天国的嫁衣

A |     Canberra, Oct 11 (UNI) Two Australian men have been charged with bribing Sri Lankan officials to secure infrastructure contracts worth millions of dollars.
Australian police arrested the pair last month after a decade-long investigation spanning several countries, BBC reported.
The men, aged 67 and 71, worked for a company which has been accused of misconduct in South Asian countries, it said.
They are yet to respond to the charges and will face court.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) say the men arranged bribes of more than A$304,000 ($190,000) to government officials between 2009 and 2016.
The bribes were allegedly made in the pursuit of two Sri Lankan projects -- which police did not name -- worth A$14m.
The charges follow an investigation into SMEC International Pty Ltd, an Australian-based engineering firm, which involved authorities from the US, Canada, India and elsewhere, the BBC reported.
More arrests and charges are possible, the AFP said.
"Corruption undermines fair competition and can have disastrous consequences for developing economies, global anti-poverty and development efforts," Detective Supt Helen Schneider said.
Originally known as the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corp, SMEC was formed in 1949 to build an iconic Australian infrastructure project. It has since grown to employ 5,400 staff in many countries.
In 2017, the World Bank temporarily barred SMEC and four subsidiaries in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka from bidding for any of its contracts, the report said.
The World Bank said it had discovered evidence linking the company to suspected "inappropriate payments" in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
At the time, a spokesperson for SMEC said the allegations did not relate to any Australian projects, and that the company would continue to strengthen its corporate integrity compliance programmes.
Protests erupted in Sri Lanka this year over corruption allegations and the country's worst economic crisis in history, it said.
UNI MR。

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    Representatives from China and Laos attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the China-aided upgrading and renovation project of Savannakhet Secondary School in Savannakhet province, Laos, Aug. 14, 2026. (Photo by Wang Yuping/Xinhua)
A groundbreaking ceremony for the China-aided upgrading and renovation project of Savannakhet Secondary School in southern Laos' Savannakhet province was held on Friday.
Representatives from government departments and enterprises of both China and Laos attended the ceremony and jointly laid the foundation stone for the project.
In his speech, Lao Deputy Minister of Education and Sports Kingmano Phommahaxay said that the project will significantly improve the educational infrastructure of Savannakhet Secondary School, providing students with a safer and more modern learning environment. He said the project is a fruitful outcome of efforts to build a China-Laos community with a shared future.
Li Xizhen, economic and commercial counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Laos, said the school is one of 10 schools in Laos aided by China. Upon completion, the project will provide students in Savannakhet province with a more advanced and modern learning environment, helping Laos cultivate more outstanding talent.
The upgrading and renovation project has a total construction area of approximately 6,000 square meters. It will include a modern teaching building, an office building, an indoor sports hall and related supporting teaching facilities, fundamentally improving the school's educational and operating conditions.
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