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Sri Lanka is calling on farmers to grow more rice as it faces its worst economic crisis in more than 70 years, BBC reported.

The country's agriculture minister made the appeal as he said the country's "food situation is becoming worse".

It comes as severe shortages of essentials, including food, helped to push inflation, the rate at which prices rise, to a new record high.

Also on Tuesday, the government raised taxes to help pay for critical purchases, including fuel and food.

The island nation of 22 million people has been hit hard by the pandemic, rising energy prices, and populist tax cuts.

A chronic shortage of foreign currency and soaring inflation has also led to a shortage of medicines, fuel and other essentials.

Agriculture minister Mahinda Amaraweera told journalists "it is clear the food situation is becoming worse".

"We request all farmers to step into their fields in the next five to ten days and cultivate paddy [rice]," he added, according to BBC.

Sri Lankan officials have been looking for ways to boost food production, as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has warned of severe food shortages by August.

The country is also applying for assistance from a South Asian food bank, which has supplied rice and other goods to countries in need, the Financial Times newspaper reported.

Food commissioner J Krishnamoorthy told the newspaper in an interview that her department had "just started the process" of asking the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) for "food bank assistance".

Ms Krishnamoorthy added that Sri Lanka was seeking around 100,000 metric tonnes of food in the form of donations or subsidised sales.

The SAARC is a grouping of eight countries in South Asia. It includes Sri Lanka and India, which is emerging as one of Sri Lanka's biggest providers of aid, BBC reported.

Sri Lanka's Food Commissioners Department and the SAARC did not immediately respond to BBC requests for comment.

On Tuesday, the Sri Lankan government announced an immediate increase to value added tax (VAT) from 8% to 12%. The move is expected to boost government revenue by 65bn Sri Lankan rupees ($179.9m; £142.7m).

It also said corporate tax would rise in October from 24% to 30%.

Earlier this year, then-Sri Lankan financial minister Ali Sabry told the BBC that he saw a need to raise VAT.

He added that the nation needed $4bn (£3.2bn) over the next eight months to pay for imports of daily essentials.

Also on Tuesday, official figures showed that Sri Lanka's rate of inflation rose to a record 39.1% in May, from a year ago. It had reached a previous high of 29.8% in April.

Inflation reduces the purchasing power of money since more money is now needed to buy the same items.

High rates of inflation mean that unless income increases at the same rate, people are worse off. This may cause them to spend less as they make fewer purchases from businesses.

Last month, Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt for the first time in history, when grace period to come up with $78m of unpaid debt interest payments expired, according to BBC.

Defaults happen when governments are unable to meet some or all of their debt payments to creditors.

It can damage a country's reputation with investors, making it harder for it to borrow the money it needs on international markets, which can further harm confidence in its currency and economy.

A jury sided Wednesday with Johnny Depp in his libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard, awarding the “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor more than $10 million and vindicating his allegations that Heard lied about Depp abusing her before and during their brief marriage, Associated Press reported.

But in a split decision, the jury also found that Heard was defamed by one of Depp’s lawyers, who accused her of creating a detailed hoax that included roughing up the couple’s apartment to look worse for police. The jury awarded her $2 million.

The verdicts bring an end to a televised trial that Depp had hoped would help restore his reputation, though it turned into a spectacle that offered a window into a vicious marriage.

Heard, who was stoic in the courtroom as the verdict was read, said she was heartbroken.

“I’m even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It’s a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously,” she said in a statement posted on her Twitter account.

Depp, who was not in court Wednesday, said “the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled.”

“I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up,” he said in a statement posted to Instagram, according to Associated Press.

Depp sued Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” His lawyers said he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name.

The jury found in Depp’s favor on all three of his claims relating to specific statements in the 2018 piece.

Throughout the proceedings, fans who were overwhelmingly on Depp’s side lined up overnight for coveted courtroom seats. Spectators who couldn’t get in gathered on the street to cheer Depp and jeer Heard whenever they appeared outside.

A crowd of about 200 people cheered when Depp’s lawyers came out after the verdict. “Johnny for president!” one man yelled repeatedly.

Greg McCandless, 51, a retired private detective from Reston, Virginia, stood outside the courthouse wearing a pirate hat and red head scarf, a nod to Depp’s famous role as Capt. Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series.

“I do believe that there was defamation, and I do believe that it did hurt his career,” McCandless said. “I think the jury heard the evidence, and the verdict was just.”

In evaluating Heard’s counterclaims, jurors considered three statements by a lawyer for Depp who called her allegations a hoax. They found she was defamed by one of them, in which the lawyer claimed that she and friends “spilled a little wine and roughed the place up, got their stories straight,” and called police, Associated Press reported.

Sydni Porter, 30, drove an hour from her home in Maryland to show support for Heard. She said the verdict was disappointing, but not surprising, and sends a message to women that “as much evidence as you have (of abuse), it’s never going to be enough.”

The jury found Depp should receive $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, but the judge said state law caps punitive damages at $350,000, meaning Depp was awarded $10.35 million.

The US and Germany pledged Wednesday to equip Ukraine with some of the advanced weapons it has long desired for shooting down aircraft and knocking out artillery, as Russian forces closed in on capturing a key city in the east, Associated Press reported.

Germany said it will supply Ukraine with up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems, while the US announced it willprovide four sophisticated, medium-range rocket systems and ammunition.

The US is trying to help Ukraine fend off the Russians without triggering a wider war in Europe. The Pentagon said it received assurances that Ukraine will not fire the new rockets into Russian territory.

The Kremlin accused the US of “pouring fuel on the fire.” 

Western arms have been critical to Ukraine’s success in stymieing Russia’s much larger and better-equipped military, thwarting its effort to storm the capital and forcing Moscow to shift its focus to the industrial Donbas region in the east.

But as Russia bombards towns in its inching advance in the east, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly pleaded for more and better weapons and accused the West of moving too slowly, according to Associated Press.

Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, hailed the new Western weapons.

“I’m sure that if we receive all the necessary weapons and strengthen the efficient sanctions regime we will win,” he said. 

The new arms could help Ukraine set up and hold new lines of defense in the east by hitting back at Russian artillery pieces that have been battering towns and cities and by limiting Russian airstrikes, said retired French Gen. Dominique Trinquand, a former head of France’s military mission at the United Nations.

“The NATO countries — the European nations and the Americans — have progressively escalated the means that they are putting at Ukraine’s disposal, and this escalation, in my opinion, has had the aim of testing Russian limits,” he said. “Each time, they measure the Russian reaction, and since there is no reaction, they keep supplying increasingly effective and sophisticated weaponry.”

Military analysts say Russia is hoping to overrun the Donbas before any weapons that might turn the tide arrive. It will take at least three weeks to get the precision US weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said. But Defense Undersecretary Colin Kahl said he believes they will arrive in time to make a difference in the fight, Associated Press reported.

The rocket systems are part of a new $700 million package of security assistance for Ukraine from the US that also includes helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, radars, tactical vehicles, spare parts and more.

The rockets have a range of about 50 miles (80 kilometers) and are highly mobile. Ukraine had pushed unsuccessfully for rockets with a range of up to 186 miles (300 kilometers).

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow does not trust assurances that Ukraine will not fire on Russian territory. “We believe that the US is deliberately and diligently pouring fuel on the fire,” he said.

Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintzev later went further, directly accusing Ukraine of planning to fire US-provided missiles from the northeastern Sumy region at border areas in Russia. The claim, which he said was based on radio intercepts, couldn’t be independently confirmed.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Ukraine’s push for more weapons is a “direct provocation intended to draw the West into the fighting.” He warned that the multiple rocket launchers would raise the risk of an expanded conflict, Associated Press reported.

“Sane Western politicians understand those risks well,” he said.

As the new weapons shipments were announced, a Russian missile hit rail lines in the western Lviv region, a key conduit for supplies of Western weapons and other supplies, officials said. Regional Gov. Maksym Kozytskyy said five people were wounded in Wednesday’s strike, and the head of Ukrainian railways said the damage was still being assessed.

Germany’s promise of IRIS-T air defense systems would mark the first delivery of long-range air defense weapons to Ukraine since the start of the war. Earlier deliveries of portable, shoulder-fired air defense missiles have bolstered the Ukrainian military’s ability to take down helicopters and other low-flying aircraft but didn’t give it enough range to challenge Russia’s air superiority, according to Associated Press.

A gunman carrying a rifle and a handgun killed four people Wednesday at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus, police said, the latest in a series of deadly mass shootings across the country in recent weeks, Associated Press reported.

Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish confirmed the number of dead and said the shooter also was dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

The spate of recent gun violence across the country, including the killing of 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school eight days ago by an 18-year-old gunman carrying an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, has led to Democratic leaders amplifying their calls for greater restrictions on guns, while Republicans are emphasizing more security at schools.

The divide mirrors a partisan split that has stymied action in Congress and many state capitols over how best to respond to a record-high number of gun-related deaths in the US

It was unclear what prompted the deadly assault in Tulsa, Dalgleish said, according to Associated Press.

“It appears both weapons at one point or another were fired on the scene,” Dalgleish said. “The officers who arrived were hearing shots in the building, and that’s what led them to the second floor.”

Police responded to the call about three minutes after dispatchers received the report at 4:52 p.m. and made contact with the gunman roughly five minutes later, at 5:01 p.m. Dalgleish said.

“I was very happy with what we know so far regarding the response of our officers,” Dalgleish said. 

The length of time it took police officers in Uvalde, Texas, to engage the gunman during last week’s deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School has become a key focus of that investigation. Officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom where the gunman attacked.

Police Capt. Richard Meulenberg also said multiple people were wounded and that the medical complex was a “catastrophic scene.” The exact number of wounded was not immediately available.

Police and hospital officials said they were not ready to identify the dead.

St. Francis Health System locked down its campus Wednesday afternoon because of the situation at the Natalie Medical Building. The Natalie building houses an outpatient surgery center and a breast health center. Dalgleish said an orthopedic clinic also is located on the second floor where officers discovered the shooter and several victims, Associated Press reported.

“This campus is sacred ground for our community,” said Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum. “For decades, this campus has been a place where heroes come to work every day to save the lives of people in our community.”

Bynum added: “Right now, my thoughts are with the victims. If we want to have a policy discussion, that is something to be had in the future, but not tonight.”

Philip Tankersley, 27, was leaving his father’s room at nearby Saint Francis Hospital around 5 p.m., when hospital staff said there was an active shooter in the building across the street, locked the doors and warned them to stay away from the windows.

Tankersley said he and his mother sheltered in his father’s hospital room for more than an hour, trying to learn scraps of information from the TV news and passing nurses. He said they heard “code silver” and “level 1 trauma” announced on the hospital speakers and wondered if they were safe in the room.

“I wasn’t particularly worried because the two people that I need to look out for were in that same room as me,” he said. “But it was definitely a ‘this is happening here’ moment.”

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also at the scene, a spokesperson said. A reunification center for families to find their loved ones was set up at a nearby high school, according to Associated Press.

The shooting Wednesday also comes just more than two weeks after shooting at a Buffalo supermarket by a white man who is accused of killing 10 Black people in a racist attack. The recent Memorial Day weekend saw multiple mass shootings nationwide, including at an outdoor festival in Taft, Oklahoma, 45 miles from Tulsa, even as single-death incidents accounted for most gun fatalities.

The Tara Air Twin Otter crash near Jomsom that killed 22 people on board is a grim reminder of the challenges of flying over Nepal’s uneven terrains and navigating its unpredictable weather. Following the crash, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has issued a new directive whereby planes can fly only if the weather of the entire route is clear. Earlier, only the state of the weather at the take-off and landing sites were factored in. This should make the Nepali skies safer in the otherwise accident-prone pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons. Yet that too will be no foolproof guarantee against accidents. 

Besides highlighting the dangers of navigating Nepal’s treacherous terrains, the tragic accident on May 30 has again put a spotlight on the country’s failure to properly monitor and regulate its civil aviation sector. Most aircraft accidents in Nepal are attributed to ‘pilot’s error’ and yet it is hard to think of a single tangible measure that has been taken to minimize such errors. In fact, there are reports of pilots being put under pressure to fly even in bad weather. Nepal is also yet to take one safety measure that could have the biggest impact on air-safety: separate the regulatory and service-providing arms of CAAN. The merging of these duties in one organization creates conflict of interest and increases the chances of grave accidents. 

Nepal has made an improvement in the international civil aviation regulator ICAO’s safety audit scores (but not in the investigation of air-crashes, a measure in which the country’s scores got worse). Yet due to its failure to split up CAAN, the country’s carriers are still banned from European skies. The ban in turn dissuades European travelers from visiting Nepal, a tourism dependent country. 

As the charred bodies of crew and passengers are still being identified, this is not the right time to apportion blame. Why the Twin Otter crashed will be known only after a thorough study. But this is certainly the right time to ask why we as a country are not doing more to minimize the frequency of such tragedies. 

Newly elected Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Balen Shah held a meeting with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba at the latter's residence in Baluwatar on Wednesday.

Congratulating Shah on his election to the top post of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Prime Minister Deuba expressed his commitment that the government and Nepali Congress will help in the good works of the Metropolitan City.

"You did a miracle. I am happy. You will have our full support during the five year term," he said.

Saying that the Nepali Congress has a majority in the executive of the metropolis, Deuba said that the party would help him in the development works.

"Use any kind of measures to manage the waste. You will have the support of the center, government, ministry and Department of Roads," the Prime Minister said.

In response, Mayor Shah said that he is ready to move ahead in coordination with the Nepali Congress in the metropolis.

Two persons have been arrested for murdering their friend for drugs in Kirtipur.

The Metropolitan Police Circle, Kirtipur on Monday got information that some youths were fighting on the road to Dhalpa in Kirtipur.

DSP Purushottam Pandey of the Metropolitan Police Circle, Kirtipur said that two youths were beating Arun Khatri (29) of Tamilcha-8, Udayapur.

He said that police rounded up Ajay Napit (26) and Santosh Maharjan (22) of Baghbhairav, Kirtipur for murdering Khatri, a permanent resident of Tamilcha Municipality-8, Udayapur currently residing at Bosigaun in Kirtipur Municipality-10.

Critically injured in the incident, Khatri, who sustained injuries in his head and chest, breathed his last during the course of treatment at the Kirtipur Hospital.

Police said that they recovered controlled pharmaceutical drugs-31 ampoules of Diazepam, 64 ampoules of Phenergan and 72 ampoules of Norphin-from the bag of Khatri.

DSP Pandey said that they are investigating the case.

Through the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, the US government, in partnership with the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust and the Department of Archeology, has helped restore and preserve cultural heritage sites in Nepal.

Addressing a program organized to celebrate the completion of the Octagonal Krishna Temple, or Krishna Mandir, a restoration project in Patan Durbar Square, US Ambassador to Nepal Randy Berry said his government is proud to support it.

 “The temple has been fully restored.  Now, not only is it beautiful, but its improved structural framework is more resilient to future earthquakes,” he said.  

He further said long-standing partner in Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation projects, the contribution made by artisans and laborers from Patan and around Kathmandu Valley, and the centuries-old cultural heritage of this Square.

You will notice portraits of many of the talented stone carvers, carpenters, metalsmiths, and other artisans who restored the Krishna Temple and other structures in Patan, he said.

It is their work and their dedication to traditional design and construction methods that residents of Patan and thousands of tourists enjoy every year, he added.