Colombo: Sri Lanka’s new Finance Minister Ali Sabry on Tuesday resigned, a day after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed him after sacking his brother Basil Rajapaksa amidst the island nation’s worst economic crisis.

In a letter to the President, Sabri said that he took up the job as part of a temporary measure.

However, after much reflection and deliberation and taking into consideration the current situation, I am now of the view for Your Excellency to make suitable interim arrangement to navigate the unprecedented crisis fresh and proactive, and unconventional steps needs to be taken including the appointment of a new finance minister, Sabry said in the letter.

He was among the four new ministers appointed by President Rajapaksa on Monday.

Sri Lanka is currently experiencing its worst economic crisis in history. With long lines for fuel, cooking gas, essentials in short supply and long hours of power cuts, the public has been suffering for months.

Budapest(AP): A train derailed after striking a vehicle in southern Hungary early Tuesday, leaving several people dead and others injured, police said.

The accident occurred just before 7 am in the town of Mindszent. Police said a van drove onto the train tracks and was struck by a train, which derailed from the force of the collision.

In a statement, Hungarian state railways indicated that all those killed had been travelling in the van.

It said that 22 people were on the train at the time of the collision. Two people were seriously hurt and eight others suffered mild injuries.

According to unconfirmed reports from local news website delmagyar.hu, seven people died.

The Csongrad-Csanad county police said they had closed the entire width of the road during the on-site inspection and rescue. Traffic was diverted to surrounding streets. (AP)

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday invited all political parties to join a unity Cabinet as part of the government’s bid to tackle the raging public anger against the ongoing hardships caused by the island nation’s worst economic crisis.

On Sunday night, all 26 Cabinet Ministers submitted letters of resignation.

Speaking to reporters, Education Minister and Leader of the House Dinesh Gunawardena said the ministers handed over their resignations to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. He provided no reason for the mass resignation.

The government’s invitation to all the Opposition parties came as mass public agitations mounted against the ruling Rajapaksa family for its mishandling of the economic situation triggered by the foreign exchange crisis and the balance of payment issues.

The public thronged the streets asking the president to resign. The protests triggered the imposition of curfew after a state of emergency was declared by the President.

When the protests intensified, the government clamped a social media ban for 15 hours on Sunday. The people defied the curfew to protest against long queues for fuel and gas and long hours without electricity.

Governor of the Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal has also announced his resignation. “In the context of all Cabinet ministers resigning, I have today submitted my resignation as Governor,” Cabraal said.

He was blamed for his rigid stance on Sri Lanka seeking an economic bailout through an International Monetary Fund (IMF) structural adjustment facility.

Despite his opposition, the government in the last fortnight approached the international lender for support. During his governorship, the Central Bank was accused of printing large volumes of money, triggering inflation.

The country is grappling with what is said to be its worst economic crisis since independence from the UK in 1948. It is caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which is used to pay for fuel imports.

People are languishing in long queues for fuel, cooking gas and endure power cuts lasting multiple hours. Sri Lanka is currently experiencing its worst economic crisis in history.

With long lines for fuel, cooking gas, essentials in short supply and long hours of power cuts, the public has been suffering for weeks.

Rajapaksa has defended his government’s actions, saying the foreign exchange crisis was not his making and the economic downturn was largely pandemic driven with the island nation’s tourism revenue and inward remittances waning.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court will hear on Monday the dismissal of a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Imran Khan by the deputy speaker and the subsequent dissolution of Parliament by the President on the advice of the embattled premier, a day after taking a suo motu cognizance of the current political situation in the country.

Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, after taking a suo motu cognizance of the current political situation in the country, said that all orders and actions initiated by the prime minister and the president regarding the dissolution of the National Assembly will be subject to the court’s order as he adjourned for one day the hearing of the high-profile case.

A three-member bench held the initial hearing despite the weekend and issued notices to all the respondents, including President Alvi and Deputy Speaker of the NA Suri.

The Supreme Court ordered all parties not to take any “unconstitutional” measures and adjourned the hearing until Monday.

Former information minister Fawad Chaudhry said that the ruling given in the National Assembly by the deputy speaker for the dismissal of the no-trust motion against Prime Minister Khan was “final” and could not be challenged in any court of law.

Talking to the media outside the Supreme Court, the close aide of Khan said that the NA deputy speaker’s ruling came after completion of the constitutional process over the no-trust motion.

Earlier, the Opposition had demanded the top court to intervene and Shehbaz Sharif, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, announced his party’s decision to challenge the dissolution of the NA.

Ahsan Bhoon, President, Supreme Court Bar, said that the action of the prime minister and deputy speaker was against the constitution and “they should be prosecuted for treason under Article 6 of the constitution.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) also filed a petition asking the court to declare the ruling of the deputy speaker as unconstitutional along with the dissolution of the parliament.

The crisis erupted after Suri rejected the no-confidence motion, providing Prime Minister Khan to send an advice to the president of the country to dissolve Parliament, which he could not do until any outcome of the no-confidence vote.

Leading constitutional lawyer Salman Akram Raja said that the “entire procure by the deputy speaker and the advice by the premier to dissolve the assembly was unconstitutional”.

Raja said the illegality of the ruling would also make the advice as illegal as the prime minister cannot give advice to the assembly after a no-confidence motion was presented in the parliament against him.

KYIV: Russian troops left the heavily contaminated Chernobyl nuclear site early Friday after returning control to the Ukrainians, authorities said, as eastern parts of the country braced for renewed attacks and Russians blocked another aid mission to the besieged port city of Mariupol.

Ukraine’s state power company, Energoatom, said the pullout at Chernobyl came after soldiers received “significant doses” of radiation from digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone around the closed plant. But there was no independent confirmation of that.

The exchange of control happened amid growing indications the Kremlin is using talk of de-escalation in Ukraine as cover to regroup, resupply its forces and redeploy them for a stepped-up offensive in the eastern part of the country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russian withdrawals from the north and center of the country were just a military tactic to build up forces for new powerful attacks in the southeast. A new round of talks between the countries was scheduled Friday, five weeks into a conflict that has left thousands dead and driven 4 million Ukrainians from the country.

“We know their intentions,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation. “We know that they are moving away from those areas where we hit them in order to focus on other, very important ones where it may be difficult for us.”

“There will be battles ahead,” he added.

Meanwhile in Mariupol, Russian forces blocked a convoy of 45 buses attempting to evacuate people after the Russian military agreed to a limited cease-fire in the area. Only 631 people were able to get out of the city in private cars, according to the Ukrainian government.

Russian forces also seized 14 tons of food and medical supplies in a dozen buses that were trying to make it to Mariupol, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

The city has been the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war. Tens of thousands have managed to get out in the past few weeks by way of humanitarian corridors, reducing the population from a prewar 430,000 to an estimated 100,000 by last week, but other relief efforts have been thwarted by continued Russian attacks.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it had been informed by Ukraine that the Russian forces at the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster had transferred control of it in writing to the Ukrainians. The last Russian troops left early Friday, the Ukrainian government agency responsible for the exclusion zone said.

Energoatom gave no details on the condition of the soldiers it said were exposed to radiation and did not say how many were affected. There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin, and the IAEA said it had not been able to confirm the reports of Russian troops receiving high doses. It said it was seeking more information.

Russian forces seized the Chernobyl site in the opening stages of the Feb. 24 invasion, raising fears that they would cause damage or disruption that could spread radiation. The workforce at the site oversees the safe storage of spent fuel rods and the concrete-entombed ruins of the reactor that exploded in 1986.

Edwin Lyman, a nuclear expert with the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists, said it “seems unlikely” a large number of troops would develop severe radiation illness, but it was impossible to know for sure without more details.

He said contaminated material was probably buried or covered with new topsoil during the cleanup of Chernobyl, and some soldiers may have been exposed to a “hot spot” of radiation while digging. Others may have assumed they were at risk too, he said.

Early this week, the Russians said they would significantly scale back military operations in areas around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv to increase trust between the two sides and help negotiations along.

But in the Kyiv suburbs, regional governor Oleksandr Palviuk said on social media Thursday that Russian forces shelled Irpin and Makariv and that there were battles around Hostomel. Ukrainian forces counterattacked and some Russian withdrawals around the suburb of Brovary to the east, Pavliuk said.

At a Ukrainian military checkpoint outside Kyiv, soldiers and officers said they don’t believe Russian forces have given up on the capital.

“What does it mean, significantly scaling down combat actions in the Kyiv and Chernihiv areas?” asked Brig. Gen. Valeriy Embakov. “Does it mean there will be 100 missiles instead of 200 missiles launched on Kyiv or something else?”

Chernihiv came under attack as well. At least one person was killed and four were wounded in the Russian shelling of a humanitarian convoy of buses sent to Chernihiv to evacuate residents cut off from food, water and other supplies, said Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova.

Elsewhere, Ukraine reported Russian artillery barrages in and around the northeastern city of Kharkiv.

Ukraine’s emergency services also said the death toll had risen to 20 in a Russian missile strike Tuesday on a government administration building in the southern city of Mykolaiv.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said intelligence indicates Russia is not scaling back its military operations in Ukraine but is instead trying to regroup, resupply its forces and reinforce its offensive in the Donbas.

“Russia has repeatedly lied about its intentions,” Stoltenberg said. At the same time, he said, pressure is being kept up on Kyiv and other cities, and “we can expect additional offensive actions bringing even more suffering.”

The Donbas is the predominantly Russian-speaking industrial region where Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces since 2014. In the past few days, the Kremlin, in a seeming shift in its war aims, said that its “main goal” now is gaining control of the Donbas, which consists of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including Mariupol.

The top rebel leader in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, issued an order to set up a rival city government for Mariupol, according to Russian state news agencies, in a sign of Russian intent to hold and administer the city.

With talks set to resume between Ukraine and Russia via video, there seemed little faith that the two sides would resolve the conflict any time soon.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that conditions weren’t yet “ripe” for a cease-fire and that he wasn’t ready for a meeting with Zelenskyy until negotiators do more work, Italian Premier Mario Draghi said after a telephone conversation with the Russian leader.

As Western officials search for clues about what Russia’s next move might be, a top British intelligence official said demoralized Russian soldiers in Ukraine are refusing to carry out orders and sabotaging their equipment and had accidentally shot down their own aircraft.

U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the war is going because they are afraid to tell him the truth.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the U.S. is wrong and that “neither the State Department nor the Pentagon possesses the real information about what is happening in the Kremlin.”

WASHINGTON: The United States will neither engage in hostilities in Ukraine nor establish a no-fly zone over the country, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin told the CNN broadcaster.

“We’d have to control the skies and that would mean that we’d have to engage Russian aircraft we’d also have to take out Russian and aircraft and aircraft systems in Ukraine, in Belarus, and also in Russia. So that would mean that we’re in combat with Russia. And these are two nuclear powered countries. That nobody wants to see. It’s not good for the region. It’s not good for the world,” Austin added. 

The United States is still concerned about China providing military support to Russia even after President Joe Biden spoke with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, on Friday to discourage him from aiding Moscow in its military operation in Ukraine, said White House spokesperson Jen Psaki.

“We have that concern. The President detailed what the implications and consequences would be if China provides material support to Russia,” Psaki said when asked whether the Biden administration is still concerned Beijing might help Russia, reported Sputnik.

“That is something we will be watching and the world will be watching,” Psaki said.

Biden on Friday held a video call with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and warned China of implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia.

“President Biden detailed our efforts to prevent and then respond to the invasion, including by imposing costs on Russia. He described the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians,” a White House readout informed.

Xi said, “As leaders of major countries, we (China and the US) need to think about how to properly address global hotspot issues and, more importantly, keep in mind global stability and the work and life of billions of people,” as quoted by Xinhua.

Meanwhile, the two leaders agreed that a diplomatic solution to the present conflict in Ukraine is the most desirable outcome as of now.

On the question of Taiwan, Biden reiterated that U.S. policy on Taiwan has not changed, and emphasized that the United States continues to oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo, the readout said.

Xi spoke sharply on the question of Taiwan saying that some people in the U.S. have sent a wrong signal on the issue of Taiwanese independence, adding that “this is very dangerous.”

Amid Russia’s plan to transfer their troops from Armenia to support offensive against Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a video on Saturday, saying that he wants a serious conversation with Moscow as “the time has come to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine”.

“I want everyone to hear me now, especially (those) in Moscow. The time has come for a meeting; it is time to talk,” Zelenskyy was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.

Zelenskyy also accused Moscow in the video of blocking the humanitarian assistance in the war-torn cities of Ukraine, stating that “this is a deliberate tactic..”.

Al Jazeera further quoted Zelenskyy saying that “Russia will have to answer for it (the blocking of humanitarian assistance…”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian armed forces said that Russia will be transferring their troops from Armenia, according to the Ukraine media outlet, The Kyiv independent.

Russia planned to deploy their troops from the 102nd Russian military base in Armenia to support its offensive against Ukraine, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Earlier on Friday Zelenskyy spoke to European Council President Charles Michel and discussed further strengthening of support to the war-torn country and also the membership of the European Union (EU) for Ukraine

“Discussed with President of the Council Charles Michel @eucopresident further support to (Ukraine) in countering (Russian) aggression, strengthening the anti-war coalition, prospects for restoring peace in (Ukraine). Special attention was paid to our movement towards membership in the #EU,” Zelenskyy said in a tweet.

On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone call with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and discussed the issue of the growing number of civilian casualties in the ongoing conflict while talking about the efforts to bring an end to the war.

The developments came amidst the scheduled visit of US President Joe Biden to Brussels on March 24 to attend an extraordinary NATO summit as well as participate in a European Council Summit.

On February 24, Russia began a special military operation in Ukraine after the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics requested help in defending themselves.

Russia has been facing immense pressure from the international community to stop its military operations in Ukraine which has created an immense humanitarian crisis with thousands of refugees from Ukraine fleeing to the neighbouring countries to the West.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday (local time) held a phone call with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and discussed the growing number of civilian casualties in the ongoing conflict while talking about the efforts to bring an end to the war.

“Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Kuleba discussed the growing number of civilian casualties caused by President Putin’s brutal and unjustified war of choice. The Secretary commended the incredible courage and fierce determination of the Ukrainian people as they defend their country against Russian forces who have shown little regard for human life,” a US State Department readout said.

Secretary of State Blinken also reaffirmed “the United States’ steadfast commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” and reiterated the American support through assistance.

“The Secretary reiterated robust U.S. support for the people of Ukraine through security, humanitarian, and economic assistance,” the readout said.

“Spoke with @SecBlinken on efforts to bring an end to Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine and multiple war crimes. To this end, it is crucial to further strengthen Ukraine’s defence capabilities, apply more pressure on Russia, and use all available diplomatic tools,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba tweeted.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting with European Council President Charles Michel discussing further support to Ukraine in the ongoing war.

In a video address on the same day, Zelenskyy commented on the Ukrainian-Russian talks on a possible ceasefire, “It is time to meet. It is time to restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine, the justice for Ukraine,” Sputnik reported.

The developments come amidst the scheduled visit of US President Joe Biden to Brussels on March 24 to attend an extraordinary NATO summit as well as participate in a European Council Summit.