A new vote is being held in the US House of Representatives among indications of a government shutdown beginning at midnight on Saturday. Faced with a rebellion by fellow hard-line Republicans, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is trying to secure agreement on a temporary 45-day respite. It’s not clear if the measure – stripped aid to […]

The speaker of Poland’s upper house of parliament has called on the government to reveal what it knew about an escalating cash for visas scandal. Tomasz Grodzki said the issue was ruining the country’s international reputation as a responsible democracy. The government has released few details but media reports say migrants paid up to $5,000 […]

The G20 joint declaration in Delhi is being described as a significant diplomatic win for India. The agreement of a joint statement looked almost impossible a few days ago, given how sharply divided the group was over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In the end, we had a declaration that garnered unanimous support from all G20 […]

A Turkish cryptocurrency boss and his two siblings have been jailed for 11,196 years each for defrauding investors of millions of dollars. Faruk Fatih Ozer, 29, fled to Albania in 2021 with investor assets after his Thodex exchange suddenly collapsed. He was extradited back to Turkey in June and found guilty of money-laundering, fraud and […]

Singaporeans have chosen Tharman Shanmugaratnam as their next president – but many would have let out a small sigh of disappointment as they did so. On Friday, the former top minister won a record 70.4% of the votes, comfortably beating two other candidates in the country’s first contested presidential election in more than a decade. […]

Singaporeans have headed to the polls to vote in their first contested presidential election in over a decade. The president has a mainly ceremonial role in the city-state with few powers and little say in public affairs. But the result on Friday could be a marker of public sentiment on the long-term ruling People’s Action […]

More than 60 people are feared dead after a boat carrying migrants was found off Cape Verde in West Africa. Thirty-eight people, including children, were rescued, with footage showing them being helped ashore, some on stretchers, on the island of Sal. Almost all those on board the boat, which was at sea for over a […]

By Jayantha Somasundaram (This articlecontinued from yesterday (25) is based on reporting by the international media on the events in Sri Lanka forty years ago.) “For day after day Tamils were beaten, hacked or burned to death in the streets, on buses, on trains – sometimes in the sight of horrified foreign tourists. Their homes […]

(Excerpted from volume ii of the Sarath Amunugama autobiography) During one of my visits to Colombo I got a call to see the President at ‘Breamar’. Gamini Dissanayake had told him of my friendship with Parathasarathy and he wanted me to help him repair the damage done to their friendship due to the abuse heaped […]

India has outlawed the export of non-basmati white rice in an attempt to ward off looming domestic price spikes. Heavy rains have hurt crops in the country and rice prices have risen by more than 11% over the last 12 months. Non-basmati white grain currently accounts for about a quarter of India’s rice exports, the […]

Udeni Kaluthantri, a 54-year-old port worker, became an overnight sensation last year for reasons that had nothing to do with his job. Days after protesters stormed the presidential palace in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, a video surfaced of Mr Kaluthantri lounging on a bed draped with the presidential flag. Pictures of young men jumping […]

Vietnam has banned the upcoming Barbie film over a scene featuring a map depicting contested Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea. Vietnam is among a number of countries that contest China’s claim to almost all of the South China Sea. The film about the famous doll, which has already taken over social media, […]

The muted, panicked voice came through the phone of a friend who croaked she was very confidentially warning Cassandra and advising her. Yours truly was immediately panic infected. With deep emphasis and concern the friend took her time to advise that Cass withdraws all money from banks. Cass was for once glad she was poor […]

BBC reported that a group of foreign nationals have been evacuated from Sudan, as fighting between rival armies raged on in the capital Khartoum. More than 150 people were evacuated by sea to the Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah on Saturday – mostly citizens of Gulf countries. Khartoum airport