The risks from China’s debt pile are mounting as the country grapples with an economic slowdown and property crisis, a leading credit ratings agency has said. Moody’s issued the warning as it cut its outlook on the government’s debt to negative, from stable.The firm is the latest to raise concern about problems facing the world’s […]

More than 200 defendants in one of Italy’s biggest mafia trials for generations have been sentenced to a total of more than 2,200 years in jail. The three-year trial saw individuals allegedly linked to the ‘Ndrangheta sentenced for crimes ranging from extortion to drug trafficking. Those sentenced included a former Italian senator, though the verdicts […]

Far-right libertarian outsider Javier Milei has won Argentina’s presidential run-off poll, according to provisional results. Milei’s rival, economy minister Sergio Massa, called him to concede. Former US President Donald Trump congratulated  Milei on his victory, saying he would “Make Argentina Great Again!”. The election comes at a difficult time for Argentina with rising ...

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By Sanjeewa Jayaweera The English cricketer Moeen Ali, who incidentally is also the vice-captain of the team, posted on his Instagram page a thought-provoking quote: “If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing”. The quote is attributed […]

This week, China is throwing a huge party to celebrate one of its biggest experiments in engaging with the world: its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Officials and leaders from all over the globe are in Beijing to attend a high-level summit marking the BRI’s 10th anniversary. Participants expected to show up range from Vladimir […]

The first section of Kenya’s Chinese-built railway was opened with much fanfare in 2017 – but two years later work on the tracks stopped in the middle of the country and the master plan of linking it to other landlocked countries in East Africa seems to have derailed. This means the project is not bringing […]

By Zinara Rathnayake When I was five years old, I would love to sit beside my loku amma, solving riddles while she worked in the kitchen making kalu dodol. Loku amma was married to my paternal uncle, my father’s older brother. As a young girl, I loved my chatty, always laughing, childlike loku amma for […]

‘Ram and Nagulan responsible for over 600 killings roaming free’ By Shamindra Ferdinando Sri Lanka Republican Front leader Patali Champika Ranawaka, MP, has questioned the circumstances under which the Rajapaksas granted amnesty to 12,600 LTTE cadres following the successful conclusion of the war in May 2009. However, some of them were released during the Yahapalana administration (2015-2019) [...

Property giant Evergrande has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US as the real estate crisis in China deepens. It will allow the heavily-indebted company to protect its assets in the US as it works on a multi-billion dollar deal with creditors. Evergrande defaulted on its huge debts in 2021, which sent shock-waves through global […]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government was making every effort to restore peace in the state of Manipur as he addressed the country on its 77th independence day. “I want to tell the people of Manipur that the country is with you,”  Modi said. On Tuesday, he unfurled the national flag at the historic […]

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 […]

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 […]

Crisis-hit Pakistan has reached a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over $3bn (£2.4bn) of funding. The deal, which still needs to be approved by the global lender’s board, comes after an eight-month delay. The South Asian nation is facing its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1947. To help secure […]