Maldives seeks to renegotiate with China over Belt and Road debt
The Maldives is to ask Beijing to reduce the debt it accrued during a recent Chinese investment boom, according to its new finance minister who claims that large-scale graft inflated the value of contracts under the previous government. “This was wilful corruption,” Ibrahim Ameer told the Financial Times. The former government knew what they were doing, getting kickbacks from contractors . That’s why the contract prices were too high.
News Link-  Maldives seeks to renegotiate with China over Belt and Road debt
Ibrahim Ismail, the chairman of Mandhu College in the Maldives and a former lawmaker, says he believes in debate rooted in facts and backed by citations, including over religion. But Ismail, better known as Ibra, recently discovered the potential danger of such debate. On January 7, 2019, a magistrate in Naifuri, an island in northern Maldives, sentenced a 25-year-old woman to death by stoning on charges of adultery. Although the Maldives Supreme Court overturned the verdict the following day, debate continued on social media.
News Link– Expressing Religious Views is Risky in the Maldives
Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom announced on Thursday that he has made the decision to form a new political party by the name of ‘Maldives Reform Movement’. (Avas)
News Link–  New political Party
Elections Commission has decided to set ballot boxes for the upcoming Parliamentary Elections in Thailand and Bangladesh. EC has decided to also set up ballot boxes in Thailand and Bangladesh in the Parliamentary Elections slated for April 6, and opened a registry for voting in these countries. (Edition.mv)
News Link- Parliamentary elections 2019
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Ministry of National Planning and Infrastructure has enacted and published the Regulation on Construction Safety Standards. The new regulation took effect immediately with its publication on the Government Gazette last Wednesday. (Sun.mv)
News Link-  Construction Safety Standards