International Affairs

කෝවිඩ් 19 හෙවත් නව කොරෝනා වෛරසය හේතුවෙන් අමෙරිකාවේ ප‍්‍රාන්ත 23 කට හදිසි තත්ත්වයක් ප‍්‍රකාශයට පත් කර තිබෙනවා.

Sri Lanka is expecting to tackle debt servicing issue by borrowings of more than a billion US dollars from China Development Bank, which may be finalized within weeks, Central Bank Deputy Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe told a media conference in Colombo today Thursday 05.

2020 පෙබරවාරි 19 - 26 අතර සතියක කාලය තුළ විදෙස් ආයෝජකයින් විසින් රජයේ සුරැකුම්පත් සඳහා යොදවා තිබුණු රුපියල් බිලියන 11.42ක ආයෝජන ඉවත් කරගෙන තිබෙන බව වාර්තා වේ.

Workers wearing protective gear disinfect as a precaution against the new coronavirus at the subway station in Seoul, South Korea, March 11, 2020.

The World Health Organization determined Wednesday that the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak is now a pandemic and warned that the worst is likely yet to come.

"In the past two weeks, the number of of COVID-19 infections outside China has increased 13-fold, and the number of affected countries has tripled,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday.

Tedros said WHO is “deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction.

"In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of COVID-19 cases, the number of deaths, and the number of affected countries to climb even higher," he said.

Governments around the world are trying to take steps to address the ever-changing outbreak of the new coronavirus, which, since December, has infected more than 118,000 people and killed about 4,300 in 114 countries.

Tedros said his organization has “rung the alarm bell loud and clear,” and that countries “can still change the course of this pandemic.”

He said 90% of all coronavirus cases are limited to only four countries, and that two of them, China and South Korea, “have significantly declining epidemics.”

The virus, known officially as COVID-19, first emerged in China, where health officials Wednesday reported 24 new cases.

While the increase represents a sustained decline from the height of the outbreak in China, the country where the government puts cities on lockdown to prevent inter-community spread is now dealing with an increase in the number of cases arriving from other nations.

That prompted officials in Beijing to order anyone arriving to go into a 14-day quarantine.

Italy follows China's playbook

Italy has followed China's playbook after becoming a secondary center of the outbreak with more than 10,000 reported cases so far and cases in numerous other countries linked to people who traveled from Italy. Italians were under a second day of a nationwide lockdown Wednesday with people only able to move around for urgent health and work reasons.

The coronavirus threat prompted German Chancellor Angela Merkel to warn Wednesday that up to 70-percent of Germany’s population could eventually be infected if current conditions continue. Nearly 1,300 people have been infected so far in Germany and two others have died.

Officials in the United States are showing increased concern as the number of cases there surpassed 1,000.

When asked at a congressional hearing Wednesday if the worst of the outbreak has yet to materialize, U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci responded, “I can say we will see more cases and things will get worse than they are right now.”

The congressional hearing was cut short when President Donald Trump called an emergency meeting at the White House, Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney announced before opening the hearing.

US outbreak pockets

There are pockets of outbreaks in the western state of Washington, where the governor is expected to announce a ban on gatherings of more than 250 people, and across the country in New York where that state's governor is instituting an isolation zone around a community with more than 100 reported cases.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser Wednesday blamed China for squandering a chance to get ahead of the outbreak.

High Commissioner-designate of Sri Lanka to the UK Saroja Sirisena assumed duties on 2 March. She was received upon arrival at the London Heathrow Airport by the Special Representative of the UK Foreign Secretary Kathryn Colvin.

Indian Shipping Minister M. Mandaviya said that the shipping service between India and Sri Lanka will commence soon. He said that the first stage of the service would be a luxury ferry service between Kankasanthurai in Jaffna and Sidambaranagar in Tamil Nadu, India. He said a shipping service between Talaimannar and India’s Rameswaran will commence under the second stage.

Vietnam has pledged to facilitate the operation of foreign businesses, including those from Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka India Society celebrates India’s 71st Republic Day and Sri Lanka’s 72nd Independence Day

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena has made a last ditch effort to pacify UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet explaining the island nations Government’s already tainted commitment to achieving accountability and human rights.

යුද අපරාධ චෝදනා එල්ලවූ ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ හමුදා නිලධාරීන් 58 කට බි‍්‍රතාන්‍යයේ සංචාරයේ යෙදීම තහනම් කිරීම සඳහාවූ නව නීතිරීති ලබන මාසයේදී බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය පාර්ලිමේන්තුව වෙත ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට නියමිතය.

Sri Lanka has accused a UN Rapporteur of unfair judgement of the space for freedom of religion or belief in Sri Lanka through the few months that followed the Easter Sunday attacks.

More Sri Lankans will get opportunities to find employment in Israel under a bilateral agreement between the two countries marking a milestone in the bilateral relation between the two countries.

The British government has announced its intension to establish a UK autonomous Global Human Rights ('Magnitsky-style') sanctions regime against Sri Lanka and high level government officials over alleged human rights violations, FCO Minister of State Nigel Adams.

ජිනීවා යෝජනාවෙන් ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා රජය ඉවත්වීම ගැන රටවල් 31 ක් එරෙහි වී ඇත.

Sri Lanka and Israel marking a historical landmark in the bilateral relations between the countries signed a bilateral agreement on the Temporary Employment of Sri Lankan workers in specific Labour Market Sectors in Israel at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel in Jerusalem on February 24, a release issued by the Foreign Relations Ministry said.

හමුදාපති ශවේන්ද්‍ර සිල්වාට එරෙහිව ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා රජය කි‍්‍රයා නොකිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය රජය මෙරටට සම්බාධක පැනවීමට අදහස් කර ඇත.

Fifty more houses are to be built in a plantation area in Galle under the Indian Government raided 14,000 houses programme in remote villages for the benefit of the poor people without shelter of their own.

The Government will soon ink a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with India to develop the Jaffna International Airport, a top Minister confirmed.