Sri Lanka

Hotels and restaurants across South Asia have had to adapt and reimagine dining out since the pandemic ripped through the region, forcing many out of business.

Those that have survived are tapping local sources and going online.

Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka on Oct. 17 won Britain's Booker Prize for fiction for his work "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida," about a journalist murdered amid the country's sectarian strife.

Sri Lanka recorded the highest uptick

"Today, a memorandum on Iran's obligations in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was signed. This paves the way for the country to become a full member of the SCO," a representative of the Iranian ministry told reporters, as reported by Sputnik.

The United States has announced $40 million in aid to buy fertilizer and other key agricultural inputs in time for the next cultivation season in crisis-hit Sri Lanka.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power, who is visiting Sri Lanka, made the announcement after she met farmer representatives in Ja-Ela outside the capital, Colombo.

Following the instructions of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Türkiye has started an aid campaign for flood-devastated Pakistan, Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum has said.

Military troops were moving Thursday to secure Sri Lanka's parliament building against a takeover by protesters infuriated by the country's economic collapse and the embattled president's failure to resign a day after fleeing the country.

A state of emergency was declared in Sri Lanka hours before President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was expected to resign after months of protests that culminated in storming his residence and that of the prime minister over the weekend.

Sri Lanka is in a political vacuum for a second day Monday with opposition leaders yet to agree on who should replace its roundly rejected leaders, whose residences are occupied by protesters, angry over the country's economic woes.

Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has announced that he will resign from his post in order to ensure the continuation of the government and the safety of all the citizens.