Author: Thaamira al-Shaban

Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Sajith Premadasa go forward after no candidates gained 50% in first round. The Sri Lankan presidential election will be decided in a runoff, the country’s election body has said, after the top two candidates failed to win the mandatory 50% of votes to be declared winner. The Marxist-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake garnered the most votes in the first round of voting, with 39.5% of the counted ballots, while the opposition leader, Sajith Premadasa, finished second with 34%. All the remaining candidates, including the incumbent, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who trailed in third with 17%, have been disqualified, the…

The president of Iran was on Sunday night feared dead after the helicopter he was travelling in crashed in a mountainous region. The lives of Ebrahim Raisi and Hossein Amirabdollahian, his foreign minister, were “at risk”, an Iranian official said during a large search and rescue mission. Ahmad Vahidi, the Iranian interior minister, blamed the crash, which came just a month after Tehran launched an unprecedented missile and drone attack against Israel, on poor weather conditions. State media described the incident as an “accident”. The chief of staff of the Iranian military ordered the entire army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)…

The primary purpose of Xi Jinping’s three-day visit to Hungary might be to ensure that Hungary can help China gain market share in the EU, as Beijing and Budapest prepare to sign a total of 16 bilateral agreements. The Chinese president has arrived in Budapest late Wednesday, in the third and last stop of his European visit. During his three-day stay, Xi Jinping and his delegation are expected to conclude a series of economic agreements with Budapest, as China sees Hungary as an important bridgehead in conquering European markets: among other things, Chinese companies are building electric car and battery factories.…

Dubai (27/2) Tajikistan’s existential project to build the colossal 335-meter-high Roghun hydropower dam is proceeding apace, but costs are spiralling, and to a level that is making it hard to see where the government is going to find the funds needed to finish the work. To complicate matters for Dushanbe, this is happening against the backdrop of calls from environmental watchdogs for international development lenders to pause the allocation of any future funds to Tajikistan pending a fresh assessment of the project. The extent of the budget overshoot is striking In a press conference on February 16, Finance Minister Faiziddin…

DUSHANBE — Exorcism is a key source of income for Sabohiddin Shodiev, a popular cleric in his rural community on the outskirts of Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. Shodiev — not his real name — says that every week he treats about 15 clients who ask him to expel what they believe is an evil spirit, or jinni, possessing them, or to rid them from “an evil eye.”The 53-year-old cleric has been practicing exorcisms — which he learned to do from his father — for more than two decades. Most of Shodiev’s clients come from Dushanbe and nearby districts, but…

The parliaments of Iran and Tajikistan signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Monday to expand cooperation between the two legislative bodies. The signing ceremony, reported by the Iranian Students’ News Agency, took place in Tehran, with Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and National Assembly of Tajikistan Chairman Rustam Emomali leading the initiative. The agreement was further endorsed during a meeting between Emomali and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who emphasized the importance of this collaboration as a support for the political and economic partnerships between the two nations. President Raisi also highlighted the role of bilateral cooperation in combating…

On the first anniversary of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan’s deadliest border war, marked in September, irascible Kyrgyz national-security chief Kamchybek Tashiev aired his frustrations at the slow progress in talks aimed at demarcating the disputed frontier. Tajikistan, said Tashiev, was making “territorial claims” against Kyrgyzstan in the talks. “But our answer is that there should be no such claims,” Tashiev fumed, noting ominously that Kyrgyzstan had found “new documents” related to the border. “Based on those, we know that many parts of Kyrgyzstan had been given to Tajikistan,” he claimed. “If [Tajikistan] does not renounce its territorial claims against Kyrgyzstan then…

Dubai: The Dh1 billion Dubai Future District Fund (DFDF), a collaborative effort between Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), reiterated its commitment to enhance the Emirate’s venture capital ecosystem by driving sustainable finance and innovation on a global scale. Members of the DFDF Oversight Committee met Thursday to assess the Fund’s significant achievements and outline future strategies to enhance the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Dubai and the broader UAE. The committee reviewed DFDF’s completion of over 25 investments since its inception in 2022 and discussed the Dh1 billion Fund’s mission to enhance the Fund’s capabilities. DFDF…

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Friends who are old faces and friends in high places: Kazakhstan’s former leader Nursultan Nazarbaev has proven in recent months that he still has both. Does that mean the 83-year-old is mulling a political comeback? Kazakh officials loyal to his successor, Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, are keen to dispel the notion. But the very fact that they are feeling the need to comment on the idea is indicative of the interest — and, in some quarters, alarm — sparked by the ex-president’s recent return to the national news cycle.The first week of January will mark the second anniversary of…

Iraq’s government has said that several people who are alleged to have attacked the US embassy in Baghdad last week have links to the country’s security services. A spokesperson for the Iraqi prime minister on Thursday did not, however, provide details on which security services the alleged perpetrators were linked to. The announcement came a week after rocket salvos hit the US’s heavily fortified compound in Baghdad’s Green Zone, causing minor damage. The statement said Iraq’s security forces had arrested several people allegedly responsible for the December 7 attacks and were pursuing others. “Unfortunately, preliminary information indicates that some of them are…