Postcards: Sri Lanka’s crisis pushes war-shattered Tamils to the brink
JEEVAN RAVINDRAN, of Reuters, reports on the ongoing struggle of Sri Lanka’s Tamils…
Lebanon in crisis: Emergency numbers and suicide hotlines falter
TALA RAMADAN, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on the impacts of Lebanon’s ongoing economic crisis with people there now at risk losing access to two more essentials – their mobile phones and the internet…
No kerosene, no food, Sri Lanka’s fishermen say
Mannar, Sri LankaReuters As the sun rose over Sri Lanka one morning in late August, around a dozen fishermen were laying out their nets on a beach in Mannar, a small island just off the country’s north-western coast, the start of the day’s work. But many other fishermen in the community are unable to go […]
No fuel, no hope: Sri Lankans flee crisis in mass brain drain
DIMUTHU ATTANAYAKE, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on how the cost of living crisis is fuelling the exodus of Sri Lankan professionals…
“Pure desperation”: The high price of a Sri Lankan family’s bid to flee crisis
ALASDAIR PAL and SANTHUSH FERNANDO, of Reuters, report on the story one family among hundreds of Sri Lankans who attempted to escape an unprecedented economic meltdown in Sri Lanka by boarding fishing boats bound for Australia…
“Shameful” delay in cabinet formation causing Lebanon’s decay, top Christian cleric says
Beirut, LebanonReuters Lebanon’s top Christian cleric said on Sunday it is “shameful” that politicians have yet to form a new cabinet nearly three months after elections, blaming their chronic feuding for the country’s “decay”. Many Lebanese see the long-entrenched governing elite as hamstrung by corruption and dysfunction, and blame it for pushing Lebanon into a […]
Clergy, bags of cash set off new sectarian brawl in Lebanon
Beirut, LebanonAP A Lebanese archbishop who carried more than $US460,000 from Israel to Lebanon is at the centre of the latest sectarian showdown in crisis-hit Lebanon, and the case could even spill over into presidential politics. The situation has ramped up discord between two powerful political camps: Lebanon’s Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah group and the Maronite […]
From blast to banking crisis, one woman embodies Lebanon’s complete collapse
Beirut, LebanonReuters Liliane Cheaito’s scratchy, laboured breathing went on until a nurse appeared at her hospital bed, where the 28-year-old has spent nearly every moment of the last two years in silent suffering following the Beirut port explosion of 2020. Using a suctioning machine, the nurse emptied her lungs of built-up phlegm and Cheaito’s heaving […]
Sri Lanka swears in new President amid worst economic crisis in decades
Colombo, Sri Lanka Reuters Veteran politician Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Sri Lanka’s new President on Thursday, a day after winning a vote in parliament and urging the island nation to come together to find a way out of its worst economic crisis in decades. The six-time Prime Minister succeeded Gotabaya Rajapaksa who fled […]
Updated: Sri Lanka gets new president in six-time PM Wickremesinghe
Updated: 10.40pm, 21st July, 2022 (AEST)Colombo, Sri LankaReuters Sri Lankan lawmakers voted in acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe as the new President on Wednesday, hoping his long experience in government can help pull the country out of a crippling economic and political crisis. The six-time Prime Minister won 134 votes in the 225-member parliament, despite public […]