Australia will join Sri Lanka in its war on dengue fever, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Wednesday, as the virus has claimed a record 250 lives and infected nearly 100,000 people in the South Asian country this year. Sri Lanka has deployed hundreds of troops to destroy mosquito breeding grounds as it battles to control … Read more
International aid arrived into Sri Lanka on Wednesday as the death toll from the island’s worst floods and landslides in well over a decade climbed to 202. Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake said 16 countries had rushed relief supplies and medicine to assist more than 600,000 people driven from their homes following Friday’s monsoon deluge. “We … Read more
India joined Sri Lanka’s relief operation Saturday as 230,000 people were driven from their homes after an intense monsoon deluge killed at least 103 people. Rainfall on Friday triggered the worst flooding and landslides in 14 years in the southern and western parts of the island, authorities said. The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said 103 … Read more
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena announced his first cabinet reshuffle Monday, switching his finance and foreign ministers as he resists mounting pressure from a breakaway faction in his own party. Sirisena swapped the portfolios held by Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera in a shake up aimed at quelling dissent within the … Read more
Sri Lanka Monday vowed to honour government bonds of up to 1,780 billion rupees ($11.86 billion) even as the central bank admitted “procedural shortcomings” in state-issued securities. Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake hastily summoned reporters to announce that Sri Lanka will meet its domestic debt repayment commitments despite legal issues uncovered during a recent insider trading … Read more