09-02-2023 COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s economy is expected to grow again from the end of this year and the government hopes to extricate the country from its economic crisis by 2026, President Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament on Wednesday. The Indian Ocean Island of 22 million people has been struggling with its …

09-02-2023 KAHRAMANMARAS/ ANTAKYA: Families in southern Turkey and Syria spent a second night in the freezing cold on Wednesday as overwhelmed rescuers raced to pull people from the rubble two days after a massive earthquake that killed more than 11,000 people. In Turkey, dozens of bodies, some covered in blankets …

08-02-2023 Bureau Report + BBC NEW DELHI: A pregnancy photoshoot by an Indian transgender couple who paused their hormone therapy to have a baby is being widely shared on social media. Ziya Paval, 21, and her partner Zahad, 23, who live in the southern state of Kerala, were in the …

08-02-2023 PARIS: Plane maker Boeing plans to cut about 2,000 jobs in finance and human resources this year, as it focuses on engineering and manufacturing. The move comes as the company puts more of its resources into “products, services and technology development”. It will outsource some of the roles to …

08-02-2023 TEHRAN: The Iranian Air Force unveiled its first underground military base on Tuesday. Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri and Iran’s Army Commander Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi visited the subterranean air base, named Oghab-44 (Eagle-44). The tactical airbase can accommodate and prepare …

08-02-2023 QUITO: A candidate for mayor in Ecuador, who was murdered just hours before polls opened, has won the election in the city of Puerto Lopez. Omar Menéndez, 41, was shot dead by gunmen who burst into the room where he was with campaign workers on Saturday. A teenager was …

08-02-2023 OTTAWA: An immigration official in the Canadian province of Quebec has said it is “surprising” to learn that New York City is sending migrants to the country’s border. New York City mayor Eric Adams told Fox 5 that his administration was assisting migrants who had been sent to his …

07-02-2023 ANTAKYA: Overwhelmed rescuers struggled to save people trapped under the rubble as the death toll from a devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria approached 5,000 on Tuesday, with despair mounting and the scale of the disaster hampering relief efforts. In the Turkish city of Antakya near the Syrian border, …

07-02-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies DOHA/ KABUL: An envoy for Qatar’s foreign affairs minister visited the Afghan capital on Sunday and met the Taliban administration’s acting foreign minister, according to an Afghan foreign ministry statement. The visit comes after the Taliban administration placed restrictions on women’s education and NGO work, …

07-02-2023 Bureau Report SYDNEY: A 16-year-old killed by a shark while swimming in a Western Australia (WA) river has been identified as Stella Berry. The schoolgirl was pronounced dead after being pulled from the Swan River in Perth on Saturday. Stella was riding jet skis with friends when she jumped …