International Affairs

NEW YORK - The U.N. General Assembly will vote Friday to give rotating seats on the powerful 15-nation Security Council to five countries.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has responded positively to a request made by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to supply 600,000 doses of the Astra Zeneca vaccines to Sri Lanka's Health Ministry, sources within the President's office said.

BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand launched a mass COVID-19 vaccination drive yesterday as it seeks to beat a third wave of infections and reboot its vital tourism industry, which has been devastated by pandemic travel curbs.

ඉන්දියාවේ පෞද්ගලික රෝහල් කොවිඩ් එන්නත් ලබා දීමේ දී අය කළ හැකි උපරිම මිල නියම කිරීමට රජය පියවර ගෙන තිබේ.

Switzerland said it expresses solidarity with Sri Lanka in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and yesterday delivered over half a million antigen tests, 50 ventilators, 150 oxygen concentrators as well as other medical examination materials worth of Rs. 800 million.

Reuters: Meghan, Britain’s Duchess of Sussex, has given birth to her second child, a girl, whom she and husband Prince Harry have named after Queen Elizabeth and his late mother Princess Diana.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has assured Sri Lanka continued support at the United Nations (UN).

Sri Lanka has congratulated the Maldives for being elected as the President of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

In a nationwide address Monday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the federal government would take a larger role in obtaining vaccines for Indian states.

X-Press Feeders, operators of the container ship X-Press Pearl insisted that there were no confirmed reports of an oil spill from the ship as of last evening.

While coronavirus infection rates and hospitalizations continue to plummet across the United States, the White House COVID-19 Response Team said Tuesday the Delta variant strain of the virus that causes the disease still poses a threat, particularly among the younger population.

Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Lebanon and South Africa have previously enabled similar moves in their efforts to save lives and reduce COVID cases
Malaysia has joined scores of other countries in allowing the private purchase of WHO-approved vaccines in a bid to save lives and stop the rapid spread of COVID-19.

The European Parliament gave final approval Wednesday to the COVID-19 digital certificate — a smart phone app that European Union citizens can use to travel freely among European countries without having to quarantine or undergo extra tests.

ආරක්ෂක අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ඇස් වසා සමන්තාගේ බැටෑලියන් එක මෙරටට ඇතුළු වූ විදිහ එළිවේ

Several Bangladesh media outlets over the weekend reported that the country hasn’t yet reached a deal on the commercial purchase of COVID-19 vaccine Sinopharm quoting Chinese officials.

LONDON - Leaders of the G-7 group of industrialized nations meet this weekend in Britain, with an agenda topped by the global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, taxation, and the challenges posed by Russia and China.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov who had a telephone conversation with his Sri Lankan counterpart Dinesh Gunawardane said Russia was fully cooperative of the initiative to co-produce its Sputnik V vaccine here and asked the Sri Lankan authorities to expedite the process.

චීනයේ ගුවැන්ෂූ නගරයේ නව කොරෝනා පොකුරක් පැතිර යමින් තිබෙනවා. විදෙස් වාර්තා සදහන් කළේ මේ හේතුවෙන් එම නගරයේ මහ පරිමාණ කොවිඩ් පරීක්ෂණ වැඩසටහනක් ආරම්භ කර ඇති බවයි. ගුවැන්ෂූ නගරයෙන් වාර්තා වන නව කොවිඩ් පොකුරෙන් මේ වන විට ආසාදිතයින් 73 දෙනෙකු හදුනාගෙන තිබෙනවා.