内容摘要：“We have so far recovered 115 bodies and more are expected to be recovered because the flood came from far distance and washed people into the River Niger. Downstream, bodies are still being recovered,” a Niger State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) spokesman, Ibrahim Audu Husseini, told the AFP news agency. “So, the toll keeps rising.”

“We have so far recovered 115 bodies and more are expected to be recovered because the flood came from far distance and washed people into the River Niger. Downstream, bodies are still being recovered,” a Niger State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) spokesman, Ibrahim Audu Husseini, told the AFP news agency. “So, the toll keeps rising.”

Smart Beauty LLC was registered in Dubai in June 2022 - the same month L’Occitane announced its exit from Russia - and has shipped more than 900 tonnes of cosmetics to Russia, according to customs data.Dubai’s business registry does not show the identity of Smart Beauty’s owner. L’Occitane did not reply to Al Jazeera’s questions about whether it was aware of the importation of its products by its former subsidiary.

Tracing the supply chains of goods from a factory where they are produced to the shelf in Russia can be challenging as importers may use numerous intermediary companies across multiple countries.The owner of a Russian wholesale supplier of electronics who spoke on condition of anonymity told Al Jazeera that many front companies have been established in third countries specifically to organise parallel imports, sometimes by Russian importers and sometimes even by the brands themselves.“Front companies established by brands would hardly speak to a new player whom they don’t know or answer an email inquiry,” he said.

“But the relationships between brands and retailers have been developed through years. It’s very tempting to use proxies and continue business.”Western brands that have distanced themselves from Russia can be broadly categorised into three groups, said Mikhail Burmistrov, the director of the Russian think tank Infoline Analytics.

“There are those who left and actively try to prevent parallel imports,” Burmistrov told Al Jazeera.

Burmistrov said he is aware of Western companies that have threatened to blacklist Russian partners over their use of parallel imports, although he declined to name any firms.Fonseka, who starred in more than 140 films, had a career in Sinhala cinema spanning more than five decades.

“Whenever we saw her, we’d forget all the pain we had in our hearts,” said Kaluarachchi, wiping away tears. “Now, we know films aren’t real, but when we were children, we didn’t realise.”Fonseka was special, Kaluarachchi said, because of the way she represented how everyday people experienced love.

She started her career as a stage actress before making her film debut with the 1968 film Punchi Baba.Her popularity peaked in the 1970s and 1980s, as she collaborated with renowned directors, including Lester James Peries and Dharmasena Pathiraja.