International Affairs

Saudi Arabia has banned international visitors from making the Islamic pilgrimage, or Hajj, this year in a bid to control coronavirus.

Developing Asia will barely grow in 2020 as containment measures to address the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic hamper economic activity and weaken external demand, according to a new set of forecasts from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

China has freed 10 Indian soldiers following a deadly clash between the two sides on Monday, according to Indian media reports.

The Norwegian Embassy in Colombo has entered into an agreement to support PAFFREL (People’s Action for Free and Fair Election) to follow health and safety regulations relating to preventing the spread of COVID-19 during the upcoming election.

NEW DELHI (Reuters): India plans to impose higher trade barriers and raise import duties on around 300 products from China and elsewhere, two government officials said, as part of an effort to protect domestic businesses.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) chief scientist said Thursday the agency hopes there will be about two billion doses of a vaccine against COVID-19 by the end of next year that would be reserved for “priority populations.”

එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ ආරක්ෂක මණ්ඩලයේ ස්ථිර නොවන සාමාජිකත්වය සඳහා තරග වැදුණු කැනඩාව, අයර්ලන්තය, සහ නෝර්වේ යන රටවල් තුන වෙනුවෙන්ම පසුගිය සතියේ පැවැති ඡන්ද විමසීමේදී ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සිය ඡන්දය භාවිත කිරීමෙන් වැළකී සිටියේය.

BEIJING (Reuters): About 20% of projects under China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to link Asia, Europe and beyond have been ‘seriously affected’ by the coronavirus pandemic, an official from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday.

The Government of Japan has given its consent to award an aid of Japanese Yen 800 million (approximately Rupees 1,360 million) for the supply of medical equipment required for strengthening the activities of prevention of COVID -19 pandemic situation within Sri Lanka.

ලොවපුරා කොරෝනා ආසාදිතයින් සංඛ්‍යාව අද (22) වනවිට ලක්‍ෂ 90 සීමාව ඉක්මවා ගොස් තිබෙනවා. ඒ අනුව ලෝකයෙන් වාර්තා වන ආසාදිතයින් සංඛ්‍යාව අනූ ලක්‍ෂ 37,950 ක්. කෙසේවෙතත් ඉන් ලක්‍ෂ 48 කට ආසන්න පිරිසක් දැනටමත් පූර්ණ සුවය ලබා අවසන්.

Forcibly displaced by drought and extremist violence in southwestern Somalia, Fadumo Mohamed Abdi thought she had found safety in the Puntland region's northeastern city of Bosaso.

China’s Chargé D’Affaires Hu Wei on Tuesday called on Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and had a fruitful discussion on jointly fighting COVID-19 and enhancing financial, trade and investment cooperation.

The High Commission of India organised a yoga session in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Army at the Headquarters of Sri Lanka Army in Colombo to mark the sixth International Day of Yoga yesterday, 21 June, 2020. Special messages from Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa were telecast on the occasion.

ජාත්‍යන්තර සත්‍යය හා යුක්තිය පිළිබඳ ව්‍යාපෘතියේ (ITJP) විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂිකා යස්මින් සූකා දෙමළ ඩයස්පෝරාව සමග එක්වී රාජ්‍ය බුද්ධි සේවාවේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ මේජර් ජෙනරාල් සුරේෂ් සලෙයිගේ මානව හිමිකම් කඩකර ඇති බැවින් ඒ ගැන සොයා බලන ලෙස ඉල්ලා නීතිඥවරුන් කණ්ඩායමක් කොළඹ පිහිටි එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ කාර්යාලය හා යුරෝපා සංගමයට ඊයේ (18 වැනිදා) පැමිණිලි කළහ.

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump engaged in interactions with various world leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping, to undermine national interests for his own political gains, according to Trump’s former National Security Adviser John Bolton.

The Cabinet this week gave approval for the Government to utilise $56 million given by the World Bank for projects to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, which will include strengthening e-education, disaster management and infrastructure support for working from home.

The United Nations General Assembly has elected India with an overwhelming majority of 184 votes out of 192 votes polled, as a non-permanent member of the Security Council for the term 2021-2022.

PARIS - When European Union leaders meet virtually for a summit Friday, a familiar duo will again grab the spotlight.