Bankrupt Sri Lanka will receive a conditional $2.9 billion bailout to repair its battered finances, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday, following a bruising economic crisis that saw the island nation's president chased from the country.. The IMF's announcement of a $2.9 billion package, spread over four years, is short of the $3-4 billion sought by Sri Lanka.
The southern Pakistan village of Karim Bakhsh is almost entirely under muddy water after catastrophic monsoon rains -- hardly any stable buildings are left for shelter, the wheat silos are empty and venomous snakes are a constant threat.. Most homes and structures were ruined, and villagers were desperate for any material that might help build temporary shelter from both the rain and -- when it came out -- the scorching sun.
Around 16 million people in the Chinese city of Chengdu will be effectively under lockdown from Thursday as authorities race to snuff out a new Covid-19 outbreak.. Last month, travellers in the southern island province of Hainan protested after more than 80,000 tourists were stranded in a resort city because of a Covid-19 flare-up.
As Hong Kong students return for the new academic year, veteran teacher Wong is counting down the days until the political maelstrom sweeping the city leaves him no choice but to quit.. "The students are leaving not because they dislike the school, but because of Hong Kong's environment."
In a divisive election campaign blighted by fears of unrest if far-right President Jair Bolsonaro refuses to accept defeat, Brazil is waging an uphill battle against disinformation wielded as a political weapon.. This has led to fears that his supporters might not accept the results, and that Brazil could see a burst of violence akin to the attack on the US Capitol in January 2021 in the wake of Donald Trump's loss to Joe Biden.
The United Nations released a bombshell report late Wednesday into serious human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang region, saying torture allegations were credible and citing possible crimes against humanity.. - Torture allegations 'credible' - China has been accused for years of detaining more than one million Uyghurs and other Muslims in the region.
Mikhail Gorbachev could have been celebrated for involuntarily opening a path towards Ukraine's independence, but his support for Crimea's annexation and silence in the face of Russia's invasion have stained his reputation. . - 'Russian imperialism' - The visible hostility of Ukrainians towards Gorbachev also stems from his silence regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Earth's concentration of greenhouse gases and sea levels hit new highs in 2021, a US government report said Wednesday, showing that climate change keeps surging ahead despite renewed efforts to curb emissions.. The US agency said that the concentration of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere stood at 414.7 parts per million in 2021, 2.3 parts higher than in 2020.
Rich carbon polluters should feel "moral pressure" to help fund climate-vulnerable nations wracked by weather extremes such as Pakistan, where monstrous flooding has caused devastation, diplomats and observers told AFP. Torrential monsoon rains have killed more than a thousand, left a third of Pakistan under water and displaced hundreds of thousands, months after the country was scorched by record-shattering heat, intensified by climate change.. The human and economic impact is already staggering and "this is an ongoing disaster; the rains are still going on", he told AFP. Countries like Pakistan that have contributed the least to global warming are often battered by the worst impacts, observers say.
US health officials on Wednesday authorized updated Covid-19 vaccinations by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech that specifically target the latest strains of the Omicron variant, with the goal of jump-starting a new booster campaign.. The two updated booster shots aimed at providing "better protection against Covid-19 caused by the Omicron variant" are approved for people age 12 and above for the Pfizer shot and 18 and older for Moderna, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a statement.
