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  Colombo / AFP The IMF on Saturday released the first tranche of a $1.5 billion bailout for Sri Lanka, which is reeling after a government spending spree and facing a balance of payments crisis. The International Monetary Fund said the formal approval of a 36-month loan under its Extended Fund Facility (EFF) will also help Sri Lanka secure another ...

  Hong Kong / Hong Kong Hong Kong railway operator MTR Corp. increased the size of a two-part loan to about HK$25 billion ($3.2 billion), after the city gave the green light for it to resume construction on a high-speed rail link to China earlier this year, people familiar with the matter said. MTR, three-quarters owned by the government, lifted ...

Beijing / Hong Kong China is approaching global economic organizations including the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to establish an annual meeting that would offer the nation a stronger policy voice on the world economic stage, according to a person familiar with the talks. The Ministry of Commerce and other agencies are leading discussions under the guidance of the ...

  Singapore / AFP Chinese construction on a South China Sea islet claimed by the Philippines would prompt “actions being taken” by the United States and other nations, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned on Saturday. Speaking at a security summit in Singapore, Carter said Beijing risks building a “Great Wall of self-isolation” with its military expansion in the contested ...

  Niamey / AFP Thirty-two troops have been killed in a clash with Boko Haram extremists on Niger’s border with Nigeria, Niger’s defence ministry said on Saturday. “Hundreds of assailants” attacked a military post at Bosso on Friday evening, it said in a statement that gave a “provisional toll” of 30 Nigerien and two Nigerian soldiers killed and 67 wounded. ...

  Lagos / AFP Nigerian troops killed 19 Boko Haram militants during clashes in northeast Borno state, while two soldiers suffered gunshot wounds, the army said on Saturday. Acting upon an intelligence report on the presence of Boko Haram fighters in the militants’ Chukungudu camp, troops and civilian JTF (joint task force) members, launched the attack on Friday. “During the ...

  Beijing / AFP Chinese police have detained several activists while others were placed under surveillance for the anniversary of the bloody 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen Square, which was heavily policed on Saturday. On June 4 1989 military tanks rolled into the square in the centre of Beijing to crush pro-democracy protests, killing hundreds of unarmed civilians—by some estimates thousands. Nearly ...

  Paris / AFP Moscow on Saturday said for the first time it would agree to foreign monitors observing the separatist conflict in east Ukraine to carry arms. Kiev has been pushing for an armed observer mission in the area where the existing unarmed monitors of the fragile ceasefire between government forces and Russia-backed separatists have reported an upsurge in violence. ...

  Istanbul / AFP The German parliament resolution recognising as genocide the massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire has “no value” and won’t change Turkey’s position on the matter, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday. Erdogan said he wondered how German officials could look Turkey’s leaders in the face after Thursday’s vote in the Bundestag, which prompted Ankara ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business Dubai Now, Smart Dubai Government’s innovative app that features more than 50 smart services provided by 22 government entities, has won the ‘Best Government Mobile App of the Year’ category at the ‘.GOV Awards 2016’ held recently in Dubai. The award-winning app offers customers a set of service packages built to meet their needs and ...