International Affairs

NEW YORK - The U.N. secretary-general said Thursday that the damage COVID-19 has done globally will not be undone by a vaccine alone, and that a full recovery will take years, possibly decades.

The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for widespread use.

ISLAMABAD - The pachyderm dubbed the “world’s loneliest elephant” arrived in Cambodia Monday, following his rescue from a Pakistani zoo.

The World Health Organization's (WHO’s) European director Thursday called Britain’s approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine “phenomenal” but urged Europeans to remain vigilant.

India will take several meaningful steps to narrow the trade gap between the two countries, said Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Republic of India Nirmala Sitharaman, who was the guest of Honour at the opening day of the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2020 yesterday.

PARIS - As French authorities prepare to roll out their COVID immunization strategy this week, they face skepticism in a country where surveys show many people do not trust the vaccine.

European Union member states will lose their technology-led supremacy unless they are prepared to invest more in innovation and development, the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell has told Euronews.

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has announced its Chang'e-5 spacecraft, designed to collect lunar samples and return them to Earth, successfully landed on the near side of the moon.

සියලුම රාජ්‍යයන් අනාගත ආර්ථික සංවර්ධනය, ආහාර සුරක්‍ෂිතතාව සහ කර්මාන්ත අමුද්‍රව්‍ය සඳහා වැඩි වැඩියෙන් සාගර දෙසට යොමුවී සිටින හෙයින්, සාගර නීතියේ ආධිපත්‍යය තහවුරු කරන ජාත්‍යන්තරව පිළිගත හැකි පාලන ක්‍රමයක් පැවතීමේ වැදගත්කම පිළිබඳව සමුද්‍රීය ආරක්ෂාව හා සුරක්ෂිතභාවය පිළිබඳ ඉන්දීය සාගර කලාපීය සංගමයේ අවධානය යොමුව තිබේ.

NEW YORK - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that “the planet is broken” and made an urgent appeal for a course correction to avert a climate catastrophe.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Tuesday it expects the global economy to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic next year and grow as much as 4.2%.

Coronavirus infections in England have fallen by about a third over lockdown, according to a major study.

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - Delegates of warring sides in Afghanistan announced Wednesday they had agreed on a framework for their peace negotiations aimed at ending the country’s protracted conflict.

වෙළඳ, ආර්ථික, සංස්කෘතික හා මානුෂීය ක්ෂේත්‍රයන්හි අන්‍යෝන්‍ය වශයෙන් වාසිදායක සහයෝගීතාව තවදුරටත් පුළුල් කිරීමට අධිෂ්ඨාන කරගෙන සිටින බව රුසියානු ජනාධිපති වැල්ඩ්මීර් පුටින් මහතා සඳහන් කළේය.

GENEVA - The World Health Organization is urging people to get moving and keep moving for better health. The U.N. health agency says physical activity can avert the deaths of up to 5 million people annually.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $400 million loan to support the Government of Sri Lanka in transforming its secondary education system to align with the demand for highly skilled and agile workers who can compete in the rapidly changing global economy.

LONDON, AFP: London Police said yesterday they have launched an investigation into alleged war crimes by British mercenaries who trained a security force accused of brutalising Tamil people during Sri Lanka’s civil war.

ඉන්දු - ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා ආරක්ෂක සහයෝගීතාව පිළිබඳ ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා සහ ඉන්දියාවේ ජාතික ආරක්ෂක උපදේශක අජිත් දොවාල් අතර සාකච්ජා පවත්වා තිබෙනවා. පෙරේදා ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවට පැමිණි ඉන්දියාවේ ජාතික ආරක්ෂක උපදේශක අජිත් දොවාල්, ජනාධිපති කාර්යාලයේදී ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ඊයේ පස්වරුවේ හමු වුණා.