When the Russian naval frigate the Admiral Gorshkov arrived in the port of Richards Bay in South Africa early this week for joint military drills with China and South Africa, it was sporting the letters Z and V on its sides. Those are the same letters seen on Russian weapons on the front lines in […]

BBC reported that the UN General Assembly in New York has overwhelmingly backed a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly a year ago. It called for the withdrawal of troops from Ukraine and a halt to fighting. The motion was backed by 141 nations with 32 abstaining and seven – including Russia – voting […]

Aljazeera reports that there is a severe shortage of greenbacks in Bangladesh due to its dwindling foreign reserves and a sharp drop in the value of its taka currency against the dollar. In the past six months, Bangladesh’s foreign reserves have dropped below $32bn from $39bn while the value of the taka has fallen by […]

By Noah Berman A wave of darkness engulfed Pakistan on January 24 as its aging power grid strained to meet the country’s demand for electricity. The massive outage was the latest in a series of blackouts that have become a chronic symptom of Pakistan’s ailing and climate-vulnerable economy, under duress from devastating natural disasters, a colossal […]

Sri Lanka needs to get back to growing its economy. It needs a new push towards development, one that harnesses good ideas and creates wealth for all its citizens. The name of the game is wealth creation – for all. Then governments will have something to tax! But somehow, little Sri Lanka hasn’t quite grasped […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando The Supreme Court (SC) on Feb. 10 dismissed a contempt of court application filed by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL), delivering a shock therapy to the latter. The HRCSL filed the contempt case against the Chairman of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) N.S. Illangakoon, the Secretary to the Ministry […]

Moldova’s government has collapsed and its pro-EU prime minister has stepped down after 18 months of political and economic turbulence. Europe’s poorest country was struggling with “multiple crises”, outgoing PM Natalia Gavrilita said on Friday. With the war raging in neighbouring Ukraine, Moldova has been facing inflation, high energy prices, a refugee influx and Russian [...

By Shamindra Ferdinando Eric Walsh presented his credentials to President Ranil Wickremesinghe, on Feb. 02, at the President’s House in Kandy. Wickremesinghe was flanked by Foreign Minister Ali Sabry, PC, and Presidential Secretary Saman Ekanayake. Canada, with the concurrence of Sri Lanka, appointed Walsh as High Commissioner of Canada to Colombo. Walsh, who had served […]

Up to 40 countries could boycott the next Olympic Games, making the whole event pointless, said Poland’s sport and tourism minister Kamil Bortniczuk.His comments came after Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia jointly rejected an International Olympic Committee (IOC) plan to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete in 2024. Ukraine has threatened to boycott the Paris […]