International Affairs

Two Singaporeans, including a suspect who funded Zahran Hashim, the alleged mastermind and one of the suicide bombers in the Easter terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka, has been arrested in Singapore.

The British Government has launched an investigation after Sri Lankan authorities said they would send back more than a hundred shipping containers because they appeared to contain human remains disguised as recyclable metals, the Telegraph reported yesterday.

Sri Lanka is lagging behind Uganda, a low income country in financial information and due diligence reporting standards, Committee on Public Finance (COPF) in its latest report revealed.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly Clément Nyaletsossi Voulé paid a courtesy call on Northern Province Governor Dr. Suren Raghavan on 24 July in Colombo.

President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have congratulated the United Kingdom’s new Prime Minister Boris Johnson who took office after winning the ruling Conservative Party’s leadership contest yesterday.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා දුම්රිය සේවයට එක් කිරීම සඳහා එස් - 13 ද්විත්ව බලවේග කට්ටලයක් සහ එම් - 11 එන්ජිමක් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ගෙන්වා තිබෙනවා. මේ වනවිට මෙම එස් - 13 ද්විත්ව බලවේග කට්ටලය සහ එම් - 11 එන්ජිම කොළඹ වරායට ගොඩබා තිබෙන බවයි ප්‍රවාහන හා සිවිල් ගුවන් සේවා අමාත්‍යංශය පවසන්නේ. ඉන්දීය ණය ආධාර යටතේ මේවා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ගෙන්වා තිබෙනවා.

Another controversial waste recycling deal involving the importation of used mattresses between a French company and an unidentified local firm has come light following the leak of e mail communication with relevant parties recently.

Cabinet approval has been granted to exempt 46 countries from visa fees, said Tourism and Christian Affairs Minister John Amaratunge.

A security delegation of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) would visit Pakistan in August to conduct a security assessment to seek the possibility of playing the upcoming two-match Test series, foreign news agencies reported yesterday.

යුරෝපා සංගමයේ රටවල් ඇතුළු තවත් රටවල් 24ක් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට පැමිණෙන සංචාරකයන් සඳහා 'පැමිණීමේදී ලබාදෙන සංචාරක වීසා' (On Arrival Visa) නිකුත් කිරීමට කැබිනට් අනුමැති හිමිව තිබේ.

An Australian Government charter plane carrying failed Sri Lankan asylum seekers left Christmas Island for Colombo today, just days after their vessel was intercepted in the Indian Ocean.

The Korea-South Asia Inter-Parliamentary Diplomacy Forum, initiated by Republic of Korea Speaker of the National Assembly Moon Hee Sang, was launched at the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea on 18 July, with the intention of strengthening Inter-Parliamentary Diplomacy with the South Asian countries.

Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana today rejected concerns raised over the visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on the freedom of assembly and of association, Clément Nyaletsossi Voulé.

ඇමරිකානු ආරක්‍ෂක දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට අයත් හමුදා නිලධාරීන් සහ සිවිල් සේවකයන් ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාව තුළ තාවකාලිකව රැුඳී සිටින්නේ ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා රජයේ ඇරයුම මත බව ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිනි ඇලෙයිනා ටෙප්ලිස්ට් මුල්වරට පිළිගෙන ඇත.

The High-Level Forum on sustainable development and the High Level Segment of Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) meeting was held from 8 to 19 July at the United Nations (UN) Head Quarters in New York and this important event was attended by over 125 heads of states or their representatives and over 2,000 participants from countries with representative of development partners, academia and civil society representatives. The theme of the Forum for the year 2019 was on empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality.

ලොව ප්‍රධානතම වහාබ්වාදයේ ප්‍රවර්ධකයන් වන “මුස්ලිම් ලෝක ලීගය” (MWL) ශ්‍රී ලංකා රාජ්‍ය නායකයන්ට හා ආගමික නායකයන්ට සාමය උගැන්වීමට මෙම විශේෂ “මහා සමුළුව” සංවිධානය කර තිබේ. එය මේ මස (ජූලි 30දා) කොළඹ නෙළුම් පොකුණ රඟහළේ දී රඟ දැක්වීමට මේ වනවිටත් සියලු කටයුතු සූදානම් කර අවසන් ය.

Air India has announced the launch of Mumbai-Colombo from September and will resume its second daily flight to Colombo from New Delhi.

For business travellers to New Delhi, the second frequency enables them greater flexibility in their business schedules.

“These flights also will now offer a spectrum of both International and Domestic flight connections to many destinations via New Delhi and Mumbai.

Air India passengers with onward travel from Delhi or Mumbai can experience the comfort of flying on Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Europe and Boeing 777 to America,” a spokesman for Indu Sky Aviation Ltd., the General Sales Agent for Air India, said.

Air India will also commence Delhi-Toronto flights on the occasion of World Tourism Day on 27 September.

Additional frequencies also being introduced with effect from 19 September from Delhi to Seoul and Mumbai to Hong Kong.

The following new and additional connections are introduced for the Domestic network: From Delhi to Indore, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Bagdogra, Amritsar, Bhopal and Raipur and from Chennai to Bangalore, Ahmadabad, Varanasi, Kolkata, Vizag and from Mumbai to Delhi, Bangalore.

Air India said after a five-month hiatus, the Pakistan airspace is once more open for commercial aviation and all affinity flights of Air India to London, Birmingham, Paris, Milan, Rome, Frankfurt, Madrid, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Tel Aviv, and Vienna are now just one hour to 90 minutes connecting time via the Delhi hub, with no longer layovers.

Japan continues its Grant Assistance for Grass-roots Human Security Projects (GGP) in Sri Lanka providing financial assistance to non-profit, development-oriented organizations to support community development projects.