COLOMBO: Officials said Thursday (Jun 23) that parliament in Sri Lanka had canceled the remainder of its week’s sessions to preserve fuel, as the island nation’s already low supply of gasoline is fast decreasing due to a severe economic crisis. People living in Sri Lanka’s 22 million-plus population are suffering because of the country’s severe shortage of foreign cash as …

SINGAPORE: Keppel Electric and Laos’ state-owned Electricite du Laos signed a two-year power purchase deal on Thursday (June 23) to begin importing renewable energy from Laos through Thailand and Malaysia (EDL). Renewable hydropower will be imported from Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore via existing interconnections in the Lao PDR–Thailand–Malaysia–Singapore Power Integration Project (LTMS-PIP). More than 144,000 four-room HDB flats in …

INDONESIA: Joko Widodo gifted new Australian Minister Anthony Albanese with a bamboo bicycle when he toured the presidential palace gardens south of Jakarta earlier this month. As soon as Singgih Susilo Kartono realized the leaders would be riding the Spedagi model he had handcrafted in a little town on the island of Java, he was ecstatic. During the symbolic bike …

BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha signed a statement announcing that the country’s COVID-19 situation had improved, and that the mask mandate had been lifted immediately. Wearing hygiene or cotton masks is entirely optional, according to a notice published in the Royal Gazette on Thursday (Jun 23). Public Health Ministry officials tell CNA that the mask-lifting rule applies to both …

SAN FRANCISCO: The hacking tools of an Italian business were used in Italy and Kazakhstan to spy on Apple Inc. and Android smartphones, Alphabet Inc.’s Google reported on Thursday. New tools have been created to spy on the private communications and contacts of the targeted devices by Milan-based RCS Lab, which counts European law enforcement agencies as clients. European and …

COLOMBO: Thursday (June 23), India’s top diplomat met with Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister to express India’s preparedness to give more financial assistance to its cash-strapped neighbor beyond the $4 billion in loans, swaps, and help previously granted. In the greatest economic crisis in seven decades, Sri Lanka is unable to import basics like food, gasoline, and medication because …

PHILIPPINES: As imaginative folks, we often get lost in the stories we have read before; we wound up wishing there was a cabinet that led to their world just like the one in Narnia as we’ve grown to love the outlandish characters, the heart-stopping moments, and the carefully crafted world that the author creates.  This is what Taylor Swift does, …

KYIV: After Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, Ukraine became a candidate to join the European Union, a daring geopolitical action praised as a “historic moment” by both Kiev and Brussels. As Russian incursions into two eastern Donbas cities near a “frightsome climax,” according to a Ukrainian government adviser, starting the lengthy road to EU membership will be a significant morale …

MACAO: As Macao struggles to curb an increasing number of COVID-19 cases that have brought the world’s largest gaming hub to a standstill, authorities have locked off numerous residential structures. 39 new cases were recorded in the former Portuguese colony on Friday (June 24), increasing the current epidemic to 149, according to a statement from the local authorities. The administration …

KUALA LUMPUR: According to official statistics released on Friday, Malaysia’s CPI (consumer price index) grew by 2.8 percent year-over-year in May. Reuters polled 17 economists and found that the increase was more than 2.6 percent. The index had increased by 2.3% in April.