Asia
Sri Lanka will hold presidential election on Sept. 21, its first since declaring bankruptcy in 2022
Sri Lanka will hold a presidential election on Sept. 21 that will likely be a test of confidence in President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s efforts to resolve the country’s worst economic crisis.
The date was announced by the independent elections commission Friday, which said nominations will be accepted on Aug. 15.
Wickremesinghe is expected to run while his main rivals will be opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and Anura Dissanayake, who is the leader of a leftist political party that has gained popularity after the economic debacle.
It will be the first election in the South Asian island nation after it declared bankruptcy in 2022 and suspended repayments on some $83 billion in domestic and foreign loans.
That followed a severe foreign exchange crisis that led to a severe shortage of essentials such as food, medicine, fuel and cooking gas, and extended power outages.
The election is largely seen as a crucial vote for the island nation’s efforts to conclude a critical debt restructuring program and as well as completing the financial reforms agreed under a bailout program by the International Monetary Fund.
The country’s economic upheaval led to a political crisis that forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign in 2022. Parliament then elected the then-Prime Minister Wickremesinghe as president.
Under Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka has been negotiating with the international creditors to restructure the staggering debts and to put the economy back on the track. The IMF has also approved a four-year bailout program last March to help Sri Lanka.
Last month, Wickremesinghe announced that his government has struck a debt restructuring deal with countries including India, France, Japan and China — marking a key step in the country’s economic recovery after defaulting on debt repayment in 2022.
The economic situation has improved under Wickremesinghe and severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine have largely abated. But public dissatisfaction has grown over the government’s effort to increase revenue by raising electricity bills and imposing heavy new income taxes on professionals and businesses, as part of the government’s efforts to meet the IMF conditions.
Sri Lanka’s crisis was largely the result of staggering economic mismanagement combined with fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, which along with 2019 terrorism attacks devastated its important tourism industry. The coronavirus crisis also disrupted the flow of remittances from Sri Lankans working abroad.
Additionally, the then-government slashed taxes in 2019, depleting the treasury just as the virus hit. Foreign exchange reserves plummeted, leaving Sri Lanka unable to pay for imports or defend its beleaguered currency, the rupee.
Under the agreements with its creditors, Sri Lanka will be able to defer all bilateral loan instalment payments until 2028. Furthermore, Sri Lanka will be able to repay all the loans on concessional terms, with an extended period until 2043. The agreements would cover $10 billion of debt.
By 2022, Sri Lanka had to repay about $6 billion in foreign debt every year, amounting to about 9.2% of gross domestic product. The agreement would enable Sri Lanka to maintain debt payments at less than 4.5% of GDP between 2027 and 2032.
Typhoon Gaemi hits China's coast after leaving 25 dead in Taiwan and the Philippines
A strong typhoon made landfall on China's southeastern coast on Thursday evening after sweeping across the nearby island of Taiwan, where it caused landslides and flooding in low-lying areas and left three dead.
Typhoon Gaemi had swept up the western Pacific, intensifying seasonal rains earlier in the week in the Philippines, where the death toll climbed to 22.
Offices and schools in Taiwan were closed for a second day on Thursday and people were urged to stay home and away from the coastline.
Two people were killed on Wednesday before the storm made landfall around midnight, and a 78-year-old man died after his home was hit by a mudslide on Thursday afternoon, Taiwan's Central News Agency said. Another 380 people were reported injured.
A third death on Wednesday — a driver pinned under an overturned excavator — was initially attributed to the typhoon but later was determined not to be linked, the news agency said.
The island is regularly hit by typhoons and has boosted its warning systems, but its topography, high population density and high-tech economy make it difficult to avoid losses when such storms hit. The capital, Taipei, was unusually quiet, with light rain and occasionally gusting winds.
The storm prompted the cancellation of air force drills this week off Taiwan’s east coast.
In China's coastal Fujian province, flights, trains and ferry services were canceled, and more than 240,000 residents were evacuated as the typhoon approached, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The storm is expected to weaken but still bring heavy rains to inland areas over the next three days, including the capital, Beijing.
In the Philippines, the death toll rose due to drownings and landslides. At least three people were missing, according to police.
Gaemi, called Carina in the Philippines, did not make landfall in that archipelago but enhanced its seasonal monsoon rains.
The Philippine coast guard reported that an oil tanker, MT Terra Nova, loaded with about 1.4 million liters (370,000 gallons) of industrial fuel oil sank off Limay town in Bataan province early Thursday and rescuers saved 15 of 16 crew members.
It was not immediately clear if the sinking was related to the bad weather and rough seas but Transport Secretary Jaime Bautista said coast guard personnel could not immediately reach the area to contain a possible oil spill because of the rough sea conditions.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered authorities to speed up efforts to deliver food and other aid to isolated rural villages.
“People there may not have eaten for days,” Marcos said in a televised emergency meeting.
In the densely populated region around the Philippine capital, government work and school classes were suspended after rains flooded many areas.
India and UK launch tech initiative as new British foreign minister makes his first official visit
India and the United Kingdom launched a new technology security initiative expected to boost economic growth and deepen collaboration, the two countries announced during the first official visit to India by the new British foreign secretary.
According to the agreement, which was announced late Wednesday, the two countries will work together on crucial technologies, from critical minerals and AI to semiconductors and telecoms. It will also strengthen cooperation on issues like climate, trade, technology and education, according to a statement released by British Foreign Secretary David Lammy's office.
“This will mean real action together on the challenges of the future from AI to critical minerals. Together we can unlock mutual growth, boost innovation, jobs and investment," Lammy said.
In talks with his counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the two also agreed to boost defense and security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, and discussed global issues including the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to a statement from the Indian Foreign Ministry.
Lammy said his trip to India reflects one of the new government’s top foreign policy priorities: a reset with Europe, both on climate and with the Global South.
Britain's new Labour Party government, which swept the polls in the July 4 election, says it wants to “reset and relaunch” U.K.-India relations, particularly by restarting formal talks that began in 2022 on a free trade agreement hailed by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a key goal after Britain’s departure from the European Union in 2020.
Lammy also met with Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said he welcomed the new technology security initiative. Modi also said India was looking forward to settling on a free trade agreement in a post on social media platform X.
The trade deal was aimed at doubling the two countries’ trade from its 2022 level of $50 billion by 2030. Johnson famously promised to have a deal done by Diwali in October of that year.
The two countries held 13 rounds of negotiations without a breakthrough before talks were suspended while both nations held 2024 general elections.
A plane slips off the runway and crashes in Nepal, killing 18 passengers and injuring the pilot
A domestic plane slipped off the runway and crashed Wednesday while trying to take off from the airport serving Nepal's capital, killing the 18 passengers and injuring the pilot.
Police official Basanta Rajauri said authorities have pulled out all 18 bodies. The only survivor was the pilot, who was taken to Kathmandu Medical College Hospital for treatment, said a doctor at the hospital who was not authorized to speak to media.
The pilot has injuries to the eyes but is not in any danger, the doctor said.
The Saurya Airlines plane was heading from Kathmandu to the resort town of Pokhara.
It was not clear how it slipped.
Local media images showed smoke rising and plane wreckage scattered all over a ditch. A fire has been brought under control.
Tribhuvan International Airport, the main airport in Nepal for international and domestic flights, has been closed as emergency crew worked.
It is monsoon rainy season in Kathmandu but was not raining at the time of the crash. Visibility was low across the capital, however.
Saurya Airlines operates the Bombardier CRJ 200 on domestic routes.
In 2019, a Bangladeshi airliner crashed at Tribhuvan airport, killing 51 people while 20 on board survived. An investigation confirmed the plane was misaligned with the runway and its pilot was disoriented and tried to land in “sheer desperation” when the plane crashed.
In 2015, a Turkish Airlines jet landing in dense fog skidded off a slippery runway at the airport. The plane was carrying 238 people but there were no serious injuries.
A plane carrying 19 people slips off the runway and crashes in Nepal, and the pilot survives
A domestic plane with 19 people on board slipped off the runway and crashed Wednesday while trying to take off from the airport serving Nepal's capital.
The pilot survived and was taken to Kathmandu Medical College Hospital for treatment, said a doctor at the hospital who was not authorized to speak to media.
The pilot has injuries to the eyes but is not in any danger, the doctor said.
The Saurya Airlines plane was heading from Kathmandu to the resort town of Pokhara.
It was not clear how it slipped.
Local media images showed smoke rising and plane wreckage scattered all over a ditch. A fire has been brought under control.
Tribhuvan International Airport, the main airport in Nepal for international and domestic flights, has been closed as emergency crew worked.
It is monsoon rainy season in Kathmandu but was not raining at the time of the crash. Visibility was low across the capital, however.
Saurya Airlines operates the Bombardier CRJ 200 on domestic routes.
In 2019, a Bangladeshi airliner crashed at Tribhuvan airport, killing 51 people while 20 on board survived. An investigation confirmed the plane was misaligned with the runway and its pilot was disoriented and tried to land in “sheer desperation” when the plane crashed.
In 2015, a Turkish Airlines jet landing in dense fog skidded off a slippery runway at the airport. The plane was carrying 238 people but there were no serious injuries.
Rivals Hamas and Fatah sign a declaration to form a future government as war rages in Gaza
Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah agreed in Beijing to form a government together, the groups said Tuesday, in the latest attempt at resolving a longstanding rivalry that looms over any potential vision for the rule of Gaza after the war with Israel.
Previous similar declarations have failed, raising doubts about whether the China-sponsored negotiations might lead to reconciliation between Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip for 17 years, and Fatah, the main force in the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority that administers parts of the occupied West Bank.
The two groups issued a joint statement announcing the deal but gave no details on how or when the government would be formed, saying only that it would be done “by agreement among the factions.” Both sides said the accord, which provided no guarantees, was only an initial step, and they promised to follow up on previous reconciliation agreements signed in 2011 and 2022.
Israel swiftly denounced the pact. The U.S. and other Western countries have refused to accept any Palestinian government that includes Hamas unless it expressly recognizes Israel — a factor that has helped wreck past unity attempts, along with the factions' own competition for power.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV announced that the two sides and other, smaller Palestinian factions signed the declaration on “ending division and strengthening Palestinian unity.” The agreement offered only broad outlines for how they would work together.
“There is an opportunity … but it is not big, because it lacks a specific timetable for implementation,” said Hani Al-Masry, an expert on Palestinian reconciliation affairs.
The declaration comes at a sensitive time, as the war in Gaza rages into its 10th month and as Israel and Hamas are weighing an internationally backed cease-fire proposal that would wind down the war and free dozens of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
One of the thorniest issues is the question of who will run Gaza after the war. The unity efforts are motivated in part by Palestinians' desire to offer a scenario for postwar rule.
But Israel vehemently opposes any role for Hamas, which it vowed to destroy after the militants' Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. It also has rejected U.S. calls for the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza after the fighting ends, though it has not presented a cohesive postwar vision of its own.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ’ Fatah has been deeply reluctant to share power with its longtime rival. Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006. The following year, amid escalating tensions, Hamas routed forces loyal to Abbas in Gaza. It has ruled the impoverished coastal enclave ever since.
During the current war, Hamas officials have said the group does not want to return to ruling Gaza and that it advocates for forming a government of technocrats to be agreed upon by the various Palestinian factions. That government would then prepare for elections in Gaza and the West Bank, with the intention of forming a unified government.
Reacting to the announcement out of China, Israel’s foreign minister said no joint governance between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza will take place "because Hamas’ rule will be crushed.”
The agreement also underscored China’s attempts to have a growing role in Middle East diplomacy, after its success in mediating the restoration of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
“To be sure, China is still in the process of trying to earn credibility as a global mediator,” said James Char, a research fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Officials from Fatah, Hamas and 12 other factions met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in talks that started Sunday, according to a post on social media platform Weibo from Chinese TV network CGTN.
In the statement, all the factions including Hamas said they were committed to the creation of a Palestinian state on lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
Hamas, whose original charter directly called for Israel’s destruction, has said it would accept a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 war borders but refuses to officially recognize Israel.
The Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, has recognized Israel and works within the framework of peace deals signed in the early 1990s. Those deals were supposed to lead to an eventual state in the West Bank and Gaza, but talks have been defunct for years, leaving the authority in charge of only isolated West Bank enclaves. Many Palestinians view the authority as corrupt, out of touch and a subcontractor for Israel because of their joint security coordination.
The unity announcement is based on widening the membership of the Fatah-led Palestine Liberation Organization, including Hamas, said Jamal Nazzal, a Fatah spokesperson.
“It’s a long way ahead, and most of it will be implemented after a possible cease-fire,” he added.
Hamas members have never been part of the PLO, the umbrella group of Palestinian factions that undergirds the Palestinian Authority. Husam Badran, a Hamas political official based in Qatar, called the agreement a further “positive step towards achieving Palestinian national unity.”
U.S. President Joe Biden's administration envisions a revamped Palestinian Authority ruling postwar Gaza and has sought reforms that might make it a viable presence in the war-ravaged territory. Israel rejected that idea.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group allied with Hamas, issued a statement after the talks saying it still “rejects any formula that includes recognition of Israel explicitly or implicitly” and that it demanded the withdrawal of the PLO's recognition of Israel.
Traces of cyanide found in cups of Vietnamese and Americans found dead in Bangkok hotel, police say
Police found traces of cyanide in the cups of six Vietnamese and American guests at a central Bangkok luxury hotel and one of them is believed to have poisoned the others over a bad investment, Thai authorities said Wednesday.
The bodies were found Tuesday in the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok, a landmark at a central intersection in the capital busy with malls, government buildings and public transit.
The six had last been seen alive when food was delivered to the room Monday afternoon. The staff saw one woman receive the food, and security footage showed the rest arriving one by one shortly after. There were no other visitors, no one was seen leaving and the door was locked. A maid found them Tuesday afternoon when they failed to check out of the room.
Lt. Gen. Trairong Piwpan, chief of the Thai police force's forensic division, said there were traces of cyanide in the cups and thermoses that police found in the room, but initial results of an autopsy were expected later Wednesday.
Bangkok police chief Lt. Gen. Thiti Sangsawang identified the dead as two Vietnamese Americans and four Vietnamese nationals, and said they were three men and three women. Their ages ranged from 37 to 56, according to Noppasin Punsawat, Bangkok deputy police chief. He said the case appeared to be personal and would not impact the safety of tourists.
A husband and wife among the dead had invested money with two of the others, suggesting that money could be a motive, said Noppasin, citing information obtained from relatives of the victims. The investment was meant to build a hospital in Japan and the group might have been meeting to settle the matter.
Bangkok police chief Lt. Gen. Thiti Sangsawang said Tuesday that four bodies were in the living room and two in the bedroom. He said two of them appeared to try to reach for the door but collapsed before they could.
Noppasin said Wednesday that a seventh person whose name was part of the hotel booking was a sibling of one of the six and left Thailand on July 10. Police believe the seventh person had no involvement in the deaths.
The Vietnamese and United States embassies have been contacted over the deaths, and the American FBI was en route, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said.
He said the case would likely not affect a conference with Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev at the hotel later Wednesday. “This wasn’t an act of terrorism or a breach in security. Everything is fine," he said.
Trairong said a mass suicide was unlikely because some of the victims had arranged future parts of their trip, such as guides and drivers. He added that the bodies being in different parts of the hotel room suggested they did not knowingly consume poison and wait for their deaths together.
U.S. State Dept. spokesman Matthew Miller in Washington offered condolences to the families of the victims. He said the U.S. is closely monitoring the situation and would communicate with local authorities.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his Thai counterpart on Tuesday, but Miller said he thought that call happened before the deaths were reported and he didn’t know if it came up in their conversation.
In 2023, Thailand was rocked by reports of a serial killer who poisoned 15 people with cyanide over a span of years. Sararat Rangsiwuthaporn, or “Am Cyanide” as she would later be called, killed at least 14 people who she owed money to and became the country’s first female serial killer. One person survived.
At least 40 die after heavy rains pound eastern Afghanistan, destroying houses and cutting power
Heavy rains in eastern Afghanistan have killed at least 40 people and injured nearly 350 others, Taliban officials said Tuesday.
Among the dead in Monday's storm were five members of the same family when the roof of their house collapsed in Surkh Rod district, according to provincial spokesperson Sediqullah Quraishi. Four other family members were injured.
Sharafat Zaman Amar, a spokesperson for the Public Health Ministry, said the 347 injured people had been brought for treatment to the regional hospital in Nangarhar from Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, and nearby districts.
About 400 houses and 60 electricity poles were destroyed across Nangarhar, Quraishi said. Power was cut in many areas and there were limited communications in Jalalabad city, he said. The damage was still being assessed.
Abdul Wali, 43, said much of the damage occurred within an hour. “The winds were so strong that they blew everything into the air. That was followed by heavy rain,” he said. His 4-year-old daughter received minor injuries, he said.
Aid organizations rushed supplies and mobile teams.
International Rescue Committee Afghanistan Director Salma ben Aissa said her group was conducting assessments and providing emergency health services.
“The continuation of climate-induced disasters in Afghanistan ought to be cause for grave concern: decades of conflict and economic crisis has meant that the country has faced setback after setback as it tries to find its feet. The sad reality is that without a massive increase in support from donors and the international community, many more will lose their lives,” she said in a statement.
In May, exceptionally heavy rains killed more than 300 people and destroyed thousands of houses, mostly in the northern province of Baghlan, according to the World Food Program.
Separately, the official Taliban news agency Bakhtar reported that at least 17 people were killed and 34 others injured when a bus overturned Tuesday morning on the main highway linking Kabul and Balkh in northern Baghlan province.
The cause of the accident wasn't immediately clear, but poor road conditions and careless driving are often blamed for such incidents in the country.
North Korean diplomat in Cuba defected to South Korea in November, Seoul says
South Korea’s spy agency said Tuesday that a North Korea diplomat based in Cuba has fled to South Korea, the latest in a series of defections by members of the North's ruling elite in recent years.
The National Intelligence Service said media reports on the defection of a North Korean counselor of political affairs in Cuba were true. A brief statement by the NIS public affairs office gave no further details.
South Korea’s mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported earlier Tuesday that diplomat Ri Il Kyu fled to South Korea with his wife and children last November.
Chosun Ilbo cited Ri as telling the newspaper that he had decided to defect because of disillusionment with North Korea’s political system. But Yonhap news agency, citing a South Korean unidentified government source, reported that Ri decided to flee after conflicts with North Korean Foreign Ministry officials about his job evaluations.
In 2016, Tae Yongho, then a minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, defected to South Korea. He told reporters in Seoul that he decided to flee because he didn’t want his children to live “miserable” lives in North Korea and he fell into “despair” after watching North Korean leader Kim Jong Un execute officials and pursue development of nuclear weapons.
North Korea has called him “human scum” and accused him of embezzling government money and committing other crimes. Tae was elected to South Korea’s parliament in 2020.
In 2019, North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy, Jo Song Gil, arrived in South Korea.
Also in 2019, North Korea's acting ambassador to Kuwait arrived in South Korea with his family. Lawmakers in 2021 cited the NIS as telling them the diplomat changed his name to Ryu Hyun-woo after arriving in South Korea.
South Korea’s unification and foreign ministries said they couldn’t confirm reports about Ri’s defection.
It’s unusual for a member of the North’s ruling elite to defect to South Korea. Last year, about 10 North Koreans categorized as members of the North's elite arrived in South Korea, according to Yonhap.
About 34,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea to avoid economic hardship and political suppression since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. A majority of them are women from the North's poorer northern regions.
Rescuers in Nepal recover 7 bodies after a landslide swept 2 buses of people into a river
Rescuers have recovered a total of seven bodies from the river that two buses full of people were swept into by a landslide, officials said Monday.
Rescuers were able to find the bodies in different locations on the riverbanks as the search continues for the missing buses and people on board.
Government administrator Khima Nanda Bhusal said the bodies were identified and relatives contacted. Three of the dead are Indians and the remaining four are Nepali nationals.
The buses were on the key highway connecting Nepal’s capital to southern parts of the country when they were swept away Friday morning near Simaltal, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Kathmandu.
The first body was recovered Sunday some 50 kilometers (31 miles) from where the buses fell.
Weather conditions improved Saturday and search teams were able to cover more ground in the hunt for the missing buses and passengers. Heavy equipment had cleared much of the landslides from the highway, making it easier to reach the area as rescuers expanded their scope toward the southern region from where the first body was found, Bhusal said.
The government has imposed a ban on passenger buses traveling at night in the areas where weather warnings are posted, according to the Home Ministry.