International Affairs

The poor air quality in New Delhi hit new lows Thursday when its residents woke up to an air quality index rating of 452, marking the most toxic day of the year, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board.

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.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. presidential election remained unsettled Thursday, with Democratic challenger Joe Biden nearing an Electoral College majority and President Donald Trump demanding that the vote count be stopped. Republicans are filing lawsuits alleging vote tabulation irregularities.

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."

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ප්‍රංශ තානාපති අතර අධ්‍යාපන ශිෂ්‍යත්ව, ආයෝජන සහ හම්බන්තොට වරාය පිළිබඳ සාකච්ඡාවක්

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.

WASHINGTON - The winner of the U.S. presidential election remained in doubt Wednesday, with the outcome hinging on a handful of states where a flood of mail-in ballots sparked by the coronavirus pandemic remained to be counted.

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.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan urged Western nations Wednesday to desist from using freedom of speech as an "instrument" to hurt the feelings of Muslims, warning it will lead to more radicalization and violence.

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.

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.