Srilanka

The scroll or the traditional Sannas Pathraya declaring the Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu as a Sacred Site has been presented by President Maithripala Sirisena to the Bishop of the Diocese of Mannar Most Reverend Dr. Emmanuel Fernando at the PresidentOffice . One of the most sacred sites of Catholic devotees, the Madhu Church is venerated by Sinhala and Hindu community too. The site attracts thousands of local and international visitors especially during the annual feast. The surrounding areas had not been developed due to the prolonged armed conflict and the negligence.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement was drafted with the consent of the Attorney General and would be presented in Parliament, the Finance Ministry said today.It said the whole process and the final Agreements were done under the guidance of the Attorney General and well within the legal framework.It said in a statement that final negotiations on the Compact were conducted in October 2018 between the MCC and a Cabinet approved GoSL delegation which consisted of officials from the relevant Ministries and Government Agencies for implementing the selected projects including a representative from the Attorney GeneralDepartment.

&The Attorney General is in the opinion that Agreements are in order and there exists no legal impediment to execute same. A Cabinet Memorandum along with the final drafts of the Agreements was submitted on 31.05.2019 to the Cabinet of Ministers. The Cabinet appointed a committee for further discussions of the matters in detail. And subsequently, the Ministry of Finance submitted the Cabinet Memorandum dated 05.07.2019 seeking the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers for signing the Compact Agreement and the Program Implementation Agreement. The Cabinet of Ministers has granted its approval for signing above Agreements on 29.10.2019,& the statement added.The Ministry said the Compact Agreement and the Program Implementation Agreement would be submitted to and enacted by Parliament of Sri Lanka once it was signed and before its entry into force and would be published in the Government Gazette before submitted to Parliament.

The final result of the Presidential Election 2019 will be released by noon on November 18, Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya told news media yesterday. If a second count of preferential votes was required, then the result would be announced by the evening of that day, he said.Addressing a press conference at the Media Centre of the Election Secretariat in Rajagiriya yesterday, Deshapriya said that the counting of postal votes would start at 5.15pm on November 16 and the counting of other votes would start at 7pm.

Addressing the 18th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Baku, Azerbaijan, on October 26, Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana reaffirmed Sri Lankacommitment to the founding principles of the Non-Aligned Movement and called for the groupcollective attention to the need to address contemporary global challenges, highlighting in particular, poverty and terrorism.