International Affairs

ISTANBUL - Greek and Turkish rescue efforts were continuing to find survivors late Friday after a powerful earthquake shook the Aegean Sea.

The World Health Organization says a record 2.8 million new COVID-19 cases have been reported globally over the past seven days ending Tuesday, including 40,000 new deaths.

Face coverings, social distancing and rigorous hand-washing still will be required for some time. How long depends on factors including how good the vaccines are and how long protection lasts — questions that will not be answered when the first shots arrive.

එක්සත් ජනපද රාජ්‍ය ලේකම් මයික් පොම්පෙයෝ සිය ශ්‍රී ලංකා සංචාරය අතරතුර චීනයට චෝදනා කිරීමත් සමග අන්තර්ජාතික තලයේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජයේ බැඳුම්කර වටිනාකම විශාල වශයෙන් පහත වැටී ඇත.

නිල සංචාරයක් සදහා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට පැමිණ සිටින එක්සත් ජනපද රාජ්‍ය ලේකම් මයික් පොම්පියෝ මහතා අද (28) උදැසන විදේශ කටයුතු අමාත්‍යංශයේදී පැවැත්වූ මාධ්‍ය සාකච්ජාවේදී චීනය ‘යක්ෂයකු’ට සමාන කරමින් සිදුකරන ආක්‍රමණකාරී විදේශ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් සිදුකළ විවේචනයට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ චීන තානාපති කාර්යාලයේ නිල ට්විටර් ගිණුම හරහා ප්‍රතිචාර දක්වා තිබේ.

NEW DELHI (AFP): US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in New Delhi on Monday, kicking off a four-country Asia tour that he has said would focus on the “threats” posed by China.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Thursday that U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem will now be able to list Israel as their country of birth on their passports.

මතබේදයට තුඩු දී ඇති MCC ගිවිසුම සම්බන්ධයෙන් තීරණය ගැනීමේ නිදහස ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සතු දෙයක් බව මෙරට සංචාරය කළ අමෙරිකානු රාජ්‍ය ලේකම් මයික් පොම්පියෝ මහතා පවසයි.

China yesterday issued a statement making its views clear on the upcoming visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his remarks to the effect Sri Lanka needs to make difficult but necessary decisions on its foreign relations. China also offered some advice to the US in terms of strengthening bilateral ties with Sri Lanka.

MOSCOW - Russia reported record numbers of infections and deaths from the novel coronavirus on Thursday, the latest sign that the country is again struggling to contain an outbreak that Kremlin officials only recently portrayed as largely under control.

Sri Lanka Embassy in Oman and the Export Development Board of Sri Lanka (EDB) jointly organised a B2B virtual meeting between manufacturers of fiberglass and acrylic products of the two countries.

WASHINGTON - The United States has confirmed the death of a high-ranking al-Qaida official in Afghanistan, describing it as a major setback for the group despite some initial confusion in reporting about his seniority.

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the death of al-Qaida’s Abu Muhsin al-Masri on Monday, saying U.S. forces provided support during the Afghan-led operation in the country’s eastern Ghazni province.

The White House later offered its own confirmation, praising the Afghan operation to take out al-Masri as “welcome news.”

The comments from U.S. officials come two days after Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) first announced al-Masri’s death in a tweet late Saturday, describing him initially as the number two official with the al-Qaida affiliate, al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).

The NDS also said al-Masri was close to al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, and that he had been living in Afghanistan under Taliban protection.

In response to the tweets from Afghanistan’s NDS, U.S. National Counterterrorism Center Director Christopher Miller told the Reuters News Agency late Saturday that the killing of al-Masri “is a major setback” for al-Qaida, though he declined to share additional details.

But multiple U.S. and international counterterrorism officials tell VOA that while still significant, al-Masri’s death is not the blow that has been depicted in some accounts.

Specifically, they say reports that indicate al-Masri was second in line to Zawahiri are wrong, confusing him with another al-Qaida official who sometimes uses the al-Masri alias.

They say the al-Masri killed in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province is Abu Muhsin al-Masri, also known as Husam Abd al-Ra’uf, a senior leader who most recently had been assigned to work with the Taliban on operational cooperation and the coordination of safe havens for al-Qaida fighters.

කොරෝනා වසංගත තත්ත්වයේදී චීනය ලංකාවට කළ ආධාර උපකාර පිළිබඳව සහ චීන – ශ්‍රී ලංකා මිතු දම පිළිබඳව සිංහල භාෂාවෙන් වීඩියෝවක් නිකුත් කර තිබේ.

NEW DELHI (Reuters): The United States and India must work together to confront the threat posed by China to security and freedom, U.S. Secretary Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday, as he prepared for talks with Indian leaders.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a news conference organized by Geneva Association of United Nations Correspondents (ACANU) amid the COVID-19 outbreak, caused by the novel coronavirus, in Geneva, July 3, 2020.

Cabinet has approved a proposal to enter into several agreements with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) seeking nearly $ 565 million in loans.

United States (U.S.) Secretary of State Michael R.Pompeo arrived in Sri Lanka yesterday (27) for a brief visit.

කොවිඩ්-19 වසංගතයට මුහුණ දීම සඳහා සමාජ ආරක්ෂණය ශක්තිමත් කළ යුතු බව එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ ආසියානු හා පැසිෆික් සමාජ හා ආර්ථික කොමිසමේ (UNESCAP) ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිත්‍ය නියෝජිත තානාපති සමන්තා කේ. ජයසූරිය මහත්මිය පුකාශ කළාය.