International Affairs

GENEVA - African countries on Friday called on the U.N. Human Rights Council to organize an urgent debate on racism and police violence, in the context of global mobilization after the death of George Floyd in the United States.

The World Bank projects Sri Lanka’s economy to contract by 3.2% this year and remain flat at zero percent next year.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, said at a press briefing that it still appears to be rare that asymptomatic individuals actually transmit onward.

China has become Sri Lanka’s prime lender overtaking traditional lenders Japan and the World Bank with Asian Development Bank befalling to second highest lender ‘s position, finance ministry data.

එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මානව හිමිකම් කොමසාරිස්වරිය පසුගියදා නිකුත් කළ නිවේදනයක් මගින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අදහස් ප්‍රකාශනයේ අයිතිය සීමා කර පුද්ගල නිදහස උල්ලංඝනය කර ඇතැයි යන ප්‍රකාශයට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නිල වශයෙන් විරෝධය පළ කර තිබේ.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet expressed alarm at the clampdown on freedom of expression in parts of the Asia-Pacific, including Sri Lanka, during the COVID-19 crisis.

දකුණු අපි‍්‍රකාවේ පැවැති කොටි සමරු උත්සවය සඳහා හිටපු මානව හිමිකම් කොමසාරිස් නවි පිල්ලේ පැමිණ ඇත්තේ කොටි ධජයේ වර්ණ ඇතුළත් සාරියක් ඇඳගෙන බව හෙළි වී ඇත.

GENEVA (Reuters): New coronavirus cases had their biggest daily increase ever as the pandemic worsens globally and has yet to peak in central America, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, urging countries to press on with efforts to contains the virus.

ඉන්දියාවේ කොවිඩ් -19 වසංගතය සමනය වනතුරු ‘ඩාවුඩ් බෝරා ප්‍රජාවේ’ ආධ්‍යාත්මික ආචාර්ය සයිඩ්නා මෆාඩාල් සයිෆුඩීන් ඇතුළු අනුගාමිකයන් හතළිස් පස්දෙනකුට මෙරටට පැමිණ රැඳී සිටීම සඳහා අවසර ලබාදෙන ලෙස ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජයෙන් කරන ලද ඉල්ලීමකට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව අනුමැතිය ලබාදී ඇත.

Researchers work in a lab at the Yisheng Biopharma company in Shenyang, in China’s northeast Liaoning province on June 10, 2020. The company is one of a number in China trying to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.

On behalf of the President and Prime Minister, Government and people of Sri Lanka, Foreign Relations, Skills Development, Employment and Labour Relations Minister Dinesh Gunawardena met the Ambassadors of Arab countries based in Colombo at the Ministry of Foreign Relations, yesterday.

China yesterday confirmed that talks were ongoing towards offering debt relief to Sri Lanka.

The US diplomatic staff adhere carefully to Sri Lankan COVID-19 guidelines including quarantine restrictions in close coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Relations, a US Embassy spokesman said.

High Commissioner of Canada to Sri Lanka David McKinnon, and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Sri Lanka Representative Ritsu Nacken yesterday signed a grant agreement of CDN$ 400,000 to ensure that vulnerable women and girls have access to vital services related to gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive health during the pandemic.

Former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva Tamara Kunanayakam has said that an US embassy official cannot be allowed to 'flout our laws and regulations and put the lives of our people at risk'.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said yesterday that it has approved a $ 3 million (over Rs. 500 million) grant from its Asia Pacific Disaster Response Fund (APDRF) to further assist Sri Lanka in its response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The United States has provided a $ 600,000 grant to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to support the critical COVID-19 response in Sri Lanka.

සිය රට එන ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයන්ගේ PCR පරීක්ෂණ ගාස්තු අය කිරීමකින් තොරව එරටදීම සිදු කිරීමට ලෙබනන් රජය තීරණය කරයි.