lanka asked to enter mines ban treaty
Colombo: It will take 15 more years to de-mine Sri lanka’s war-battered North and East regions, a group campaigning to ban anti-personal mines in the country said on Tuesday while criticising the government for not acceding to the Ottawa Convention.
Former Sri lankan PM passes away
Colombo: Veteran politician Ratnasiri Wickremanayake who served twice as Prime Minister of Sri lanka on Tuesday passed away after a brief illness. Wickremanayake, 83, who also held many key ministerial positions since 1970, was ailing for some time and breathed his last this morning, his family said. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of a leading private hospital on December 21. Wickremanayake served twice as the Island nation’s premier first from 2000 to 2001 and then from 2005 to 2010.
Argentine finance minister sacked
Buenos Aires: Argentine President Mauricio Macri sacked his finance minister Alfonso Prat-Gay on Tuesday, shaking up his economic team amid a stubborn recession that has made his centre-right reforms deeply unpopular. Prat-Gay’s ministry will be split in two, said chief of staff Marcos Pena. Nicolas Dujovne, a respected economist, will take over as finance minister. luis Caputo, who previously served Prat-Gay as budget secretary, will take over the newly created budget ministry.
Gunmen kill six in northern Nigeria
Kano (Nigeria): Six people have been killed in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna state, with herdsmen suspected of committing the attack in the restive region, a former lawmaker and an official said on Tuesday. A long-running battle over land and grazing rights has left hundreds dead in central and northern Nigeria. The violence occurred between Saturday and yesterday in Goska, near Kafanchan, despite a 24-hour curfew following incessant clashes between herdsmen and local farmers, they said.
Berlin calls off show from Tehran museum
Berlin: Berlin’s museum authority says it has scrapped plans for an exhibition of works from the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art because Iran hasn’t granted permission for their export.
US-backed fighters approach ISIS-held dam
Beirut: Kurdish-led fighters are approaching a strategic dam controlled by the ISISS in northern Syria after days of fighting that killed a senior ISIS commander, a spokesman said.