India provides assistance to Asian neighbours
An Egyptian court on Monday sentenced a pro-democracy activist to four years in prison for disseminating false news, a defence lawyer said.
The court of misdemeanours in Cairo convicted Yahia Hussein Abdel-Hadi, a co-founder of the Civil Democratic Movement, an opposition coalition of liberal and left-leaning parties, of “deliberately disseminating false news inside and outside” of Egypt, according to lawyer Khalid Ali.
Similar accusations have often been used against those critical of the government of President
Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. Many activists have languished in jail for years, often without trials, over the same allegations. Monday’s verdict can be appealed to a higher court.
Abdel- Hadi was arrested in January 2019 ahead of a vote on controversial constitutional amendments that extended elSissi’s second four-year term to six years and allowed him to run for another six-year term after its conclusion. It also gave broader powers to the military. The changes mean the president could remain in power until 2030.
Sri Lanka received a first consignment of a US$16 million humanitarian aid package from neighbouring India to help mitigate severe shortages caused by the country’s worst economic crisis in recent memory.
Gopal Baglay, the Indian envoy to Sri Lanka, delivered the donation from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Gamini Peiris. The goods include rice, milk powder, and essential medicines. They will be distributed among vulnerable families in different parts of the country, the Indian embassy said in a statement.
Sri Lanka is near bankruptcy and battling severe shortages of essentials from food, fuel, medicines, and cooking gas to toilet paper and match sticks. For the past few months, people have been forced to stay in long lines to buy the limited stocks.
The country’s new prime minister said last week that petrol stocks ran down to a final day, worsening commuting problems and lengthening lines. But shipments of gasolene paid through an Indian credit line started arriving over the weekend.
ETHIOPIA
Sri Lanka has suspended repayment of about $7 billion in foreign loans due this year out of $25 billion to be repaid by 2026. The country’s total foreign debt is $51 billion.