Bankrupt Sri Lanka will drastically slash its military, the defence ministry said yesterday, as the government works to overhaul its shambolic finances after an unprecedented economic crisis.

The death toll of a suicide bombing near the foreign ministry in the Afghan capital this week has risen to 10, the United Nations mission said on Friday.

Sri Lanka will slash its army by a third to 135,000 personnel by next year and to 100,000 by 2030, the state minister of defence said on Friday, as the country tries to cut costs in the face of its worst economic crisis in more than seven decades.

The International Monetary Fund and other lending bodies had asked Sri Lanka not to print more money, and thus the government was finding it impossible to conduct the most basic functions, said the country's Cabinet Spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardane.

Bangladesh has shown interest in importing ethanol from India, India's Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said today.

At least five people were killed and several wounded by a suicide bomber near the Afghan foreign ministry in Kabul Wednesday, where a Chinese delegation had been due to meet, officials and witnesses said.

Bankrupt Sri Lanka yesterday announced sharp government spending cuts and warned it had barely enough revenue to pay public salaries and pensions despite huge tax hikes.

Pakistan said yesterday that donors had committed to give more than $8 billion to help it recover from last year’s devastating floods in what is seen as a major test for who pays for climate disasters.

The UN chief called Monday for "massive investments" to help Pakistan recover from last year's devastating floods, saying it was "doubly victimised" by climate change and a "morally bankrupt global financial system".."No country deserves to endure what happened to Pakistan," UN Secretary-G

Pakistan’s central bank forex reserves have plunged to an eight-year low of $5.6 billion, posing a serious challenge for the country in financing imports.

In the run up to the in-person G20 summit, India will host a virtual summit on January 12 and 13 to bring together countries of global South and hear their views on food and energy security, mounting debt burdens and other economic challenges triggered by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Covid-19 pandemic.

Afghanistan's Taliban-led administration is to sign a contract with a Chinese company to extract oil from the Amu Darya basin in the country's north, the acting mining minister said on Thursday.

Crisis-hit Sri Lanka yesterday announced its first nationwide elections since its president fled and resigned in the face of widespread protests, in what will be a test of popularity for his successor. Local government polls will be held before the end of

An explosion at the entrance to a military airfield in the Afghan capital killed and wounded several people yesterday, an official told AFP.

The United Nations said Thursday it would not stop providing help to Afghanistan despite the Taliban ban on women working in the country's aid sector..“Let me make it very clear that the United Nations and humanitarian partners are very committed to the delivery of life-saving services to

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today condoled the death of Heeraben, mother of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

G7 foreign ministers yesterday called on the Taliban to “urgently reverse” a ban on women working in Afghanistan’s aid sector.

G7 foreign ministers today called on the Taliban to "urgently reverse" a ban on women working in Afghanistan's aid sector.

The UN Security Council has called for the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and girls in Afghanistan, denouncing a ban by the

A Pakistan court freed a rapist after he married his victim in a settlement brokered by a council of elders in the northwest of the country, his lawyer said yesterday.