International Affairs

Russia has expressed its willingness to allow Sri Lanka to produce its own Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V locally if the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) authorises it for local use, a senior state official said. The Sputnik V vaccine is already being manufactured in India and those two countries signed agreements last year to produce 300 million doses of the Russian vaccine in Indian laboratories.

A vaccine war has erupted between Britain and the European Union with Brussels demanding that tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses earmarked for Britain, and made by a British pharmaceutical company, be diverted to Europe to make up for a shortfall in promised deliveries.

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called on states on Wednesday to impose “targeted sanctions” on former Sri Lankan military commanders implicated in alleged war crimes during the final years of a 26-year civil war that ended in 2009.

JERUSALEM - In the first large-scale, controlled data outside clinical trials, the two-dose Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is showing 92 percent effectiveness, according to Israeli health officials. It’s good news for Pfizer, which says the vaccine also appears to work against the British mutation of COVID-19.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged China and the United States on Thursday to "reset" relations, suggesting they cooperate on common interests such as fighting climate change.

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Joe Biden signed a series of actions Wednesday to combat climate change, saying they will restore “scientific integrity and evidence-based policymaking” across the U.S. government.

Scientists with the World Health Organization’s team investigating the source of the coronavirus that has infected more than 102 million people worldwide and killed more than 2.2 million have visited one of the hospitals in Wuhan, China, that treated some of the first patients.

The Foreign Ministers of Sri Lanka and the Philippines have agreed to focus on new strategies to further strengthen the existing economic, political, social and international relations between the two countries.

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - In a dramatic turn of events, a man convicted and later acquitted in the 2002 killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl admitted a "minor" role in his death, upending 18 years of denials, the Pearl family lawyer said Wednesday.

European Union regulators on Friday approved the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, the third vaccine approved for use on the European continent.

The United Nations has made public a damning report on Sri Lanka and has proposed targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes and travel bans against credibly alleged perpetrators of grave human rights violations and abuses.

කොවිඩ්-19 සඳහා චීන රජයෙන් එන්නත් මාත්‍රා ලක්ෂ 3ක් පරිත්‍යාගයක් ලෙස ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ලබාදෙන බව මෙරට චීන තානාපති කාර්යාලය පවසයි.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a bill extending the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between Russia and the United States a week before the pact was set to expire.

In a controversial move the Sri Lankan government has decided to commence dipomatic ties with Liechtenstein, a Central European country with a population of less than 40,000.

A level playing field and working with divers’ partners could see more beneficial foreign investment come in to Sri Lanka, US Ambassador for Sri Lanka and Maldives Alaina B. Teplitz said yesterday.

SYDNEY (Reuters): New Zealand, Vietnam and Taiwan rank the top three in a COVID Performance Index of almost 100 countries for their successful handling of the coronavirus pandemic, with Britain and America near the bottom of the pile.

The European Union (EU) and Sri Lanka held their 23rd meeting of the Joint Commission on 25 January, via video conference.

The World Health Organization director-general on Tuesday continued to press his case against what he calls "vaccine nationalism,” saying poor countries have had to “watch and wait,” while wealthy nations forge ahead with vaccination programs.