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Sri Lanka has secured its biggest-ever foreign investment after signing a deal with Chinese state-run oil giant Sinopec, officials said on Thursday.Sinopec has agreed to invest $3.7 billion to construct a “state-of-the-art oil refinery” with a capacity of 200,000 barrels in the southern Hambantota region, according to the Sri Lanka president’s media division.”During President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s four-day state visit to China, Sri Lanka marked a significant milestone by securing the largest foreign direct investment to date,” it said.A “substantial portion” of the refinery’s output would be earmarked for export as part of efforts to shore up Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange earnings, a statement said.”This major investment from China is expected to bolster Sri Lanka’s economic growth while uplifting the livelihoods of low-income communities in the Hambantota area,” it added.The port of Hambantota was handed to a Beijing company on a 99-year lease for $1.12 billion in 2017 after Sri Lanka was unable to repay a huge Chinese loan, a controversial decision which raised questions about Chinese investments in the country.Sri Lanka also defaulted on its foreign borrowings in 2022 during a crisis that caused months of food, fuel and medicine shortages.China accounted for more than half the country’s bilateral debt at the time of the economic crash.Leftist Dissanayake came to power in September and consolidated his position after his party won by a landslide in snap parliamentary polls last November.His four-day visit to China comes after he was given a red-carpet welcome to India by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his first overseas trip as premier in December.In a meeting with Dissanayake on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the two countries “face a historical opportunity to build on the past and forge ahead”.The two sides should see ties from “a strategic perspective and build a China-Sri Lanka community with a shared future”, Xi said, according to state media.Sri Lanka had originally awarded the refinery project in 2019 to an Indian family-owned company based in Singapore, but terminated the agreement after the firm failed to start construction.Officials signalled in 2023 that they would award the contract to Sinopec after another bidder pulled out.Sri Lanka sits astride the world’s busiest shipping route, which links the Middle East and East Asia, giving its maritime assets strategic importance.

India docked two satellites in space Thursday, a key milestone for the country’s dreams of a space station and manned Moon mission, the space agency said.The satellites, weighing 220 kilograms (485 pounds) each, blasted off in December on a single rocket from India’s Sriharikota launch site. Later they separated.The two satellites were manoeuvred back together on Thursday in a “precision” process resulting in a “successful spacecraft capture”, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said, calling it a “historic moment”.India became the fourth country to achieve the feat — dubbed as SpaDeX, or Space Docking Experiment — after Russia, the United States and China.The aim of the mission was to “develop and demonstrate the technology needed for rendezvous, docking, and undocking of two small spacecraft”, ISRO said.Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Indian scientists for the successful docking.”It is a significant stepping stone for India’s ambitious space missions in the years to come,” he said on social media.Two earlier docking attempts by ISRO were postponed due to technical issues.ISRO said the technology is “essential” for India’s Moon mission, and comes after Modi announced plans last year to send a manned mission to the Moon by 2040.The world’s most populous nation has flexed its spacefaring ambitions in the last decade with its space programme growing considerably, matching the achievements of established powers at a much cheaper price tag.It became just the fourth nation to land an unmanned craft on the Moon in August 2023.

The World Bank plans to loan cash-strapped Pakistan $20 billion over the coming decade to nurture its private sector and bolster resilience to climate change, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said.Pakistan came to the brink of default in 2023, as a political crisis compounded shock from the global economic downturn and drove the nation’s debt burden to terminal levels.It was saved by a $7 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and has enjoyed a degree of recovery, with inflation easing and foreign exchange reserves increasing.Sharif said the World Bank funding would be used for “child nutrition, quality education, clean energy, climate resilience, inclusive development and private investment”.The deal “reflects the World Bank’s confidence in Pakistan’s economic resilience and potential,” he said on social media platform X on Wednesday.Pakistan has for decades grappled with a chronically low tax base and mammoth amounts of external debt, which swallow up half its annual revenues.The IMF deal — Pakistan’s 24th since 1958 — came with stern conditions that the country improve income tax takings and cut popular power subsidies, cushioning costs of the inefficient sector.The World Bank said the new $20 billion scheme would begin in the fiscal year 2026 and last until 2035.”The economy is recovering from the recent crisis as the government has launched an ambitious programme of fiscal, energy and business environment reforms,” said a summary of the plan released by the World Bank.But it warned that a “track record of past stop-and-go reform episodes handicaps the government’s credibility”, meaning that new investment may be “slow to materialise”.The World Bank therefore plans for “more selective, stable, and larger investments in areas critical for sustained development and that require time and persistence for impact”, it said.The World Bank’s Pakistan director Najy Benhassine said in a statement the deal “represents a long-term anchor” that will “address some of the most acute development challenges facing the country”.

Indian Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan underwent surgery Thursday after he was repeatedly stabbed in an apparent burglary at his home in Mumbai, his public relations team said.Khan, 54, who has appeared in more than 70 movies and television series, is married to top star Kareena Kapoor.”There was an attempted burglary at Mr Saif Ali Khan’s residence,” his team said, urging “fans to be patient”.Kapoor told local media that “Saif had an injury on his arm for which he is in hospital”.”The rest of the family is doing fine,” she added.Khan is the son of former Indian cricket captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, and Bollywood actress Sharmila Tagore.His acting credits include the 2001 hit Dil Chahta Hai, and the popular Netflix crime series Sacred Games.Niraj Uttamani, a top official at Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital, told The Hindustan Times newspaper the actor had six injuries, including two that are deeper.The Press Trust of India news agency broadcast images of police carrying out forensic examinations of Khan’s residence in Mumbai.

The ancient game of kho kho is enjoying a resurgence in India, with organisers of the first international tournament hoping their efforts will secure the sport’s place in the Olympics.Kho kho, a catch-me-if-you-can tag sport, has been played for more than 2,000 years across southern Asia but only saw its rules formalised in the early 20th century.It was played as a demonstration sport at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin but did not gather enough support to be included in the Summer Games and since then has been largely eclipsed by India’s ferocious love of cricket.Nearly a century later, enthusiasts have sought to raise its profile with the inaugural Kho Kho World Cup featuring teams from 23 nations competing in India’s capital New Delhi. The tournament’s opening ceremony saw a gala of song, dance and an Olympic-style team parade, reflecting the aspirations of organisers and athletes to take the sport global. “My elder sister played the sport, but was not able to pursue her dreams,” Indian women’s team player Nasreen Shaikh, 26, told AFP.”We have crossed the first barrier of playing in a World Cup. The next big step would be an entry in the Olympics.”Kho kho is traditionally played outside on a rectangular court, divided in two by a line that connects two poles at either end of the field.Teams switch between attack and defence, with the former chasing and tagging defending players around the field.Only one player can give chase at a time and attacking players can only move in one direction around the court, forcing them to tag in team-mates crouched on the centre line to take over pursuit.The match is won by whichever team can gain the most points, primarily by tagging defenders faster than the opposing team.- ‘Mud to mat’ -The franchise-based Ultimate Kho Kho League, founded in 2022, brought the sport off grassy fields and onto indoor mats, also boosting its profile with a television audience.Since then the league has become the third most-watched non-cricket sports tournament in the world’s most populous country after the Pro Kabaddi League — another ancient Indian tag sport — and the Indian Super League football competition.”The turning point was when it transitioned from mud to mat. It made it into a global game,” Kho Kho Federation of India president Sudhanshu Mittal told AFP.”Today we are in 55 countries… Native players in countries like Germany, Brazil, and Kenya are embracing the game because of its speed, agility and minimal equipment required.”Mittal said he expected the sport to gain a foothold in dozens more countries by the end of the year, giving it a strong claim to be featured in the Olympics in the coming decade. That would coincide with India’s audacious bid to host the 2036 Games in the city of Ahmedabad, 100 years after kho kho last appeared at the Olympics.The United States, England and Australia are among the nations competing in this week’s World Cup in New Delhi, with expatriate Indians heavily represented after taking the game to foreign shores. But Pakistan is a glaring omission from the competition despite the sport being popular there — a reflection of the deep animosity between the nuclear-armed archrivals.World Cup organisers have refused to comment on the absence, which has failed to dim the sense of optimism at this week’s competition that the sport is destined to thrive. “There has been a sea change in the sport,” Indian men’s team captain Pratik Waikar, 32, told AFP.”Cricket has a rich history and they developed it well by going live on TV, and now our sport has also gone live,” he said. “In the next five years it will be on another level.”

For pilgrims at the largest gathering of humanity, ritual bathing in India’s holy rivers includes a key challenge — finding your family and clothes after the chilly dip.Millions of people are expected to attend the Kumbh Mela festival in northern India, a six-week-long Hindu celebration of prayer and bathing that began before dawn on Monday.Each morning, densely-packed crowds of men, women and children undress side-by-side in the foggy pre-dawn gloom along the wide floodplains around the confluences of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers.Sushila, a housewife in her sixties, who had travelled more than 500 kilometres (300 miles) from Bihar state, roamed the crowds in despair in wet clothes, looking for her daughter.”I know she is somewhere close by,” she said, peering through the tight-packed crowds, where a constant stream of pilgrims came to bathe. “I just can’t see her”.The line of bathers stretches for several kilometres (miles), with the crowds surging forward to dunk their heads beneath the cold grey waters.Devotees believe the dip brings them salvation.But with many people without a phone — or leaving it while they bathe with a friend they then lost — finding your companions afterwards is a tough task.The sheer size of the crowds is so great that even a single distracted moment can cause you to lose track of your fellow travellers.Organisers boast that they are expecting a mind-boggling 400 million people to take part before its conclusion on February 26.Loudspeakers mounted on poles boom repeatedly with desperate pleas of people searching for those with whom they had left their dry clothes.An old man broke down on the microphone lamenting that he had nothing to wear — urging his son to immediately meet him at the lost and found centre.- ‘Scared’ -Organising authorities issued a phone app boasting “multilingual AI voice assistance”, but that is of no use to those without phones at all.A network of “Lost and Found” centres are set up for pilgrims to reunite with their families, offering blankets to the pilgrims who arrive wet, shivering and nearly naked. Temperatures before dawn hover around 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit).Shyama, aged 60, who uses only one name, said her companion from her same farming village disappeared in the crowd. She has not been traced for over a day.”I think she has left me and gone,” said a distressed Shyama, her eyes welling up with tears, as she waited at a shelter for lost people.”I have no money, know no one here, how will I ever go back home?”Maiku Lal tracked down his wife Makhana after hours of searching, finally hearing her location broadcast over the loudspeakers.”She scared us so much,” said Lal, sporting a wide smile and holding his wife’s hand.Sandhya Sarkar, 45, said being lost in a strange place where she did not speak the local language made her regret her decision to come from her village in West Bengal, around 700 kilometres away. “I would have never come had I known the fair was this crowded,” she said. “My family must be going mad looking for me. It is a nightmare.” But many said that the effort to bathe in the holy waters was worth it.”I felt tremendous peace — despite the crowds,” said Gopal Devi Shanti Gujjar, who had come from the western state of Rajasthan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Wednesday the launch of two Indian-made warships and a submarine was key to its “quest towards self-reliance” as New Delhi bolsters defence against regional rivals.New Delhi is expanding its armed forces to upgrade its mostly Soviet-era weaponry and respond to what many in India see as a growing threat from neighbouring China.”India is now becoming a major maritime power of the world,” Modi, wearing a naval baseball cap, said in a speech at the triple commissioning ceremony in Mumbai for a frigate, a guided missile destroyer and a submarine.”The commissioning of three frontline naval combatants will strengthen our efforts towards being a global leader in defence, and augment our quest towards self-reliance,” he added.India has rushed to rapidly expand its naval fleet, pouring efforts into building vessels within the country, with plans to expand the number of warships and submarines from around 150 to 170 over the next decade.”We’re taking a big step towards getting the navy ready for this century,” Modi said.India and China, the world’s two most populous nations, are competing for strategic influence across South Asia.In 2024, India spent an all-time high of some $15 billion on domestic defence manufacturing, according to the defence ministry, an increase of some 17 percent on the previous year.But New Delhi remains one of the largest arms importers in the world, and Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government has tried to reduce dependence on Russia, its primary military hardware supplier for decades.New Delhi has also signed major arms purchasing deals — and approved India-based defence production ventures — with countries including the United States, Israel and Spain.India is also in talks with Paris for multibillion-dollar deals to purchase French-made Rafale fighter jets and Scorpene-class submarines.Vineet Sharma, commander of the diesel-powered submarine INS Vagsheer, said the triple commission “speaks volumes” about the capability both of India’s ship-building capabilities and its navy’s “ability to operate” the vessels.”India is a maritime nation,” Sharma added. “You require a strong navy, which can ensure that the maritime interests are always secured.”Sandeep Shorey, captain of the newly commissioned destroyer INS Surat — a 164-metre (538-feet) long vessel which the navy boasts as its “first AI-enabled warship” — said the show of force was a message about showing India’s power.”If you want to be seen on the world stage… there is no other option but to show your presence at sea.”

Imran Khan, Pakistan’s most popular politician, is facing a 14-year prison term this month in a case his party says is being used to pressure him into silence.The former prime minister, long a source of frustration for the powerful military, has been in custody since August 2023 and faces a slew of legal cases he says are politically motivated.A looming verdict for graft linked to a welfare foundation he set up with his wife, the Al-Qadir Trust, is the longest-running of those cases, with a verdict postponed on Monday for a third time.”The Al-Qadir Trust case, like previous cases, is being dragged on only to pressure me,” Khan said this month in one of his frequent statements railing against authorities and posted on social media by his team.”But I demand its immediate resolution.”Analysts say the military establishment is using the sentence as a bargaining chip with Khan, whose popularity undermines a shaky coalition government that kept his party from power in elections last year.”The establishment’s deal is he comes out and stays quiet, stays decent, until the next election,” said Ayesha Siddiqa, a London-based author and analyst on Pakistan’s military.- ‘Politically motivated’ -Analysts say the military are Pakistan’s kingmakers, although the generals deny interfering in politics.Khan said he had once been offered a three-year exile abroad and was also “indirectly approached” recently about the possibility of house arrest at his sprawling home on the outskirts of the capital. “We can assume from the delays that this is a politically motivated judgement. It is a Damocles sword over him,” Khan’s legal adviser Faisal Fareed Chaudhry told AFP.”The case has lost its credibility,” he said, adding that Khan will not accept any deal to stay silent.Khan has been convicted and sentenced four times in other cases Two cases have been overturned by the Supreme Court, while judges have suspended the sentences from the other two.The specialist anti-graft “accountability court” is set to announce the verdict and sentence in the welfare foundation case on Friday, two days after government envoys are scheduled to meet leaders from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to ease tensions.The PTI has previously sworn to refuse talks with a government its leaders claim is illegitimate, alleging the coalition seized power by rigging February 2024 polls.They say they will only take part if political prisoners are released and an independent inquiry is launched into allegations of a heavy-handed response by authorities to PTI protests.Otherwise, Khan has threatened to pull his party from the negotiations and continue with a campaign of civil disobedience that has frequently brought Islamabad to a standstill.The most recent protests flared around November 26, when the PTI allege at least 10 of their activists were shot dead. The government says five security force members were killed in the chaos.”The government would like to appear legitimate, and for that they need PTI to sit down in talks with them,” said Asma Faiz, associate professor of political science at Lahore University of Management Sciences.”Ideally, they would be looking to offer some relief to Imran Khan and his party to appease the domestic and international criticism,” she told AFP.- ‘PTI won’t budge’ -For now, it appears to be a stalemate, said Michael Kugelman, South Asia Institute director at The Wilson Center in Washington.”The army might be willing to give Khan a deal that gets him out of jail, but Khan wouldn’t accept the likely conditions of his freedom,” he told AFP.”Another problem is I can’t imagine the government agreeing to an investigation of November 26. But PTI won’t budge on that demand.”A stint in exile is common in the trajectory of political leaders in Pakistan who fall out of favour with the military and find themselves before the courts, only to return to power later.Three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif served only a fraction of a sentence for corruption, spending several years in London before returning to Pakistan in late 2023.Former and current president Asif Ali Zardari moved to Dubai after his party was rebuked by the generals.Both men are now considered the chief architects of the ruling coalition.But exile might not fit with the carefully worked image of Khan, whose political rise was based on the promise of replacing decades of entrenched dynastic politics.”I will live and die in Pakistan,” Khan said in a statement shared by his lawyers. “I will fight for my country’s freedom until my last breath, and I expect my nation to do the same.”

Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus on Wednesday demanded the return of stolen assets, decrying the scale of corruption under the ousted government of Sheikh Hasina, toppled by a revolution last year.Hasina, 77, fled a revolution in August 2024 to neighbouring India, where she has defied extradition requests from Bangladesh to face charges including mass murder.”The theft of billions of dollars in public funds has left Bangladesh with a significant financial deficit,” Yunus said in a statement.”The funds stolen from Bangladesh belong to its people. We will continue to work with our international partners to ensure that justice is done.”Yunus said he expected “assets to be returned”, adding that the stolen funds have “not only robbed the people of Bangladesh, but also disrupted the country’s progress toward economic stability”.Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is investigating Hasina and her wider family, including her niece, British lawmaker and anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq.Siddiq on Tuesday resigned from her position, but repeated her denial that she had done anything wrong.The ACC’s probe of Hasina’s family is linked to the embezzlement of $5 billion connected to a Russian-funded nuclear power plant, as well as an alleged land grab of lucrative plots in a suburb of the capital Dhaka.A British Sunday Times investigation revealed details about the claims Siddiq spent years living in a London flat bought by an offshore company connected to two Bangladeshi businessmen.The flat was eventually transferred as a gift to a Bangladeshi lawyer with links to Hasina, her family and her ousted government, according to the newspaper.It also reported Siddiq and her family were given or used several other London properties bought by members or associates of Hasina’s Awami League party.”Tulip Siddiq may not have fully understood the origins of the money and properties she enjoyed in London,” Yunus said.”However, now that she knows, she should seek forgiveness from the people of Bangladesh.”

Millions of Hindu pilgrims are gathering in India to bathe in sacred waters for the six-week-long Kumbh Mela festival — from the very old to babies, cave-dwelling monks to science teachers.The millennia-old Kumbh Mela, a show of religious piety and ritual bathing — and a logistical challenge of staggering proportions — is held in the northern city of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh state.Organisers are expecting 400 million people at the festival, which began on Monday and runs until February 26.Here are snapshots of some of those taking part in the world’s largest gathering of humanity.- The AI Student -Studying artificial intelligence engineering at a private college in New Delhi, 18-year-old Rishabh Kumar Singh lied to his teacher to attend the festival, saying he was unwell.But Singh said his mother approved of the trip — and got her husband to sponsor it.”I got my devotional streak from her,” he said.”As a child, she would take me along to all kinds of religious ceremonies.”Singh took an overnight train from the capital to arrive in time for the first day of the fair.After taking a dip in the sacred waters on Monday, his next stop is to meet the naked ash-smeared ascetics known as Naga sadhus, who attend the fair.Having already skipped classes, Singh will then make detours to the Hindu holy cities of Varanasi and Ayodhya before returning to study.- The Cave-dwelling Monk -Dressed in saffron robes, the trident-wielding monk calls himself Jogiraj Giri Phalhari Tyagi Naga Baba –- Phalhari being a reference to his fruits-only diet.The 63-year-old said he has lived alone in a deep cave inside a tiger reserve in central India for 40 years.”For 14 years and seven months I have only had fruits — and no grains at all,” he said.He was at the fair to “enjoy the festivities” and pay his “respects to the gods”.The ascetic said he would stay for the whole six weeks of the fair, camping in the quarters of the Juna Akhara monastic order that he has been part of for the last 25 years.He is impressed by the logistical arrangements, which include around 150,000 toilets and a network of community kitchens, each able to feed up to 50,000 people.The credit, he believes, is due to India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”Under him, India is becoming a country where our ancient culture is respected,” he said.”Our civilisational glory is being restored.”- The Repeat Pilgrim – It is the second time at the Kumbh Mela for 40-year-old Shyamlal Shrivastava from Madhya Pradesh state, who last attended the fair in 2012.But the property agent subsequently lost his left leg when he slipped trying to board a train, and that has made this Kumbh Mela a very different experience.Traversing long distances over the muddy floodplains of the largely vehicle-free fair on his walker is difficult.But Shrivastava says he will do what it takes to ensure his “all-important bath” in the holy waters.Shrivastava however does not blame his misfortune on divine design. “God can never do anything wrong,” he said. “If I get upset with the almighty, I will have nothing to hold on to.”- The Science Teacher -A school science teacher in the western state of Rajasthan, Meenakshi Gautam is enthusiastic about bathing at the Sangam, the holy site where the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers meet. “My life’s purpose will be fulfilled when I take the dip,” said the 38-year-old, travelling with her husband. Having visited almost all other key Hindu pilgrimage sites, Gautam said she was determined to attend the Kumbh Mela.”It is at the centre of global attraction right now,” she said. “And it seems even bigger than I had imagined, I am enjoying it so much.”- The Housewife and Friends -The homemaker from the eastern Indian state of West Bengal planned the trip two months ago with a group of friends.”The husband is home,” said 56-year-old Chandana Sarkar with a smile. The large crowds, she insisted, were not intimidating. Things had been smooth despite no one in the group speaking Hindi, the dominant language in northern India.”It is such a nice experience,” she said. “We love it.”It was their first trip together and the women were happy, said Sarkar, who is staying in the vast tent city along the riverbanks.”I thought I would be very cold while bathing,” she said. “But once you are inside you don’t even feel it.”