- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- Three million UK children living below poverty line: study
- China's Jia brings film spanning love, change over decades to Busan
- Paying out disaster relief before climate catastrophe strikes
- Chinese shares drop on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- SE Asian summit seeks progress on Myanmar civil war
- How climate funds helped Peru's women beekeepers stay afloat
- Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded as wars rage
- Pacific island nations swamped by global drug trade
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- Mozambique elects new president in tense vote
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine
- New stadium gives Real Madrid a headache
- Alonso, Manaea shine as 'Miracle Mets' blitz Phillies
- Harris, Trump trade blows in US election media blitz
- Harry's Bar in Paris drinks to US straw-poll centenary
- Osama bin Laden's son Omar banned from returning to France
- Afghan man arrested for plotting US election day attack
- Brazil lifts ban on Musk's X, ending standoff over disinformation
- Harris holds slight edge nationally over Trump: poll
- Chelsea edge Real Madrid in Women's Champions League, Lyon win
- Japan PM to dissolve parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- 'Diego Lives': Immersive Maradona exhibit hits Barcelona
- Brazil Supreme Court lifts ban on Musk's X
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Six-year-old girl among missing after Brazil landslide
- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Mexico president rules out new 'war on drugs'
- Israeli defense minister postpones trip to Washington: Pentagon
- Europe skipper Donald in talks with Garcia over Ryder return
- Kenya MPs vote to impeach deputy president in historic move
- Former US coach Berhalter named Chicago Fire head coach
- New York Jets fire head coach Saleh: team
- Australia crush New Zealand in Women's T20 World Cup
- US states accuse TikTok of harming young users
- 'Evacuate now, now, now': Florida braces for next hurricane
- US Supreme Court skeptical of challenge to 'ghost guns' regulation
- Sparks fly as Orban berates EU 'elites' in parliament trip
- US finalizes rule to remove lead pipes within a decade
- Solanke hungry for second England cap after seven-year wait
- Gilded canopy restored at Vatican basilica
- Zverev scrapes through, Djokovic cruises to Shanghai Masters last 16
- Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Putin: Bob Woodward book
- Gauff answers critics: 'It's hard to win all the time'
- Neural networks, machine learning? Nobel-winning AI science explained
- China says raised 'serious concerns' with US over trade curbs
- Boeing delivers 27 MAX jets in September despite strike
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of other sex crimes
- Italy seek Nations League consistency as Germany continue rebuild
Tanker strike worsens fuel woes in crisis-hit Sri Lanka
A strike by owners of fuel tankers over the weekend renewed Sri Lanka's long queues for diesel and petrol on Monday as pumps ran dry, compounding the island nation's economic and energy crisis.
Sri Lanka is in the grip of a pandemic-spurred economic freefall, the worst since independence from Britain in 1948, which has led to shortages of food and other essentials.
The lack of fuel has been an especially large sticking point for the government, as petrol prices have increased by 90 percent while diesel -- commonly used for public transport -- has gone up by 138 percent.
Fuel woes eased slightly last week as supplies arrived under a $500 million credit line from India.
But the salve proved temporary as fuel tanker operators have been on strike since late Saturday, demanding an increase to their prices to ferry the petrol across the country.
Energy minister Kanchana Wijesekera said Monday he needed at least three more days to restore the supplies of petrol and diesel.
"I appeal to the motorists to bear with us for three more days," he told reporters in Colombo, adding that the government was trying to hire other mobile container owners not affiliated with the protest.
According to Wijesekera, the union representing tanker operators was demanding a 115 percent increase in fees, outstripping an offer of 95 percent more from state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corp (CPC).
"We are willing to increase, but not by as much as the tanker operators are demanding," he said.
"If we give in, the CPC will go bankrupt."
But the operators say running costs are up due to diesel prices being raised 138 percent, while insurance, spare parts and wages have spiked due to the sharp depreciation of Sri Lanka's currency.
The rupee has dropped by more than 40 percent against the dollar since March.
Tens of thousands have protested for weeks across the country, with demonstrators also camped daily outside the residence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa calling for his resignation over alleged corruption and mismanagement of the economy.
Sri Lanka has sought about $3 billion from the International Monetary Fund to overcome the balance-of-payments crisis and boost depleted reserves.
The government has also announced a sovereign default on its huge foreign debt.
O.Norris--AMWN