International Affairs

The government's proposal to appoint former Chief Justice Mohan Peiris as the new Sri Lankan ambassador and Permeant Representative for the United Nations has been approved by the Committee on High Posts.

Sri Lanka will push for high level discussions with the European Union (EU) Commission to resolve issues pertaining to Country of Origin criteria under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) to support exporters to reap the maximum benefit of the agreement.

GENEVA - The United States is among 14 countries whose human rights records will be examined under the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review. The two-week session, which opens Monday, will be held both in-person and remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic.

India has pledged continuing support to further strengthen defence corporation with Sri Lanka.

LONDON - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is defending plans to impose a nationwide lockdown beginning Thursday, warning that a failure to act could cause up to twice as many deaths this winter as during the first wave in the spring.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced Sunday his government had decided to give “provisional provincial” status to part of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has surpassed 1.2 million people as many countries around the world contend with rising infection rates from the virus.

WHITE HOUSE - On his final day of campaigning to try to convince voters to allow him to remain U.S. president for another four years, Donald Trump declared that in his second term, "we will drain the Washington swamp and we will save the American dream."

බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය සම්පූර්ණයෙන් වසා දැමීමේ තීරණය මේ වන විට ස්ථීර වී තිබෙනවා. අග‍්‍රාමාත්‍ය බොරිස් ජොන්සන් පැවසුවේ බ‍්‍රහස්පතින්දා සිට සති 04ක කාළයකට වසා දැමීමට සිදු වන බවයි. ඊට හේතුව වී ඇත්තේ බි‍්‍රතාන්‍යයෙන් වාර්තාවන කොරෝනා ආසාදිතයින්ගේ සංඛ්‍යාව මිලියනය ඉක්මවා යාමයි.

Election polls began closing in the U.S. Tuesday night, with Republican President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, waiting for officials to release the first vote counts in their highly contested race for a four-year term in the White House.

කොරෝනා වෛරසය ආසාදනය වූ පුද්ගලයෙකුගේ ආශ්‍රීතයෙක් ලෙස තමන්ද හඳුනා ගෙන ඇති බව ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානයේ අධ්‍යක්ෂක ජනරාල්වරයා වන Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus ප්‍රකාශ කර සිටිනවා. කෙසේ වුවත් තමන් මේ වන විට යහපත් සෞඛ්‍ය තත්ත්වයෙන් පසුවෙන බවත් කිසිදු රෝග ලක්ෂණයක් පෙන්නුම් නොකරන බවයි ඔහු වැඩිදුරටත් සඳහන් කර සිටින්නේ.

Chinese technical experts, who have been rushed to Sri Lanka, have identified the technical fault of the malfunctioning PCR testing machine at the Base Hospital in Mulleriyawa. After a 10-hour operation the experts concluded that the machine would able to resume operation on Monday, the Chinese embassy said.

කොවිඩ් -19 පිළිබඳ විශිෂ්ට පැහැදිලි කිරීමකි මෙය ප්‍රයෝජනවත් වේ යැයි බලාපොරොත්තු වෙමු.

Bloomberg: Sri Lanka has tumbled from best to worst in Asia’s dollar bond market, underscoring how fast the pandemic can chill sentiment toward weaker emerging-market assets.

ATHENS - Rescue teams on both sides of the Aegean Sea searched Saturday through crushed buildings and concrete rubble, pulling out at least 27 dead and hundreds more injured after a powerful earthquake toppled buildings in the Turkish city of İzmir and created sea surges on at least two Greek islands.

Exporters will fall victim to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) by the end of this year.

Export Development Board (EDB) Chief Prabhash Subasinghe last week called on the export community to capitalise on their high quality products and ethical practices to reap the maximum of the European Union (EU) Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) and use it as a game changer to pivot to related business sectors in the post-COVID era.

WASHINGTON - As the November 3 U.S. elections draw closer, opinion polls show presidential challenger Joe Biden is leading the incumbent, Donald Trump, by about 7 percentage points nationally.