By Shamindra Ferdinando The Sri Lanka Institute of Directors (SLID) and Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) recently declared corruption as the root cause of Sri Lanka’s current political and economic crisis. The declaration was made in a statement titled, “SLID and TISL launch ‘Business Against Corruption’ Initiative” issued to the media after the two organisations […]

For the international community, these ought to be particularly anxious times. Not only are East-West polarities widening; they are taking on new military dimensions that could render the world an increasingly dangerous place to live in, unless contained swiftly. In Eastern Europe, for example, things could only get worse. The Russian ‘special military operation’ in […]

(Al Jazeera) Workers at the United Kingdom’s largest container port have begun what they say will be an eight-day strike, becoming the latest workers in the country to take action to demand higher pay amid rising inflation and the soaring cost of living.Nearly 2,000 workers at the Port of Felixstowe, which handles about four million containers a […]

Beijing [China], August 12 (ANI): Recent protests in China’s Henan province underline the risks being faced by banks as the real estate sector continues to struggle. The real estate sector in China accounts for around 24 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), almost a quarter of the nation’s GDP, according to authors Ahana Roy […]

Chinese and Russian Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have both confirmed they will attend the G20 summit on the resort island of Bali this November, according to President Joko Widodo. “Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come,” Widodo told Bloomberg News in an interview, confirming their attendance for […]

Bangkok:External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday that the relationship between India and China is going through an “extremely difficult phase” after what Beijing has done at the border and emphasised that the Asian Century will not happen if the two neighbours could not join hands. Jaishankar made the remarks while responding to a […]

By Gwynne Dyer “This obviously does not happen because of a thrown butt,” said British Defense Minister Ben Wallace. But the Russian Ministry of Defence insisted that the explosions that destroyed at least eight warplanes at Saki Air Base in Russian-occupied Crimea on 9 August were due to “a violation of fire safety requirements.” The […]

ByShamindra Ferdinando Sri Lanka hadn’t been able yet to convince Russia to resume Aeroflot flights and tourists from there to Sri Lanka suspended in the wake of the detention of SU 289 at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) on the afternoon of June 02, authoritative sources said. Sri Lanka grappling with an unprecedented foreign exchange […]

Chinese troops will travel to Russia to take part in joint military exercises that will start at the end of the month, Beijing’s defence ministry has said.Last month, Moscow announced plans to hold “Vostok” (East) military drills from August 30 to September 5, saying some foreign forces would also take part without naming them. Beijing […]

Thursday 18th August 2022 Speculation is rife that former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is planning to return to Sri Lanka. The question, however, is not whether he is coming, but what he is doing overseas. The anti-government protesters who engineered his ouster called upon him to ‘go home’; they did not ask him to flee the […]

” Sri Lanka cannot do without IMF’s support. Having declared its inability to service its foreign debt, Sri Lanka is struggling to reach a consensus with lenders and the IMF. Two of Sri Lanka’s major creditors, India and China, locked horns over a port visit by a Chinese ship. Sri Lanka should be wary of […]

“Fuel price revisions will take place again on September 01,” the ministry official said on Tuesday August 16.

Yes, of course, the older folks would all remember Edward Joseph; the young ones may find the name unfamiliar as Edward now lives in Germany and does his thing in that part of the world. Better known as Eddy, he was with the leader of the group Steelers and they were big in the local […]

Funds are to help 204 million people and communities as armed conflict and climate change threaten their livelihoods (Al Jazeera) The United Nations’ humanitarian projects face a record funding gap this year, with only a third of the required $48.7bn secured so far as global needs outpace pledges, according to the world body’s Office for […]

Washington [US], August 3 (ANI): The new federal programme passed by the US Congress provides USD 52 billion in support for the semiconductor industry, however, it restricts companies that are accepting the funding for expanding their chip production capacity in China. The Chips and Science Act is a USD 280 billion package that was passed […]

By Uditha Devapriya Divided from the Indian subcontinent, yet also deeply connected to it, Sri Lanka has never had an opportunity of forging and shaping a foreign policy of its own. The high point of its foreign relations, under the three Bandaranaike administrations over a period of 20 years, did signal an effort, and a […]