International Affairs

Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena was yesterday upbeat about the number of votes received by Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and insisted the Government would not deviate from a domestic mechanism despite adoption of the resolution.

ඇමරිකාව, යුරෝපා සංගමය, බ්‍රිතාන්‍යය සහ කැනඩාව එක්ව චීනයේ,බලධාරීන් රැසකට සම්බාධක පනවා තිබේ. රොයිටර් පුවත් සේවය වාර්තා කරන්නේ ෂින් ජියෑන්ග් ප්‍රාන්තයේ උයිගුර් සුලුතරයට එරෙහිව සිදුවන මානව හිමිකම් උල්ලංඝනය වීම් පදනම් කරගෙන ගමන් තහනම් ඇතුලු මෙම සම්බාධක පනවා ඇති බවයි.

The resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will be taken up for a vote tomorrow, even as the Government stepped up efforts to shore up support internationally to defeat the move that will maintain international oversight on the island’s human rights for years to come.

Amnesty International called the UN Resolution “landmark”, saying it marked a crucial turning point on justice and accountability in Sri Lanka.

Russia has agreed to provide its Sputnik V anti COVID-19 vaccine to Sri Lanka at US9.95 dollars per dose and a purchase order for 6.5 million vaccines will be made soon, the Daily Mirror learns.

Germany will likely institute another lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which would make it the latest European country enacting fresh restrictions.

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - Officials in Pakistan confirmed Tuesday that Prime Minister Imran Khan had received a rare “message of goodwill” from his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, the latest in a series of moves signaling rapprochement between the nuclear-armed rival countries.

The dispatch of 600,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine will be handed over to the Sri Lankan side in Beijing in one week’s time, to be delivered here for roll-out, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy said.

ISLAMABAD - U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Sunday made his first visit to Afghanistan since taking up his post, as Washington considers whether to comply with a May 1 deadline for pulling out all troops from the country under a year-old deal it signed with the Taliban.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - North Korea conducted a short-range projectile launch several days ago, according to U.S. officials, in what appears to be Pyongyang's first missile-related activity this year.

The United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on top officials in Myanmar who are linked to last month's military coup, as anti-coup protesters took to the streets again, despite the regime’s violent and increasingly deadly pushback.

පාකිස්තාන අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ඉම්රාන් ඛාන්ට කොවිඩ්-19 වෛරසය ආසාදනය වී තිබේ.

ජිනීවා මානව හිමිකම් මණ්ඩලයේ 46 වන සැසිවාරයට ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇති ශ්‍රී ලංකාව පිලිබඳව යෝජනාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් වන ජන්ද විමසීම මිට සුළු මොහොතකට පෙර සම්මත වුවා.

KUALA LUMPUR - Scientists hunting the origins of the virus behind COVID-19 and clues for how to prevent the next pandemic say a growing body of evidence argues for expanding the search beyond China into Southeast Asia.

BANGKOK - Police in the Thai capital used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets Saturday night to break up a rally by pro-democracy protesters calling for the release of detained activists, constitutional changes and reform of the nation's monarchy.

OIC හෙවත් ඉස්ලාමීය සහයෝගිතාව සංවිධානයේ මහලේකම් ආචාර්ය යූසුෆ් ඔතයිමීන් තහවුරු කරන්නේ තමන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජනාධිපතිවරයා සමග දුරකතන සංවාදයක නිරත වෙමින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව හා සබඳතා පුළුල් කර ගැනීමට මෙන්ම ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වෙසෙන මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවගේ තත්ත්වය පිළිබඳව සොයා බැලීමටත් කතාබහ කළ බවය.

PARIS, AFP: The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2,710,382 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Sunday.

After two days of tense talks with his Chinese counterpart, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that despite their differences, there are places where the interests of the two nations intersect. On Saturday, China acknowledged as much, a sign of possible progress.