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COLOMBO — One of Sri Lanka's biggest fuel suppliers put up its prices by as much as 12 per cent on Saturday, as the cash-strapped island's energy crisis worsened.

Lanka IOC, a fuel retailer which accounts for a third of the market, said it was increasing prices for diesel — commonly used by public transport — by 12 per cent, and petrol up 11 percent.

The increases came after a 7 per cent price rise three weeks ago and will add to the upward pressure on inflation, already at a record high.

The island is in the grips of an economic crisis after the tourism sector, a key foreign-exchange earner, collapsed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government imposed a broad import ban in March 2020 in an effort to save foreign currency.

The country is now suffering widespread shortages, including fuel, electricity, automotive parts and cement, with supermarkets forced to ration staple foods including rice, sugar and milk powder.

The shortages pushed food inflation to 25 per cent last month with overall inflation at 16.8 per cent.

There was no immediate energy price revision by the state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), but most of its pumps have been out of fuel for days.

Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila announced this week that he expected fuel shortages to ease in "days", but warned that a sharp price increase was necessary to retain the viability of the loss-making CPC.

Gammanpila said the CPC continued to haemorrhage cash and was already carrying debts exceeding $3.5 billion. The CPC loss for last year was $450 million, he added.

"Earlier, we were short of dollars to import oil. Now we don't have the rupees to buy the dollars," Gammanpila said.

Several thermal power stations, meanwhile, have closed with the electricity utility extending daily power cuts to five-and-half-hours a day from Friday.

Three international rating agencies have downgraded the island since late last year on fears it may not be able to service its $35 billion sovereign debt.

Sri Lanka has also sought more loans from Beijing to help repay its existing Chinese debt, which accounts for about 10 per cent of the country's external borrowings.

Authorities have borrowed heavily from China for infrastructure projects in the past, some of which ended up as costly white elephants.


FAIYADIYEH, Lebanon — Lebanon's transport minister has said that Spain will finance a plan to revive the railway network that has been out of service since the start of the 1975-1990 civil war.

A deal for a "comprehensive master plan for the 407 kilometre-long railway" is expected next month, Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamie told AFP during an interview on Wednesday.

"We should sign a deal with the Spanish government within three weeks," Hamie said, adding that the plan should be completed six months after an agreement is clinched.

Lebanon had a railway network since the end of the 19th century which connected Beirut to the Syrian capital Damascus.

It was built during Ottoman rule and inaugurated in 1895, operating until the devastating civil war begun 47 years ago.

Several proposals to revamp the network -- and public transport in general -- were made after the end of the war in 1975 but were shelved.

The network, like most of Lebanon's post-war infrastructure, fell into disrepair, and illegal construction sprouted along the railway.

With public transport effectively non-existent, there are more than 2 million cars for 6 million people in Lebanon.

In 2018, the World Bank approved a $295 million package to jumpstart the country's first modern public transport system.

But that too was put on hold as Lebanon has been struggling since 2019 with a major financial crisis dubbed by the World Bank as one of the planet's worst in modern times.

Spain's government will pay a Spanish firm to draft a feasibility study, a survey of current infrastructure and proposals to settle infringements on the rail network, Hamie said.

The master plan, he said, could serve as a way to attract potential investors for the rehabilitation of the railway.

Lebanon's cash-strapped public works ministry is trying to attract funds in foreign currency by launching tenders for top facilities.

They include the Beirut International Airport and the Beirut Port, where an explosion caused by a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertiliser in August 2020 killed more than 200 people and destroyed swathes of the capital.

Next week, Hamie is due to sign a 10-year contract with French shipping giant CMA CGM to run the container terminal at Beirut port.

The Lebanese government in partnership with the World Bank is also working on drafting a roadmap for the reconstruction of the port which should be ready by August, Hamie said.

"The master plan for the port lays out a framework for optimal investment" before the start of reconstruction which is estimated to cost $500-600 million, the minister told AFP.

LONDON — British bank Barclays on Wednesday suspended £22 million of bonuses owed to ex-boss Jes Staley amid a probe into his links with US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Barclays has frozen its former chief executive's unvested long-term bonus share awards — worth $30 million or 26 million euros — while he remains the subject of a regulatory investigation, the group said as it posted surging annual profits.

The bank said its nominations committee made the decision "pending further developments in respect of the regulatory and legal proceedings related to the ongoing investigation regarding Mr Staley".

The former boss, who stepped down last year, was nevertheless entitled to a contractual entitlement of £2.4 million in cash and shares — equivalent of 12 months' salary — as well as pension and other benefits.

Staley resigned in November ahead of contesting the outcome of the UK investigation into his historical relationship with Epstein, the American financier who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of trafficking underage girls for sex.

Staley quit after UK regulators informed the Barclays board of the preliminary conclusions of an ongoing probe.

The bank has stressed that watchdogs have made no findings that Staley saw or was aware of Epstein's crimes.

Staley for his part has expressed deep regret at having had a professional relationship with Epstein prior to becoming Barclays head in late 2015.

Epstein continues to cause huge fallout elsewhere, with Queen Elizabeth II's second son Prince Andrew this month settling a sexual assault lawsuit for an undisclosed sum with a woman who says she was "lent out" for underage sex by the late financier.

The prince has not been criminally charged and has denied the allegations.

Profits surge 

Barclays on Wednesday also revealed that it had beefed up its staff bonus pool after 2021 net profits more than quadrupled as the economy recovered from coronavirus fallout.

Profit after tax surged to almost £6.4 billion, helped by the release of £700 million that had been set aside for bad loans during the pandemic.

That compared with a £1.5 billion profit the prior year, when Barclays had taken a £4.8 billion charge to cover COVID-19 fallout.

The bank ramped up its total bonus pool by almost a quarter to more than £1.9 billion, becoming the latest UK lender to shrug off Britain's cost of living crisis with dizzying staff incentives.

Addressing MPs on the state of the economy, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey on Wednesday asked retail banking giants to reflect on the current high-cost of living situation for the bulk of Britons when handing out big bonuses.

Bailey sought also to downplay his recent comments that British workers should be careful about asking for wage increases with inflation at the highest level in decades.

"I'm not saying people should not take pay rises. It was in the context of large pay rises," he told the cross-party panel of lawmakers.

"If everybody tries to get ahead of the shock that we've had from outside, we'll get the second round effects and it will get worse, that's the problem."

On executive pay and bonuses in reaction to a question from Angela Eagle, an MP from the main opposition Labour Party, Bailey told the Treasury Committee:

"When you're thinking about it, please reflect on the economic situation we're in with this very big economic shock coming in from outside."

Barclays, like the banking sector in general, says big bonuses are required to avoid losing talent to rivals.

On Wednesday it said the 2021 profits performance was "driven by an improved macroeconomic outlook" and buoyed also by reduced unsecured lending balances and a benign credit environment.

Leadership after Staley 

"Barclays demonstrated a clear and sustainable path to growth over the course of 2021," said chief executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan.

The annual results are the first under Venkatakrishnan, who was promoted from his role as head of global markets following Staley's sudden departure.

Barclays on Wednesday named Anna Cross as its new finance director with effect from April.

The deputy finance director was the first woman to take the top finance job at the lender.

ABU DHABI — The United Arab Emirates is ploughing money into drones, robots and other unmanned weaponry as autonomous warfare becomes more and more widespread — including in attacks on the Gulf country by Yemeni rebels.

Large, black drones with the orange logo of EDGE, the UAE's arms consortium, were on display at this week's Unmanned Systems Exhibition (UMEX), along with remote-controlled machineguns and other "smart" weapons.

The exhibition comes at a time of growing unmanned attacks around the region, including the January 17 drone-and-missile assault by Yemen rebels that killed three oil workers in Abu Dhabi, the first in a series of similar incidents.

"Autonomous systems are becoming ever more prevalent around the world," Miles Chambers, EDGE's director of international business development, told AFP.

"We are really heavily investing in developing our autonomous capability... as well as in electronic warfare and in our smart munitions. These are our three pillars."

EDGE, an Abu Dhabi-based defence consortium that groups 25 Emirati firms, was formed three years ago but reached an estimated $4.8 billion in arms sales in 2020 — nearly all of them to the UAE government.

The group was ranked 23rd among the 100 top arms-producing and military services around the globe in 2020, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting Yemen's Houthi rebels since 2015. Although it withdrew ground troops in 2019, it remains a key player in the grinding conflict.

EDGE's most lucrative deals have included maintenance of military jets, worth almost $4 billion, as well as providing guided munitions at $880 million.

On Tuesday, it unveiled a vehicle-mounted remote-controlled assault rifle that can swivel 360 degrees and has thermal imaging and a laser range finder accurate to 50 centimetres for targets more than two kilometres  away.

EDGE was looking at "expanding our international footprint" in 2022, said Chambers.

'Step up' 

The use of drones and other unmanned weapons is increasingly common.

Last year the United States and Israel said an Iranian drone attacked a ship managed by an Israeli billionaire as it sailed off Oman. Two crew were killed.

In November, Iraq's prime minister survived an attack by a bomb-laden drone, and according to reports, Israel's 2020 assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist was carried out using a remote-controlled machinegun mounted on a pick-up truck.

Drones are also favoured by Yemen's Houthis.

In December, the coalition said the insurgents had fired more than 850 attack drones and 400 ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia in the past seven years, killing 59 civilians.

That compares with the 401 coalition air raids carried out in January alone over Yemen, according to the Yemen Data Project, an independent tracker which reported around 9,000 civilian deaths from the strikes since 2015.

Ahmed Al Mazrouei, owner of an Emirati company that mainly develops four-wheel drive vehicles and personnel carriers, said the UAE defence industry was ready to "step up" following the attacks on Abu Dhabi.

"The challenges are important because they push us to develop ourselves in order to meet those challenges," he said.

"Our goal is to have more systems and more tech" in the next 10 years, Mazrouei added. "This is an Emirati-made production... and we want to compete globally."

EDGE has signed multiple deals with foreign partners, including US firms Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, and Brazil's Embraer, Khalid Al Breiki, who heads one of EDGE's five clusters, told AFP at last year's Dubai Airshow.

The establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020 has also opened up new opportunities.

The fifth edition of UMEX is the first to include Israel, one of seven newcomers among the 26 countries taking part.

On Monday, the UAE defence ministry signed three deals with domestic and international companies with a total value of more than 654.6 million dirhams ($178.2 million), including a 10 million dirhams sale of drone systems to UAE-based International Golden Group.

KUWAIT CITY — Kuwait Airways announced on Monday an expanded $6 billion deal with Airbus for 31 aircraft, restructuring an agreement reached in 2014. 

The deal comes after what the airline labelled occasionally "heated" negotiations following probes over allegations of kickbacks surrounding the initial order.

"We have managed to agree on a monumental restructuring that will position Kuwait Airways in a much stronger place to succeed for the next 15 years," the company Chairman Ali Al Dukhan told a news conference.

The new agreement, which adds three new aircraft to the existing order of 28, includes nine Airbus A320neo, six A321neo, three A321neoLR, four A330-800neo, seven A330-900neo and two A350-900.

Al Dukhan said the reshaped deal, aimed at giving the airline greater flexibility after the travel industry was rocked by the coronavirus pandemic, now carried a "total value of about $6 billion".

"Although corrections were made in 2018, the deal needed further corrections to suit Kuwait Airways' future, especially with the need to transition and become more flexible in a post-COVID aviation industry," he said.

Negotiations took place against the backdrop of bribery allegations that cost Airbus billions of dollars in settlement fees in other countries in 2020.

Record profits 

"As we initiated the negotiations, we knew we were already the underdogs going in as 40 per cent of the deal's value had already been paid and the delivery had started," Al Dukhan said.

He added: "We entered four months of serious, professional negotiations, which did get heated at times, but always maintained respect and understanding of each other's wants and needs."

Kuwait Airways had initially ordered 15 Airbus A320neo and 10 A350 in 2014, with delivery beginning in 2019.

In February 2020, Kuwait's parliament opened a fact-finding panel to probe allegations of kickbacks, after Airbus paid huge fines to settle bribery cases in French, British and American courts.

Under the settlement, Airbus agreed to pay 3.6 billion euros ($4.1 billion) in fines to settle corruption probes into some of its aircraft sales.

Last week, the European giant announced record profits of 4.2 billion euros ($4.8 billion) in 2021, after two straight years of losses during the pandemic.

Deliveries of aircraft rose 8 per cent to 611 aircraft, Airbus said in an earnings statement.

LONDON — From jogging outfits to summer dresses, Lea Baecker has stitched together most of her wardrobe herself from inside her London flat, part of a burgeoning number of young amateur seamstresses.

Like many others in the growing horde of sew-it-yourself enthusiasts, she has grown increasingly disillusioned with the retail clothing industry, viewing it as too destructive.

"My main motivation was not having to buy ready-to-wear clothes anymore because I didn't want to support fast fashion," Baecker, 29, said, referring to clothes made and sold cheaply to be thrown away after minimal use. 

The doctoral student in neuroscience only started sewing in 2018, beginning with small bags before moving on to clothes. 

Four years on, she estimates about 80 per cent of clothes in her wardrobe are homemade, from pyjamas to long fleece coats, as well as jeans made with denim scraps scalped from relatives. 

Baecker now buys new clothes "very rarely", she added, wearing one of her self-made long, hand-sewn dresses. 

'Scale' 

The fashion and textile industry is the third most polluting sector globally after food and construction, accounting for up to 5 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2021 report by the World Economic Forum. 

Low-cost fashion retailers are regularly criticised for their waste and pollution, as well as the pay conditions imposed on their workers. 

Tara Viggo knows fast fashion only too well, having worked in the industry for 15 years as a pattern maker. 

"I realised the scale that the fashion industry was working at and it was a bit terrifying," she said.

In 2017, Viggo decided to start creating her own patterns — the blueprint drawings on paper before garments are made.

She started out small, selling only around one set of patterns per year, a far cry from the four a day that she would sometimes churn out in the ready-to-wear industry.

Viggo conceded independent operators like her were only tiny competitors to the big brands, but insisted they still could have a meaningful impact.

"The more of us that do [it], the better," she said. 

"It's like a trigger... People start to look at where their consumption" is, she added noting it also made you aware of the true costs involved.

"Once you know how to sew your own clothes, you can't fathom that a shirt should be £3 [$4.10, 3.60 euros] anymore."

'More young people' 

Viggo's "Zadie" jumpsuit is now a top seller on "The Fold Line", an online platform selling independently produced sewing patterns, according to its co-founder Rachel Walker.

Since its launch in 2015, the website has grown from about 20 designers to more than 150 today. 

Rosie Scott and Hannah Silvani, who run a London workshop selling fabrics from fashion designers' unsold stock, have also seen the resurgence in sewing's popularity, particularly among young people.

"The clients have changed," said Scott. 

"More young people have shown interest in sewing — young people who are really interested in making their own clothes and making them sustainably."

Women make up more than 90 per cent of the clientele, she noted. 

Customers can choose from some 700 designer fabrics, sold from £8 a metre for cotton voile — a sheer, lightweight cotton fabric — to £110 for the same length of lace. 

Orders soared during the pandemic and are still going strong despite the lifting of restrictions, Scott said. 

Instagram key 

The sector's explosive growth would not have been possible without Instagram, where the sewing community has made a pastime once seen as unfashionable much more trendy. 

The photo-sharing platform "is really important", Baecker said, allowing sewists to post images of their designs and engage with each other. 

This is what prompted her to join the social network, where she now regularly shares her latest works. 

"I found each pattern has a specific hashtag that you can look up and then you can see a lot of different people wearing the same pattern and you can imagine how it can look on yourself," she explained.

For example, Viggo's #Zadiejumpsuit — which comes in velvet or cotton, with or without sleeves — has been tagged in almost 11,000 posts. 

Meanwhile, the hashtag #handmadewardrobe features in more than 900,000 posts. 

With Baecker sharing so many of her creations, she has also inspired friends to join the growing sewing revolution. 

"That is my proudest achievement... getting my friends into sewing as well," she said.