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MÜLHEIM AN DER RUHR, Germany — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday raised the possibility of keeping nuclear plants going as he accused Russia of blocking the delivery of a key turbine to throttle gas supplies to Europe.

The continent's biggest economy has been scrambling for energy sources to fill a gap left by a reduction in gas supplies from Moscow.

Standing next to the turbine, Scholz said that extending the lifetime of Germany's three remaining nuclear power plants "can make sense".

The power stations, which are set to be taken off the grid at the end of the year, were "relevant exclusively for electricity production, and only for a small part of it," Scholz said.

In total, the nuclear fleet accounts for 6 per cent of Germany's electricity output.

The government has said it will await the outcome of a new "stress test" of the national electric grid before determining whether to stick with the long-planned phaseout.

Nuclear switch 

Former Chancellor Angela Merkel spectacularly decided to ditch atomic energy in 2011 following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

Extending the lifetime of the plants has set off a heated debate in Germany, where nuclear power has been a source of controversy stretching back before Merkel's move.

The question has split the governing coalition, with Scholz's Social Democrats and the Greens hitherto sceptical, and the FDP favouring an extension.

Germany has already moved to restart mothballed coal power plants to guard against an energy shortfall.

The first of these was already "supplying electricity to the network", Scholz said on Wednesday, adding that Germany had to prepare for a "difficult time".

The squeeze comes as Russia dwindles supplies of gas, which Germany has long relied on to power industry and heat homes.

Russian energy giant Gazprom has chalked up limited supplies to technical issues.

The delayed return of a turbine from Canada, where the unit was being serviced, was behind the initial reduction in deliveries via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline in June, according to Gazprom.

Supplies via the energy link were further reduced to around 20 per cent of capacity in late July, after Gazprom halted the operation of one of the last two operating turbines due to the "technical condition of the engine".

Berlin has dismissed Gazprom's justifications for the reduction to supply, seeing instead a "political" move in response to the West's support for Ukraine.

The turbine which was transferred from Canada to Germany was "available and working", Scholz said Wednesday.

"There is no reason why this delivery cannot happen," he said, adding that it had received "all the approvals" needed for export from Germany to Russia.

Pipeline operators only had to say "they want to have the turbine and provide the necessary customs information for transport to Russia", Scholz said.

But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov insisted that Gazprom was still waiting for documents confirming the unit was "not affected by sanctions".

It was, however, "technologically possible" in the opinion of Russian President Vladimir Putin to continue deliveries via the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Peskov said.

The second pipeline, which runs parallel to Nord Stream 1, stands completed but was blocked by the German government in the run up to the invasion of Ukraine.

Former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who signed off on the pipeline while in office, told German magazine Stern it was "the easiest solution" to use Nord Stream 2 instead.

But Scholz has rejected the call, saying Nord Stream 1 provided sufficient capacity for gas flows.

Moscow's move to limit supplies sent a "difficult message" to the world by creating doubt over Russia's commitment to its agreements, he added.

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka offered its overseas workers the right to buy electric vehicles duty-free on Tuesday to encourage them to send money home and boost the cash-strapped nation's depleted foreign exchange reserves.

The island nation banned vehicle imports in March 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic began to hit its finances, culminating in the president's flight and resignation last month.

But in an effort to woo the more than two million Sri Lankans employed abroad, they will be exempted from the ban and allowed to bring in electric cars and motorcycles duty-free.

Before the ban, the duties would have ranged from roughly $5,000 to nearly $50,000, depending on the model.

"We are offering this never-before tax concession to encourage our expatriate community to send foreign exchange home through the legal banking system," Foreign Employment Minister Manusha Nanayakkara told reporters following Monday's Cabinet decision.

Overseas workers will only be able to use half their remitted funds for the purchase, which can have a maximum value of $65,000, he added, while those who have sent home smaller amounts can buy home appliances duty-free at the airport.

But overseas workers will have to remit their earnings through official channels to be able to benefit from the offer — and that will see them converted to Sri Lankan rupees at official rates.

Expatriates are known to be using informal means to send money home because of better exchange rates as the country's central bank is accused of keeping the rupee artificially overvalued.

Overseas remittances, once a key source of foreign exchange for the economy, have fallen by more than 50 per cent, from $3.3 billion in the first half of 2021 to $1.6 billion in the same period this year.

The financial crisis has forced Sri Lanka to default on its $51 billion foreign debt and open bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund, while essential goods such as fuel and medicines are in acutely short supply.

KYIV — The first shipment of Ukrainian grain since the Russian invasion in February left the port of Odessa on Monday morning under a landmark deal to lift Moscow's naval blockade in the Black Sea. 

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, who brokered the plan along with Turkey, welcomed the announcement while Kyiv said it would bring "relief for the world" if Moscow held up its side of the accord.

The five-month halt of deliveries from war-torn Ukraine — one of the world's biggest grain exporters — has contributed to soaring food prices, hitting the world's poorest nations especially hard.

Officials said the Razoni cargo ship, registered in Sierra Leone, was making its way through a specially cleared corridor in the mine-infested waters of the Black Sea with 26,000 tonnes of maize on board. 

"It is expected in Istanbul on August 2. It will then continue its journey after it has been inspected in Istanbul," the Turkish foreign minister said in a statement.

Other convoys would follow, respecting the maritime corridor and the agreed formalities, the statement said.

Last month, Ukraine and Russia signed the breakthrough pact — the first significant accord involving the warring sides since the invasion — with Turkey and the United Nations aimed at getting millions of tonnes of trapped Ukrainian grain to world markets.

But Russian strikes on the Odessa Port the day after the deal was signed sparked outrage from Ukraine's allies and cast doubt over the accord.

Guterres, according to a UN statement, "hopes that this will be the first of many commercial ships moving in accordance with the initiative signed, and that this will bring much-needed stability and relief to global food security, especially in the most fragile humanitarian contexts".

Ships 'waiting to leave' 

"Ensuring that existing grain and foodstuffs can move to global markets is a humanitarian imperative," he added.

Guterres also said that the World Food Programme was planning to "purchase, load and ship an initial 30,000 metric tons of wheat out of Ukraine on a UN-chartered vessel", and there would be further details in the coming days.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Monday marked a "day of relief for the world, especially for our friends in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, as the first Ukrainian grain leaves Odessa after months of Russian blockade".

The Kremlin on Monday hailed it as a "very positive" development and a "good opportunity to test the effectiveness of the mechanisms that were agreed during talks in Istanbul". 

However, the long-awaited consignment  is just the beginning of a backlog and Ukraine Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said 16 more ships were already "waiting for their turn" to leave Odessa. 

"These are the ships that were blocked from the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion," he said, adding that new requests for ships to dock and load were coming continuously.

"We are planning to reach full efficiency of shipments of agricultural products during the following weeks," he added.

The departure of the Razoni comes one day after Ukrainian agricultural magnate Oleksiy Vadatursky, 74, and his wife Raisa were killed when a missile struck their house in the battle-scarred city of Mykolaiv in the south.

Vadatursky owned major grain exporter Nibulon and was previously decorated with the prestigious "Hero of Ukraine" award.

Mykolaiv — which has been attacked frequently — is the closest Ukrainian city to the southern front where Kyiv's forces are looking to launch a major counter-offensive to recapture territory lost after Russia's February invasion.

The governor said on Monday that three people had been injured in "massive" Russian shelling overnight that damaged homes and damaged humanitarian supplies.

Despite progress on the grain exports, there was also Russian shelling in the war-scarred east of the country, where Russian troops have been fighting deeper into the Donbas region.

The head of the industrial Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko said Russian shelling over the past 24 hours had killed three people.

The Razoni's departure came after Russian authorities in the Crimean Black Sea peninsula — seized by Moscow from Ukraine in 2014 — said a small explosive device from a commercial drone, likely launched nearby, hit the navy command in Sevastopol.

The local mayor blamed "Ukrainian nationalists" for the attack that forced the cancellation of festivities marking Russia's annual holiday celebrating the navy.

Ukraine's navy accused Russia of staging the attacks as a pretext to cancel the festivities.

WASHINGTON — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Saturday that an agreement by Zambia's creditors to restructure the African country's crushing debt load has helped clear the way for the release of $1.3 billion in IMF-support funds.

Managing director Kristina Georgieva said she welcomed a statement from the Official Creditor Committee for Zambia, which has met virtually under join French-Chinese leadership with IMF and World Bank staff observing. 

Its support "for Zambia's envisaged IMF-supported programme, together with its commitment to negotiate debt restructuring terms, accordingly, provides the IMF with official financing assurances", Georgieva said. 

She said she strongly endorsed the committee's call "for private creditors and other official bilateral creditors to commit to comparable debt treatments".

The restructuring, the IMF said, should involve the same terms for creditor countries and private lenders — in exchange for Lusaka's commitment to undertake profound economic reform.

In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic battered Africa, Zambia became the first country on the continent to default on its foreign debt — estimated at $17.3 billion.

Last December, Zambia reached tentative agreement with IMF staff to provide $1.3 billion in support funds, but only if it took credible steps to reduce its debt load to levels deemed sustainable.

In a statement Saturday, Georgieva said that the IMF Executive Board could now "consider approval of a Fund-supported program for Zambia and unlock much-needed financing from Zambia's development partners".

The IMF chief added: "International partners are coming together to help countries resolve their debt issues, sending a strong signal to other countries looking to restore debt sustainability, achieve sustainable growth and poverty reduction."

Lusaka, for its part, welcomed the official progress.

Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said in a statement that Zambia was committed to implementing necessary reforms, to being transparent about its debt, and to dealing with its creditors in a fair and equitable way.

Since the election last year of President Hakainde Hichilema, the country has made progress in restoring relations with donors.