International Relations

Afghans risked their lives to vote in legislative elections in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, after the Taliban-claimed killing of a powerful police chief delayed the ballot by a week. Turbaned men and burqa-clad women stood in long, segregated queues outside polling centres in the deeply conservative Kandahar’s provincial capital, which …

Initial findings showed that Cesar Sayoc, who was arrested on Friday in Florida in connection with the 13 package bombs, was a Donald Trump supporter. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized a white van in which Mr. Sayoc appeared to be living and large sections of which were covered …

MP and son of Mr. Rajapaksa, Namal Rajapaksa termed the current arrangement “a caretaker government” that would hold charge until “early” national elections. Claiming that their side had a comfortable majority, he said, “We want to first stabilise the economic and political situation”. Asked why the parliament was prorogued if …

Pakistan has been offered aid worth $6 bn by Saudi Arabia Pakistan has not dropped the idea of seeking assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) despite Saudi Arabia offering a $6-billion aid package, officials said on Wednesday. Prime Minister Imran Khan earlier this month gave the green signal to …

Officials reach out to Huawei to recover data from a phone Sri Lankan authorities will seek Chinese assistance to tap evidence pertaining to an “assassination plot” said to be targeting President Maithripala Sirisena. On Tuesday, Sri Lankan police won permission from a magistrate court here to approach Chinese multinational Huawei …

As Sri Lankans grapple with rapidly soaring living costs, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament last week that “the increase of oil prices is inevitable in the current global context”. Fuel prices went up from six to eight rupees — 92-octane petrol costs LKR 155 (roughly Rs. 68) — slowly …

Banksy’s impact beyond the conventional art world has been profound, says Dave Stuart, who runs Shoreditch Street Art Tours in London. Banksy’s humorous, often bitingly political, thought-provoking pieces introduced the media and the public to the world of street art and showed those aspiring street artists, who believed they had …

Staving off tough competition from priceless Chinese antiques, the crème de la crème of European art and Japan’s own woodblock print masters, the hottest museum tickets in Tokyo currently are to Borderless: the world’s first permanent digital art museum. teamLab, the collective behind the museum, is transforming the very ontology …

Sri Lanka’s Parliament on Wednesday passed legislation to pay compensation to victims of the island’s brutal civil war, nearly a decade after the end of the conflict which claimed 1,00,000 lives. The legislature voted 59-43 to approve a broad reparations Bill, which seeks to establish an independent office that will …

Calls for ‘vocational education centres to reform extremists’ Anti-terror efforts in the controversial “reeducation centres” in China’s Xinjiang region will be governed by new standardised rules, as international criticism mounts over the detention of as many as one million in the restive far west. The revised rules, passed on Tuesday, …