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IMF says Sri Lanka’s economic recovery shows signs of improvement but challenges remain

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:56:24 GMT

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Debt-stricken Sri Lanka, which declared bankruptcy last year, is showing signs of economic improvement but its recovery still faces challenges, the International Monetary Fund said Friday.The Indian Ocean island nation declared bankruptcy in April 2022 and said it was suspending repayment of its foreign debt. It reached an agreement with the IMF in March on a nearly $3 billion bailout program over four years.“Sri Lanka’s economy is showing tentative signs of improvement, in part due to the implementation of critical policy actions. But the economic recovery remains challenging,” said IMF deputy managing director Kenji Okamura after concluding a visit to Sri Lanka, where he met with the country’s top leaders and officials.Okamura said he welcomed Sri Lankan authorities’ “strong commitment to implement their ambitious economic program, which is supported by the IMF.”IMF previously said Sri Lanka’s economy is expected to resume growing in 2024 after cont...

UN anti-drug agency warns there is no let-up in methamphetamine trade from Asia’s Golden Triangle

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:56:24 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — The huge trade in methamphetamine and other illegal drugs originating from a small corner of Southeast Asia shows no signs of slowing down, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warned Friday. “High volumes of methamphetamine continue to be produced and trafficked in and from the region while the production of ketamine and other synthetic drugs has expanded,” said the agency’s 2023 report, Synthetic Drugs in East and Southeast Asia.The lion’s share of methamphetamine, in the form of tablets and crystal meth, comes from the area known as the Golden Triangle, where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet. The production of opium and heroin used to flourish there, mainly because of the lawlessness around Myanmar’s remote eastern Shan State. The area, much of it jungle, remains the domain of various ethnic minority militias, some of them partners in the drug trade. “Methamphetamine continues to be the most used drug in East and Southeast Asia and that use ha...

El Salvador president proposes dramatic reduction in number of municipalities to reduce tax burden

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:56:24 GMT

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said Thursday he wants to cut the number of municipalities in the country from 262 to 44 to reduce the tax burden.The proposal would require the approval of the country’s Legislative Assembly, in which Bukele’s party and its allies hold a majority. The president also proposed reducing the number of lawmakers in that body from 84 to 60.“How is it possible that in a territory of 8,100 square miles (21,000 square kilometers) we have 262 municipalities?” Bukele said in a speech marking his fourth year in office. The president’s New Ideas party controls the majority of the current municipalities.The president said local identities would not be lost, but rather converted into districts by the same name.Bukele also said authorities were carrying out searches of all of the properties of former President Alfredo Cristiani who governed El Salvador from 1989 to 1994. It was not clear what the objective of the searches was.In M...

Despite flags, Border Patrol staff didn’t review fragile 8-year-old girl’s file before she died

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:56:24 GMT

HARLINGEN, Texas (AP) — Border Patrol medical staff declined to review the file of an 8-year-old girl with a chronic heart condition and rare blood disorder before she appeared to have a seizure and died on her ninth day in custody, an internal investigation found.U.S. Customs and Border Protection has said the Panamanian child’s parents shared the medical history with authorities on May 10, a day after the family was taken into custody.But a nurse practitioner declined to review documents about the girl the day she died, CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility said in its initial statement Thursday on the May 17 death. The nurse practitioner reported denying three or four requests from the girl’s mother for an ambulance. A day before she died, Anadith Tanay Reyes Alvarez showed a fever of 104.9 degrees Fahrenheit (40.5 degrees Celsius), the report said.A surveillance video system at the Harlingen, Texas, station was out of service since April 13, a violation of fede...

National Spelling Bee champ Dev Shah goes from ‘despondent’ to soaking up the moment

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:56:24 GMT

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Fifteen months ago, Dev Shah spent a miserable five hours spelling outdoors in chilly, windy, damp conditions at a supersize regional competition in Orlando, Florida, only to fall short of his dream of returning to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.“Despondent is the right word,” Dev said. “I just didn’t know if I wanted to keep continuing.”Look at him now.Soft-spoken but brimming with confidence, Dev asked precise questions about obscure Greek roots, rushed through his second-to-last word and rolled to the National Spelling Bee title Thursday night.Dev, a 14-year-old from Largo, Florida, in the Tampa Bay area, first competed at the national bee in 2019, then had his spelling career interrupted. The 2020 bee was canceled because of COVID-19, and in the mostly virtual 2021 bee, he didn’t make it to the in-person finals, held in his home state on ESPN’s campus at Walt Disney World.Then came the disaster of last year, when he was forced to compete in t...

US, Taiwan sign trade deal over China’s opposition

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:56:24 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States signed a trade agreement Thursday with Taiwan over opposition from China, which claims the self-ruled island democracy as part of its territory.The two governments say the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade will strengthen commercial relations by improving customs, investment and other regulation.The measure was signed by employees of the unofficial entities that maintain relations between the United States and Taiwan, a center for high-tech industry. They have no formal diplomatic ties but maintain unofficial relations and have billions of dollars in annual trade.The agreement is intended to “strengthen and deepen the economic and trade relationship,” the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement. The deputy USTR, Sarah Bianchi, attended the signing.The Chinese government accused Washington of violating agreements on Taiwan’s status and demanded the U.S. government stop official contact with the island’s el...

Authorities in western Mexico find dozens of bags with human remains

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:56:24 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Authorities in western Mexico have told families of eight missing youths that among the human remains found in dozens of bags in a gorge on the outskirts of Guadalajara, were some that preliminarily appeared to match characteristics of some of the missing young people.The Jalisco state prosecutor’s office said in a statement late Thursday that the recovery of remains in the gorge continues, as does the identification.The bags were found this week below a forest overlook, the state prosecutor’s office said. Firefighters and civil defense worked with a helicopter to recover remains from the gorge and planned to continue during the coming days.Authorities had been looking for eight young people who had been reported missing last week when they found the site, but it was still unknown if they were among the remains found. The state prosecutor’s office said it investigated the site after receiving a report of possible body parts there.There are more than 11...

Jokic gets triple-double, Murray drops 26 as Nuggets beat Heat in Game 1 of Finals

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:56:24 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets were facing some questions going into their first NBA Finals, and their answers came in resounding fashion.No, a week and a half off didn’t hurt them.And no, the NBA’s biggest stage isn’t too big, either.Jokic got a triple-double in his finals debut, Jamal Murray scored 26 points and the Nuggets had little trouble with the cold-shooting Miami Heat on the way to a 104-93 win in Game 1 on Thursday night.Murray, a product of Kitchener, Ont., scored 25 points or more for a sixth consecutive game. He also pitched in 10 assists.“I think that’s what the beauty of this team is,” Murray said. “We have so many different weapons and so many different looks. You’ve got to guard everybody. … Free-flowing, and it’s a lot of fun.”The Heat had been 3-0 in openers so far in these playoffs, all on the road, but Denver is still unbeaten at home. Game 1 winners in the finals go on to win the title nearly 70 per cent of the time.A...

Stock market today: Asia follows Wall St up on hopes Fed will ease off rate hikes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:56:24 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher Friday ahead of an update on the U.S. jobs market after Federal Reserve officials reignited hopes another interest rate hike might be postponed and lawmakers gave final approval to a deal to avert a government debt default.Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul advanced. Oil prices strengthened.Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rallied 1% on Thursday after data showed manufacturing and retail activity weakening. That added to hopes the Fed might decide upward pressure on prices is easing and more rate hikes can be postponed or scaled down.“Skipping a rate hike” at this month’s Fed meeting would let policymakers “see more data before making decisions,” said a board member, Philip Jefferson. The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Patrick Harker, made similar comments.The statements “reignited the prospect of skipping a hike” after strong jobs data last week fed fears of more incr...

College student accused of setting fire to Wyoming’s only abortion clinic to enter plea

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:56:24 GMT

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A college student who authorities say admitted setting fire to a building slated to become Wyoming’s only full-service abortion clinic was scheduled to appear in federal court Friday to enter a plea to an arson charge.Lorna Roxanne Green, 22, told investigators that she opposes abortion and was experiencing anxiety and having nightmares over the Wellspring Health Access clinic that was to open in Casper, Wyoming, last year, so she decided to burn it, according to court documents. She broke a window, filled aluminum baking pans with gasoline and set it ablaze on May 25, 2022, investigators say. The clinic, which had drawn anti-abortion protesters, was scheduled to open a few weeks later but was not able to begin seeing patients until March because of the fire damage. The facility is Wyoming’s only dedicated clinic in at least a decade to offer surgical abortions. It also offers abortion pills, women’s health care, family planning and gender-affirming...