New Delhi: The Russia-Ukraine war has demonstrated the need to develop “smart weapons for short, intense conflicts” and “conventional weapons” for potential longer-term wars for nations like India, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan said Friday. Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue 2023

CIA Chief’s cloak-and-dagger visit: By Shamindra Ferdinando Pivuthuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) leader, Udaya Gammanpila, MP, yesterday (06) said that the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government and the US embassy in Colombo should come clean on CIA Director William Joseph Burns’ Colombo visit. The former Power and Energy Minister said so in response to The Island query whether the […]

Monday, 6th March, 2023 The Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe regime has been painting itself into a corner on the political front by going all out to scuttle the local government (LG) polls. It succeeded in delaying the elections by manipulating the Treasury to deprive the Election Commission (EC) of funds, but Friday’s Supreme Court (SC) interim order has […]

BBC reported that the US is to give $400m (£333m) more in military aid to Ukraine to boost Kyiv’s ammunition stocks depleted during its ongoing high-intensity war with Russia. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this included high-precision Himars artillery rockets and howitzers “

Washington, DC – There are no takers for China quoting the scriptures on global peace in the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with the United States even warning the Asian giant of the consequences should it interfere in the conflict on the side of Russia. The visit of US President Joe Biden

BBC reported that the leaders of China and Belarus have expressed their “extreme interest” in a peaceful resolution in Ukraine. Chinese President and Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, issued the statement after talks in Beijing. The 12

Canadian Government’s obligations to Sri Lanka consequent to Ontario’s Bill 104, viewed within concepts of “Diplomatic Protection”, “regionalism versus international law” as well as the “Vienna convention 1961” By Chandre Dharma-wardana The provincial government of Ontario passed a bill (Bill 104) implying that a genocide of Tamils occurred in Sri Lanka, and int...

US Republican Party, Grand Old Party (GOP) Presidential candidate Nikki Haley has said that if voted to power, she will cut every cent in foreign aid for countries that hate the US. This includes China, Pakistan and other adversaries as “a strong America doesn’t pay off the bad guys”. “I will cut every cent in foreign aid for countries […]

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 […]

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the G20 is destabilized by the collective West and is used in an anti-Russian, purely confrontational manner. The United States, the EU and the G7 continue their attempts to isolate Russia and shift the blame for the provoked problems in international security and the global economy […]

BBC reported that finance ministers of the world’s largest economies have failed to agree on a closing statement following a summit in India, after China refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Beijing declined to accept parts of a G20 statement that deplored Russia’

BBC reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he plans to meet China’s leader Xi Jinping to discuss Beijing’s proposals on ending the war in Ukraine. Speaking on the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, he said the proposal signalled that China

The United Nations overwhelmingly isolated Russia on Thursday, marking one year since Moscow invaded Ukraine by calling for a Âcomprehensive, just and lasting peace and again demanding Moscow withdraw its troops and stop fighting.

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

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 […]

One year into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is all too clear that none concerned has in any way gained by it. The two main sides to the conflict have dug their heels in and are in an unrelenting posture, raising the possibility of the Ukraine situation degenerating into yet another humanly

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 […]