Sri Lanka's anti-government demonstrators said Thursday they were ending their occupation of official buildings, as they vowed to press on with their bid to bring down the president and prime minister in the face of a dire economic crisis.. They contrasted the opulent accommodation with the economic plight of his compatriots -- four out of five Sri Lankans skipping meals because of the country's dire economic crisis.
Vulnerable Pacific islands demanded "urgent, immediate" global action on climate change Thursday, while stressing a commitment to democracy and the "rules-based" international order in the face of growing Chinese regional influence.. "Urgent robust and transformative action" is needed "globally, regionally and nationally," they said.
Sri Lanka's anti-government demonstrators were in talks Thursday to hand back official buildings they seized, protest representatives said, even as they insisted the president and prime minister both quit in the face of an economic crisis.. Protesters overran President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's palace at the weekend, forcing him to flee to the Maldives on Wednesday, when activists also stormed the office of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Mahmud Aguil has a comfortable house in Libya's capital Tripoli, but chronic power outages in the war-battered country and roasting summer heat now force him to sleep in his air-conditioned van.. The Tripoli-based authorities have sought to quell public anger over the power outages, admitting they had underestimated the problem.
Israeli journalist Yoav Limor did not know what to expect when he travelled with a colleague this month to Saudi Arabia, a country long notorious for promoting anti-Israel sentiment in textbooks and in sermons by some imams. . Anti-Israeli speech by imams is also "generally rare", and the Islamic affairs ministry has encouraged a "rejection of bigotry", the US State Department said in its latest human rights report on Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has shaken up the conservative kingdom with head-spinning reforms while quashing any threats to his status since becoming de facto ruler of the world's biggest oil producer five years ago.. Having plotted his path to power from relative obscurity, Prince Mohammed has overseen the biggest transformation in Saudi Arabia's modern history, the world's top crude oil exporter and host of Islam's two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina.
Germany will on Thursday remember more than 180 people killed in severe floods a year ago, as concerns mount over climate change and the country looks to overhaul its planning for future disasters.. "I say that some areas should not be resettled due to climate change and the acute threat of severe weather disasters and floods," he said.
A week of gang violence in Haiti's capital has left at least 89 people dead, a rights group said Wednesday, as soaring prices, fuel shortages and gang warfare accelerate a brutal downward spiral in the security situation in Port-au-Prince.. Gas stations in Port-au-Prince don't have any gas to sell, causing prices on the black market to skyrocket.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Thursday it had agreed with Pakistan to resume a suspended loan programme that will inject $1.17 billion into the struggling economy.. "It became essential to resume the IMF programme to save the country from default," finance minister Miftah Ismail told the national assembly last month.
US President Joe Biden will hold bilateral talks on Thursday with Israeli officials in Jerusalem, where the two allies are expected to declare a "united stand" on common foe Iran.. Tehran will top the agenda of talks slated for Thursday, according to Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, while a senior official said the two leaders were due to sign a joint declaration.
