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Colombo: Sri Lanka is set to have a new political alliance headed by PM Ranil Wickremesinghe on August 5 which will contest the presidential election later this year, a media report has said, amid the power struggle between the premier and President Maithripala Sirisena. Sri Lanka has been wracked by political divisions since an unprecedented constitutional crisis last year, when President Sirisena sacked United National Party leader and PM Wickremesinghe and appointed former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa. Wickremesinghe was reinstated in December after the intervention of the Supreme Court, but the government remains deeply divided. PTI
Putin ally stages political comeback in Ukraine
Kiev: Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, a close ally of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, has made a political comeback after his party came second in the country’s weekend parliamentary vote. His pro-Moscow ‘Opposition Platform For Life’ party won 13 per cent of the vote, allowing US-sanctioned Medvedchuk to return to Ukraine Parliament after more than a decade. Kiev and Moscow have been at loggerheads since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014 and war with pro-Russia separatists erupted in eastern Ukraine. But Medvedchuk, 64, has advocated restoring ties between the two countries. AFP
Abe pushes charter change despite no supermajority
Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called for public debate on revising Japan’s pacifist constitution, saying voters who handed his ruling bloc a majority in weekend parliamentary elections have given him a mandate. Abe’s ruling coalition secured a majority on Sunday in the upper house, the less powerful of two chambers, while losing ground and retreating from the supermajority it had in both houses - a requirement to propose a constitutional change. The result is a setback for Abe’s long-cherished goal of constitutional revision, which has already been a challenge. Sunday’s showing was solid enough to prevent a major change to Abe’s grip on power. AP
UN nuclear watchdog chief Amano dies at 72
Vienna: The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Yukiya Amano, has died after suffering poor health for some time, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Monday, as international tensions run high over Iran’s nuclear activities. The longtime Japanese diplomat, who was 72, held the IAEA’s top job since December 2009. During his 10 years at the helm, Amano oversaw the signing of a landmark deal in 2015 between Iran and six major powers under which the Islamic republic agreed to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. Amano took over from Egypt’s Mohamed ElBaradei in 2009. AFP
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