Dehiwala Police has initiated an investigation after Blue-and-Yellow Macaw was stolen from the Dehiwala National Zoo on June 04.

The incident came to light when a zookeeper, while reporting for duty the next morning, discovered the lock of the bird enclosure had been broken. Upon inspection and notification to senior zoo officials, it was confirmed that one of the Macaws housed in the aviary was missing.

CCTV footage from a nearby shop captured a picture of the suspected thief and police investigations have commenced after a formal complaint lodged by the Dehiwala Zoo’s security division.

The stolen bird is estimated to be worth over Rs. 500,000.

On August 08, 2021, another Blue-and-Yellow Macaw from the same enclosure was reported missing and later recovered from a residence in Ratmalana.

China and Sri Lanka have taken steps to deepen economic and trade cooperation, signing key agreements and exploring additional investment opportunities during the eighth meeting of the China-Sri Lanka Joint Trade and Economic Commission held on May 29th in Colombo, the Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka says.

“China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and Sri Lankan Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Co-operative Development Wasantha Samarasinghe co-chaired the meeting, during which both sides exchanged in-depth views on advancing high-quality Belt and Road Initiative cooperation, expanding trade and investment, and safeguarding the multilateral trading system,” the embassy’s X account states.

Two MoUs were signed following the talks- one on setting up a trade facilitation working group, and the other on industrial and supply chain cooperation, the embassy adds.

A new round of talks aimed at resolving a trade war between the US and China is set take place in London on Monday.

US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that a senior US delegation would meet Chinese representatives. Over the weekend, Beijing confirmed that Vice Premier He Lifeng will attend the talks.

The announcements came after Trump and China’s leader Xi Jinping had a phone conversation last week, which the US president described as a “very good talk”.

Last month, the world’s two biggest economies agreed a temporary truce to lower import taxes on goods being traded between them, but since then both countries have accused the other of breaching the deal.

Writing on his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would meet Chinese officials in London on Monday.

On Saturday, China’s foreign ministry said Vice Premier He would be in the UK between 8 and 13 June, and that a meeting of the “China-US economic and trade mechanism” would take place.

The new round of negotiations came after Trump said his phone conversation with Xi on Thursday mainly focused on trade and had “resulted in a very positive conclusion for both countries”.

According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, Xi told Trump that the US should “withdraw the negative measures it has taken against China”.

The call was the first time the two leaders had spoken since the trade war erupted in February.

When Trump announced sweeping tariffs on imports from a number of countries earlier this year, China was the hardest hit. Beijing responded with its own higher rates on US imports, and this triggered tit-for-tat increases that peaked at 145%.

In May, talks held in Switzerland led to a temporary truce that Trump called a “total reset”.

It brought US tariffs on Chinese products down to 30%, while Beijing slashed levies on US imports to 10% and promised to lift barriers on critical mineral exports.

The agreement gave both sides a 90-day deadline to try to reach a trade deal.

The latest data released by Bejing on Monday showed China’s exports in May were lower than analysts expected, despite the truce.

China’s exports in dollar terms increased by 4.8% compared to the same time last year.

At the same time imports dropped by 3.4%, which was much worse than the 0.9% fall predicted.

But since then, relations appeared to have soured. Last month, Trump said China had “totally violated its agreement with us”, and then a few days later China said the US had “severely violated” the agreement.

The US accused China of failing to restart shipments of critical minerals and rare earth magnets vital to car and computer industries.

On Saturday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said it had approved some applications for rare earth export licences, although it did not provide details of which countries involved.

The announcement came after Trump said on Friday that Xi had agreed to restart trade in rare earth materials.

Bu speaking on Sunday, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CBS News that “those exports of critical minerals have been getting released at a rate that is, you know, higher than it was, but not as high as we believe we agreed to in Geneva”.

(BBC News)