors through streamlining of regulations. It will be binding on the ACIA member countries to not establish regulations that may unnecessarily cause obstacles for investors in the region. For example, governments will be prohibited from requiring investors from Asean member countries to deliver their products only to certain markets.

New Thai strategy

The ATISA is in line with Thailand’s strategy to boost services trade to make up for weakening export figures. Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak had instructed the Commerce Ministry earlier this month to strengthen Thailand’s services sector for strong tourism figures.

Largely due to the ongoing US-China trade war and the weakening global economic condition, Thai exports in March contracted 4.9 per cent year on year, leading to a 1.6 per cent contraction in exports in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, according to the Commerce Ministry. Observers see long-term benefits from these two new agreements, stressing the growing importance of services trade and investments in the region.

“Since the global financial crisis, global growth in goods trade, which is fuelled by the manufacturing industry, has been slowing, and the Asia Pacific region is by no means immune to this trend,” Andy Mason, lead economist for East Asia and Pacific Region of the World Bank, said.

To address this problem, Thailand will need to increase the productivity of its services sector as well as promote more trade in services, Mason suggested. “Thailand should enter into multilateral trade deals and commit itself to liberalising trade in services,” said Sudhir Shetty, chief economist for the East Asia and Pacific Region at the World Bank. Deunden Nikomborirak, research director in economic governance at the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), said: “In the Asean region, up to 90 per cent of total foreign investment goes to the services sector. However, Thailand’s policies still lean heavily towards manufacturing, neglecting the services sector. Thailand contributes up to 18 per cent of total Asean GDP, but only attracts 2.9 per cent of total foreign investment in the Asean region.

“Therefore, Thailand is heavily underperforming and will benefit from liberalising regulations in the services sector,” she said. Key financial institutions such as the Bank of Thailand (BOT) and the National and Social Economic Development Council both stated earlier this year that Thailand should push for further private investment to drive growth amid weakening exports. “From now on, the growth engine of the country will be powered by tourism and investments,” said BOT Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob.

    The US Geological Survey put the fresh quake on the central island of Samar at 6.3 magnitude, which is stronger than the one that hit close to the capital in the north on Monday.

Authorities were assessing possible damage from the latest quake, which struck at a depth of 70km, but warned that residents should expect aftershocks.

The worst of Monday’s damage was in the province of Pampanga, which was the site of most of the 11 fatalities, disaster officials said. More than 100 others were injured by falling rubble, including in Manila, according to police.

    The toll could rise as crews fanned out across the mostly rural region to assess damage in isolated hamlets that lost power and communications in one of the area’s strongest tremors in years.

More than 400 aftershocks have been registered since the initial quake, Philippine seismologists said.

Scores of rescuers in the town of Porac were using cranes and jackhammers to peel back the pancaked concrete structure of a four-storey market building where the Red Cross said 24 people were unaccounted for.

“Every minute, every second is critical in this rescue,” Cris Palcis, a volunteer sniffer dog handler, told AFP. “Time is short for the people under the rubble so we have to be quick.”

Pampanga Governor Lilia Pineda told journalists that rescuers could still hear at least one person trapped beneath the rubble, but the digging was proceeding delicately to avoid accidentally crushing the survivor.

The quake also damaged several centuries-old churches which were crowded with worshippers in recent days as the majority-Catholic Philippines marked the Easter holiday.

– ‘Really swaying’ –

Father Roland Moraleja, who is based in Porac, said the 18th century belfry of Saint Catherine of Alexandria church collapsed in the quake.

“It was the only part left from the old church,” he told AFP. “The historical value is now gone, but we are hopeful that it will rise again.”

High-rise buildings in the capital swayed after the tremor struck Monday evening, leaving some with large cracks in their walls.

Thousands of travellers were stranded after aviation authorities shut down the secondary Clark Airport, which is located on the site of the former US military installation that lies about an hour’s drive north of the capital.

It was still closed on Tuesday as officials assessed the heavy damage to the terminal building and some cracking on the air traffic control tower.

The quake was centred on the town of Castillejos, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) northwest of Manila, local geologists said.

Seismologists put the Monday’s tremor at 6.3 initially, but subsequently downgraded it to a 6.1 magnitude.

Dani Justo, a martial arts instructor, told AFP she was at her southern Manila home when the quake struck.

“The clothes hanging on our line were really swaying. My shih tzu (dog) dropped flat on the ground,” she added.

The Philippines is part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from quake-prone Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.