G L Peiris appointed cabinet Minister of Education

Leaked files again point how China is changing lifestyles of Uyghur Muslims

The narrative of the Xinjiang Police Files, ought to be repeated. The data was handed to an international media consortium before being validated, examined, and selected by Dr Adrian Zenz, a specialist on China?s northwest Xinjiang detention campaign targeting Uyghurs and other largely Muslim ethnic minorities. According to Zenz, the papers are solid proof of what is ?perhaps the biggest internment of an ethnoreligious minority since the Holocaust? The new information emphasizes the character o

11 Jul, 2022

Pakistani government lowers the tax bracket for costly cigarettes

To keep smoking affordable in the region, the Pakistan government has quietly raised the threshold for higher taxes on reputable cigarette brands. However, to introduce a few expensive brands into the lower tax slab, the government increased the taxable threshold for upper brand cigarettes from Rs 5,960 per 1,000 sticks to Rs 6,660. According to The Express Tribune, the change was made on the eve of the National Assembly’s budget approval.Many smoking brands that now fall into the lower tax ti

11 Jul, 2022

Gotabaya Rajapaksa returns

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had reportedly fled on a ship after thousands stormed his official residence in Colombo, has now returned to shore. Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena had said earlier that the President left to a “nearby” country. He later withdrew his statement saying he had made a mistake. However, some media reports said that the President had boarded a ship soon after the incidents on Saturday and remained in Sri Lankan waters before returning today. He is expected to lea

11 Jul, 2022