The Prime Minister made these remarks while attending the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia (RIMES), held on Thursday [8th May] at the Cinnamon Life Hotel in Colombo. The conference was organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation.

RIMES was established on 30th April 2009 to facilitate hazard monitoring, risk assessment, risk communication, and the application of risk information in decision-making among countries in Africa and Asia.

Addressing the event, the Prime Minister further stated:

“The proposal to host the Fourth Ministerial Conference of RIMES in Sri Lanka was first put forward and seconded during the Third Ministerial Conference held in Papua New Guinea in 2017. Although this important gathering could not take place until now due to various challenges, including the global COVID-19 pandemic and Sri Lanka’s economic crisis, we are grateful to all institutions—especially RIMES, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation, the Department of Irrigation, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment & Tourism—for their unwavering support in making this event a reality.

Among natural disasters, the 2004 tsunami stands out as the most devastating in recent memory, claiming nearly 40,000 lives. The economic and social repercussions of this tragedy continue to reverberate, and the emotional trauma endured by children who lost parents, and siblings who lost each other, is a pain that words can hardly convey — one that still endures.

In this context, the role of RIMES is truly invaluable. Its efforts have significantly contributed to protecting Sri Lankan society from disaster risks and supporting the country’s journey towards sustainable and resilient development. I wish RIMES continued success in its mission, and I reaffirm our commitment to strengthening our collaboration for the benefit of both Sri Lanka and the broader global community.”

The event was attended by Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation . K.D. Lal Kantha, Deputy Minister  Namal Karunarathne, ambassadors, representatives of RIMES member countries, representatives from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, and officials from relevant ministries.

[Prime Minister’s Media Division]

A discussion on the upcoming series of religious events scheduled to be held at the Sithulpawwa and Tissamaharama Raja Maha Viharayas was held on Thursday (08) at the Presidential Secretariat under the patronage of Secretary to the President, Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake.

During the discussion, the Chief Incumbents of the Sithulpawwa and Tissamaharama temples requested the Secretary to the President to provide necessary facilities for the large number of devotees expected to attend the events.

Venerable Lelwala Samitha Thero, the Viharadhikari of Sithulpawwa Raja Maha Viharaya, specifically requested that steps be taken to immediately repair the road from Kataragama to Sithulpawwa.

Accordingly, Secretary to the President Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake instructed the relevant officials to take the necessary measures to ensure the successful organization of the Poson religious events at both Sithulpawwa and Tissamaharama Raja Maha Viharayas.

The discussion was attended by Venerable Dr. Dewalegama Dhammasena Thero, Chief Incumbent of Tissamaharama Viharaya, Senior Additional Secretary to the President Roshan Gamage, Hambantota District Secretary, Bimal Indrajith Silva and several heads of relevant government institutions.

United States Cardinal Robert Prevost has been elected the first US pontiff in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church and has taken the name Pope Leo XIV.

Pope Leo made his first public appearance to impart a blessing from the roofed area of St Peter’s Basilica. In his first public words, Pope Leo told the faithful “peace be with all of you”. He emphasised the theme of peace throughout the address.

“Evil will not prevail; we are in the hands of God,” he told the crowd and a global audience. “So without fear, united hand in hand with God and among ourselves, we go forward.”

“Thank you, Pope Francis,” he added.

The new church leader called for a “missionary church…that builds bridges, is always open to welcome everyone”.

“He is clearly setting the tone for his papacy,” Al Jazeera Hoda Abdel-Hamid reported from Vatican City.

“He also had a political tone there, calling for peace everywhere, calling for disarmament, calling for building bridges. So we do get an idea in which direction he will be heading,” she said.

“The excitement level is like that of a World Cup final,” she noted earlier.

Pope Leo spent his career ministering in Peru and also lead the Vatican’s powerful office of bishops,

Earlier, white smoke emerged out of the Sistine Chapel chimney, signalling that a new pope had been elected.

Bells rang out Thursday evening from the basilica after cardinals elected the 267th pope to lead the church on the second day of their conclave.

The smoke signal meant the winner secured at least 89 of the votes from the 133 cardinals participating in the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis.

A top cardinal uttered the words “Habemus papam!” – Latin for “We have a pope!” – from the loggia or roofed area of the basilica and then read the winner’s birth name in Latin and revealed the name he has chosen to be called.

Priests made the sign of the cross and nuns wept as the crowd shouted “Viva il papa!” (“Long live the pope!”) after the white smoke wafted into the late afternoon sky at 6:07pm (16:07 GMT).

There had been a moment of hesitation in the vast crowd. “Is it white!?” one of the tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square asked. “It is!!” another said, shouting with joy.

The crowd erupted in jubilation after waiting for hours to see the colour of the smoke coming out of the Sistine Chapel’s chimney.

Some had bought chairs, books and food for what many believed would have been a long wait.“Habemus papam!” a group of people chanted with emotion.

Significance of the new papal name

The choice of name – Pope Leo XIV – is significant as Pope Leo XIII was the first pope to create the idea of social ethics in the Catholic church, Father James Bretzke, professor of theology at John Carroll University, tells Al Jazeera.

“Leo XIII, who ruled 1878 to 1903, wrote an encyclical which recognised how capitalism worked and the right of labour to organise and work for just living conditions and working conditions, which was really foundational in the church”, he said.

“Up until that time, the church’s hierarchy tended to be identified with the upper class, and so Leo XIII put a redirection on the church, and certainly many of the popes since that time have built on that,” he added.

“I think we can see a deepening of the church’s commitment to workers and the marginalised,” he said.

‘Humble person like Francis’

Reporting from Santiago, Chile, Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman, delves into Pope Leo’s many years in Latin America.

“He has not just spent time in Peru. He is 69 years old, and he spent most of the last 40 years in the country. He is a binational, so you could say that he has spent more time in Latin America than in the United States, the country of his birth.”

“He was named a cardinal in 2023; before that, he had been named the archbishop of Chiclayo. That is a very poor part of Peru with high unemployment and terrible infrastructure” she continued.

“It really does represent all that’s wrong with many parts of Latin America and Peru, particularly countries with great natural wealth, with lots of minerals, but very bad distribution of wealth.”

“This was something that the former Pope Francis believed very strongly had to be addressed, and so does the new pope. These are things that they agreed on. He was very close to ordinary people. He was known to have breakfast every day with just normal ordinary priests, a humble person like Francis, and someone very in tune with the needs of the poor”, Newman added.

[Aljazeera]