WORLD

Colombo, SRI LANKA | AFP |  Sri Lanka’s economy has begun to stabilise after securing a $1.5 billion bailout earlier this year, but the island needs to build its dwindling foreign reserves, the IMF said Saturday. The Washington-based International Monetary Fund said it had just concluded its first review of …

Washington, United States | AFP |  US President Barack Obama on Friday declared portions of the Arctic off-limits for oil exploration for the next five years, dealing a blow to Republican efforts to expand fossil fuel extraction. The decision means new oil and gas exploration leasing in the Chukchi Sea …

Washington, United States | AFP | US President-elect Donald Trump and France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen are part of “identical phenomena” that have swept the two countries, the mayor of Paris said Friday. Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who was in Washington accepting an environmental award from Foreign Policy magazine, added …

Washington, United States | AFP |  President-elect Donald Trump announced three important cabinet appointments Friday, for the posts of CIA director, attorney general and national security advisor. The following are thumbnail sketches of the three men: CIA director  Mike Pompeo, the Republican legislator nominated to lead the CIA, is a …

Ankara, Turkey | AFP | President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to call a referendum on the future of Turkey’s EU membership bid, while Brussels accuses Ankara of “backsliding” on key commitments. After an already exhausting process of over half a century, could this finally be the end for the …

New York, United States | AFP |  What if speculation proves correct and Donald Trump decides against settling in Washington and maintains his principal residence in New York? That’s the question the city’s mayor Bill de Blasio raised on Friday. Since his election last week, the real estate billionaire — …

Paris, France | AFP |  An original drawing from “Explorers on the Moon”, widely regarded as one of the two best Tintin adventures, sold for a record 1.55 million euros at a Paris auction on Saturday, auction house Artcurial announced. The 50 cm X 35 cm drawing in Chinese ink …

Marrakesh, Morocco | AFP |  Diplomats from 197 nations wound down a two-week UN conference Friday which started drafting a blueprint for arresting global warming “well below” two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels. A rash of recent climate studies have highlighted the stakes.  Record temperatures  Earth is on …

Marrakesh, Morocco | AFP |  Fiji urged the United States Friday to “save” the world from climate change as it had helped to win World War II. “We in the Pacific, in common with the whole world, look to America for its leadership and for its engagement and assistance on …

Manila, Philippines | AFP | Ex-Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos was buried in a secretive ceremony at the national heroes’ cemetery Friday, triggering street protests as opponents denounced what they said was the whitewashing of his brutal and corrupt rule. The burial at the “Cemetery of Heroes” was another stunning development …