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  • Sri Lanka opposition says ex-leader jailed to stop comeback

    Sri Lanka opposition says ex-leader jailed to stop comeback

    COLOMBO: Opposition parties in Sri Lanka accused on Saturday the government of jailing the country’s former president over fears he could return to power.

    Former leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, 76, who lost the last presidential election in September to Anura Kumara Dissanayake, was remanded in custody Friday on charges of misusing state funds for foreign travel.

    Anti-graft units have ramped up investigations since Dissanayake came to power on a promise to fight endemic corruption in the island nation, which is emerging from its worst economic meltdown in 2022.

    Nalin Bandara, a member of parliament for the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) party, who visited Wickremesinghe at Colombo’s New Magazine Prison, said the former leader had called for unity to challenge Dissanayake’s leftist administration.

    “What the former president says is that we should get onto a common stage to fight the oppression of the new government,” Bandara told reporters outside the prison.

    Wickremesinghe’s own United National Party (UNP), which has two seats in the 225-member parliament, said the government felt threatened by the former president.

    “They fear he might return to power, and that is why this action,” UNP General Secretary Thalatha Athukorala told reporters in Colombo.

    Wickremesinghe stands accused of using state funds to finance a private visit to Britain in September 2023, while returning from attending the G77 summit in Havana and the UN General Assembly in New York.

    The offences carry a maximum punishment of 20 years in jail and a fine not exceeding three times the value of the misappropriated funds.

    His two-day UK visit was to participate in the conferring of an honorary professorship on his wife, Maithree, by the University of Wolverhampton.

    Wickremesinghe has maintained that his wife’s travel expenses were met by her and that no state funds were used.

    However, the police Criminal Investigation Department alleged that Wickremesinghe used 16.6 million rupees ($55,000) of government money for his travel.

    Wickremesinghe became president in July 2022 after then leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa stepped down following months of street protests fuelled by the economic crisis.

    He later secured a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in early 2023, doubled taxes and removed energy subsidies to stabilise the economy.

    Since the new government came to power, two former senior ministers have been jailed for up to 25 years for corruption.

    Several members of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s family have also been charged with misusing state funds and are being prosecuted. Many of them are currently on bail pending court hearings.

    Dissanayake’s government this month impeached the police chief after accusing him of abuse of power. The prisons chief was also jailed for corruption.

  • US Defense Intelligence Agency chief among latest ousted officers

    US Defense Intelligence Agency chief among latest ousted officers

    WASHINGTON: The head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and two other senior officers are being removed, officials said Friday — the latest in a series of military firings this year.

    The removal of Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, who led the DIA since early 2024, comes after the agency produced a preliminary assessment that said US strikes on Iran set back Tehran’s nuclear program by just a few months.

    The assessment — which was widely reported on by US media — contradicted claims from President Donald Trump that the strikes totally destroyed the nuclear sites, drawing the ire of both him and officials within his administration.

    Kruse “will no longer serve as DIA director,” a senior defense official said on condition of anonymity, without providing an explanation for the general’s departure.

    Prior to becoming director of the DIA, Kruse served as the advisor for military affairs for the director of national intelligence and also held positions including director of intelligence for the coalition against the Islamic State jihadist group.

    A US official separately said on condition of anonymity that two other senior officers — Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore, chief of Navy Reserve, and Rear Admiral Milton Sands, commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command — were also leaving their positions.

    Series of top officers fired

    In June, the United States launched a massive operation against three Iranian nuclear sites, an effort that involved more than 125 US aircraft as well as a guided missile submarine.

    Trump called the strikes a “spectacular military success” and repeatedly said they “obliterated” the nuclear sites, but the DIA’s preliminary assessment raised doubts about the president’s claims.

    The Trump administration responded with an offensive against the media, insisting the operation was a total success and berating journalists for reporting on the assessment.

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted the assessment was “leaked because someone had an agenda to try to muddy the waters and make it look like this historic strike wasn’t successful,” and slammed “fawning coverage of a preliminary assessment.”

    Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has overseen a purge of top military officers, including chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff general Charles “CQ” Brown, whom he fired without explanation in February.

    Other senior officers dismissed this year include the heads of the Navy and Coast Guard, the general who headed the National Security Agency, the vice chief of staff of the Air Force, a Navy admiral assigned to NATO, and three top military lawyers.

    The chief of staff of the Air Force also recently announced his retirement without explanation just two years into a four-year term.

    Hegseth has insisted the president is simply choosing the leaders he wants, but Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about the potential politicization of the traditionally neutral US military.

    Earlier this year, the Pentagon chief additionally ordered at least a 20 percent reduction in the number of active-duty four-star generals and admirals in the US military, as well as a 10 percent cut in the overall number of general and flag officers.

  • Seoul says fired warning shots after North Korean troops crossed border

    Seoul says fired warning shots after North Korean troops crossed border

    SEOUL: South Korea fired warning shots at North Korean soldiers that briefly crossed the heavily fortified border earlier this week, Seoul said Saturday after Pyongyang accused it of risking “uncontrollable” tensions.

    South Korea’s new leader Lee Jae Myung has sought warmer ties with the nuclear-armed North and vowed to build “military trust”, but Pyongyang has said it has no interest in improving relations with Seoul.

    Seoul’s military said several North Korean soldiers crossed the border Tuesday while working in the heavily mined Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas.

    The incursion prompted “our military to fire warning shots”, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, adding “the North Korean soldiers then moved north” of the de facto border.

    Pyongyang’s state media said earlier Saturday that the incident occurred as North Korean soldiers worked to permanently seal the frontier dividing the peninsula, citing a statement by Army Lieutenant General Ko Jong Chol.

    Calling the event a “premeditated and deliberate provocation”, Ko said Seoul’s military used a machine gun to fire more than 10 warning shots towards the North’s troops, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

    “This is a very serious prelude that would inevitably drive the situation in the southern border area where a huge number of forces are stationing in confrontation with each other to the uncontrollable phase,” Ko said.

    Sealing the border

    The last border confrontation between the two Koreas was in early April when South Korea’s military fired warning shots after around 10 North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the frontier.

    North Korea’s military announced last October it was moving to totally shut off the southern border, saying it had sent a message to US forces to “prevent any misjudgment and accidental conflict”.

    Shortly after, it blew up sections of the unused but deeply symbolic roads and railroad tracks that connect the North to the South.

    Ko warned that North Korea’s army would retaliate against any interference with its efforts to permanently seal the border.

    “If the act of restraining or obstructing the project unrelated to the military character persists, our army will regard it as deliberate military provocation and take corresponding countermeasure,” he said.

    ‘Restore trust’

    Under Lee’s more hawkish predecessor, relations between the two Koreas had sunk to one of their lowest points in years.

    After Lee’s election in June, he pledged to pursue dialogue with the North without preconditions, saying last week his government “will take consistent measures to substantially reduce tensions and restore trust”.

    Even so, South Korea and the United States began annual joint exercises on Monday aimed at preparing for potential threats from the North.

    Lee described the drills as “defensive” and said they were “not intended to heighten tensions”.

    Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said Pyongyang was accusing Seoul of pursuing a “dual approach” with its latest outburst — calling for dialogue while in its view raising military tensions.

    Pyongyang’s leader Kim called earlier this week for the “rapid expansion” of the North’s nuclear weapons capability, citing the ongoing US-South Korean military exercises that he claimed could “ignite a war”.

    His powerful sister has since said Seoul “cannot be a diplomatic partner” of the North, and that Lee “is not the sort of man who will change the course of history”.

  • India to develop fighter jet engines with French company

    India to develop fighter jet engines with French company

    New Delhi: India is working with a French company to develop and manufacture fighter jet engines in the country, New Delhi’s defence minister said.

    Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in May approved the prototype of a 5th generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), calling it a “significant push towards enhancing India’s indigenous defence capabilities”.

    Singh, in a speech at a conference in New Delhi on Friday, gave more details about developing fighter jet aircraft engines in the country.

    “We are moving forward to manufacture aircraft engines in India itself,” Singh said, in comments broadcast by Indian media. “We are collaborating with a French company to start engine production in India.”

    Read More: Rafale maker Dassault shares drop; China’s J-10 manufacturer sees stock surge

    Singh did not name the company, but India media widely reported the company to be Safran, which has been working in India for decades in the aviation and defence sectors.

    There was no immediate confirmation.

    India, one of the world’s largest arms importers, has made the modernisation of its forces a top priority, and made repeated pushes to boost local arms production.

    The world’s most populous nation has deepened defence cooperation with Western countries in recent years, including the Quad alliance with the United States, Japan and Australia.

    India signed in April a multi-billion-dollar deal to purchase 26 Rafale fighter jets from France’s Dassault Aviation.

    It would join 36 Rafale fighters already acquired, and replace the Russian MiG-29K jets.

    Singh has also promised at least $100 billion in fresh domestic military hardware contracts by 2033 to spur local arms production.

    This decade India has opened an expansive new helicopter factory, launched its first domestically made aircraft carrier, warships and submarines, and conducted a successful long-range hypersonic missile test.

    New Delhi eyes threats from multiple nations. India was engaged with Pakistan in a four-day conflict in May, their worst standoff since 1999.

  • Iran, Europeans to meet amid snapback sanctions threat

    Iran, Europeans to meet amid snapback sanctions threat

    TEHRAN: Iran will meet next week with Britain, France and Germany for talks on its nuclear programme, the parties said Friday, as the European powers warned Tehran to engage swiftly to avoid snapback sanctions.

    The Islamic republic suspended cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency in July in the wake of its 12-day war with Israel, citing the UN nuclear watchdog’s failure to condemn Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear facilities.

    The European trio — parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal — have threatened to trigger a “snapback mechanism” by the end of August.

    The move would reimpose sweeping UN sanctions lifted under the 2015 agreement unless Iran agrees to curb its uranium enrichment and restore cooperation with IAEA inspectors.

    “It was agreed that Iran’s talks with the three European countries and the European Union would continue next Tuesday at the level of deputy foreign ministers,” Iran’s foreign ministry said after a phone call between Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and senior European diplomats.

    France confirmed the talks and cautioned that Iran faced a narrowing window of time.

    “We have just made an important call to our Iranian counterpart regarding the nuclear programme and the sanctions against Iran that we are preparing to reimpose,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on X, noting he was joined on the call by his British and German counterparts and the EU’s top diplomat.

    “Time is running out. A new meeting will take place next week on this issue,” he added.

    German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on X that his country remained “committed to diplomacy but time is very short”.

    “Iran needs to engage substantively in order to avoid the activation of snapback,” he said. “We have been clear that we will not let the snapback of sanctions expire unless there is a verifiable and durable deal.”

    The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, similarly said: “With the deadline for the snapback mechanism fast approaching, Iran’s readiness to engage with the US is crucial. Iran must also fully cooperate” with the IAEA.

    It was not immediately clear where the talks, the second since the Iran-Israel war, would take place.

    Iran warns snapback consequences

    Israel in June launched an unprecedented bombing campaign on Iranian nuclear, military and civilian sites, prompting Tehran to respond with missile strikes on Israel.

    The United States also joined its ally Israel, targeting key Iranian nuclear sites deep within the country.

    Iran and the European trio — known as the E3 — held talks in late July at the Iranian consulate in Istanbul, which Tehran described as “frank”.

    Israel’s war with Iran derailed its nuclear negotiations with the United States.

    The 2015 nuclear deal was aimed preventing Iran from developing an atomic bomb — an ambition it has consistently denied.

    The deal was torpedoed in 2018 by Donald Trump, during his first term as president, unilaterally withdrew the United States from the agreement and slapped sanctions on its economy.

    Iran has ever since criticised the European parties, over failing to meet their commitments under the deal.

    Araghchi reiterated Friday the “lack of legal and moral competence of these countries to resort to the said mechanism” while warning about “the consequences of such an action”.

    The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, said in an interview published on Friday that the Europeans are “carrying out part of America’s operations” by pursuing the snapback mechanism.

    Iran has previously said it would leave the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) if the E3 activate the snapback mechanism.

    Larijani said in the interview on the supreme leader’s website that “the possibility has always existed” for Iran to leave the NPT, but it has remained committed to the treaty even though it bears “no benefit” for Tehran.

    Tehran has argued that NPT membership grants it the right to enrich uranium, which Washington considers a red line.

    The deadline for activating the mechanism ends in October, though Europeans have set an internal target of the end of August, while also offering an extension to buy time for talks.

    Araghchi said Friday that “this is a decision that must essentially be taken by the United Nations Security Council; and while the Islamic Republic of Iran has its own principled positions and views in this regard, it is not involved in this process.”

    Larijani rejected the prospect of an extension, saying: “Iran truly does not accept this.”

  • India bans online gambling, including cricket apps, after loosing $2.3 billion

    India bans online gambling, including cricket apps, after loosing $2.3 billion

    New Delhi: India’s parliament has passed a sweeping law banning online gambling, after government figures showed 450 million people lost a combined $2.3 billion annually on apps.

    The ban impacts platforms for card games, poker and fantasy sports, including India’s wildly popular homegrown fantasy cricket apps.

    The government said roughly a third of the world’s most populous country had lost money gambling online.

    The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill was passed by both houses of parliament late on Thursday, and criminalises the offering, promotion and financing of such games, with offenders facing up to five years in prison.

    “This legislation is designed to curb addiction, financial ruin and social distress caused by predatory gaming platforms that thrive on misleading promises of quick wealth,” a government statement said.

    India’s wider gaming industry is one of the largest markets in the world, but the new law carves out exceptions for e-sports and educational games, which the government says will be promoted as part of the digital economy.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the new law will “encourage e-sports and online social games” while “at the same time, it will save our society from the harmful effects of online money games.”

    Industry groups had urged regulation and taxation rather than a blanket ban, warning the move could drive players to illegal offshore platforms.

    But supporters of the bill argue the social costs are too high to allow.

    Officials said the rapid spread of gambling platforms had caused widespread financial distress, addiction and even suicide.

    The government said it had also been linked to fraud, money laundering and terrorism financing.

    Ashwini Vaishnaw, minister of technology, noted the law differentiates between online “social” games and those played for money.

    “It encourages e-sports, which are organised competitive video games, and promotes safe online social and educational games”, a government briefing note read.

    “It clearly separates constructive digital recreation from betting, gambling and fantasy money games that exploit users with false promises of profit.”

  • Israel vows to destroy Gaza City if Hamas doesn’t disarm

    Israel vows to destroy Gaza City if Hamas doesn’t disarm

    Jerusalem: Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed Friday to destroy Gaza City if Hamas did not agree to disarm, release all remaining hostages in the territory and end the war on Israel’s terms.

    “If they do not agree to Israel’s conditions for the release of all hostages and their disarmament, Gaza, the capital of Hamas, will become Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” the minister posted on social media, referring to two cities in Gaza largely razed during previous Israeli operations.

    The statement came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Thursday that he had ordered immediate negotiations aimed at freeing all the remaining hostages in Gaza.

    Netanyahu added that the push to release the hostages would accompany the operation to take control of Gaza City and destroy the Hamas stronghold.

    Later Friday, the Rome-based Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative was set to release its latest figures regarding hunger in Gaza.

    – ‘Hand in hand’ –

    Earlier this week, the Israeli defence ministry authorised the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists to help seize Gaza City.

    “These two matters — defeating Hamas and releasing all our hostages — go hand in hand,” Netanyahu said in a video statement on Thursday, without providing details about what the next stage of talks would entail.

    The UN humanitarian agency has warned that the Israeli plan to expand military operations in Gaza City would have “a horrific humanitarian impact” on an already exhausted population.

    Mediators have been waiting for days for an official Israeli response to their latest ceasefire proposal, which Hamas accepted earlier this week.

    Palestinian sources have said the new deal involves staggered hostage releases, while Israel has insisted that any deal must include the freeing of all the captives at once.

    Israel’s plans to expand the fighting and seize Gaza City have sparked an international outcry as well as domestic opposition.

    Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,192 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Gaza.

    Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

    Of the 251 hostages seized during the attack, 49 are still in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

  • Canada measles cases pass 4,500, highest count in Americas

    Canada measles cases pass 4,500, highest count in Americas

    Canada’s measles case count has passed 4,500, with the western province of Alberta — which has about five million people — recording more cases this year than the United States, figures updated Thursday showed.

    World Health Organization data released this month show Canada accounts for about half of all the confirmed measles cases across the Americas region this year.

    Canada officially eradicated measles in 1998, but the virus has stormed back, particularly among unvaccinated members of certain Mennonite Christian communities.

    The most populous province of Ontario, which has about 16 million people, has recorded 2,366 cases, according to federal government data updated this week, which put the national case count at 4,638.

    Alberta’s government, which releases its weekly figures on Thursdays, said it had registered 1,790 cases, making it the hardest-hit area per capita.

    The United States, confronting its worst measles epidemic in 30 years, has confirmed 1,375 cases, the Centers for Disease Control said this week.

    The Pan American Health Organization, WHO’s regional office, said this month that 71 percent of confirmed cases occurred in unvaccinated people, with an additional 18 percent among people whose vaccination status was not known.

    Canadian experts have pointed to several factors driving the outbreak, including the proliferation of vaccine misinformation.

    Read more: Second US child dies of measles, almost 650 ill: officials

    Canadian physicians have criticized US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has spent decades spreading false information about vaccines.

    But the bulk of the Canadian epidemic has occurred among Anabaptist Christian communities — of whom Mennonites are one — where vaccine hesitancy is historic.

    The beginning of the outbreak has been linked to a Mennonite wedding in the eastern province of New Brunswick.

    Outside of Ontario and Alberta, which have larger Mennonite communities, cases have been isolated, with British Columbia the third-hardest hit province with 190 cases.

    The only suspected measles-related death in Canada during the 2025 outbreak was that of a newborn baby whose mother was unvaccinated, but officials noted the baby was born pre-term and had other medical conditions.

  • Ukrainian suspect arrested in Italy over Nord Stream blasts: prosecutors

    Ukrainian suspect arrested in Italy over Nord Stream blasts: prosecutors

    BERLIN, Germany: A Ukrainian suspect in the explosives attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines from Russia has been arrested in Italy, German prosecutors said Thursday.

    The suspect, partially named as Serhii K., is accused of being part of a group “who placed explosive devices on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines near the island of Bornholm in September 2022”, the prosecutors said in a statement.

    German prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian man over the blasts on the pipelines, which carried Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, while The Wall Street Journal reported the explosions were carried out by a Ukrainian crew and approved by Kyiv’s then military commander-in-chief.

    The Wall Street Journal reported that Ukraine’s top military commander at the time, Valery Zaluzhny, oversaw the plan to blow up the pipelines used by Russia to deliver gas to Europe.

    On 26 September 2022, a series of underwater explosions and consequent gas leaks occurred on Nord Stream pipes, rendering them inoperable. The Nord Stream 1 (NS1) and Nord Stream 2 (NS2) are natural gas pipelines.

  • Israel pounds Gaza City after offensive gets green light

    Israel pounds Gaza City after offensive gets green light

    Israel hammered Gaza City and its outskirts overnight, residents said Thursday, after the defence ministry approved an expanded offensive in Gaza strip.

    The newly approved plan authorises the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists, deepening fears the campaign will worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory.

    “We are not waiting. We have begun the preliminary actions, and already now, IDF (army) troops are holding the outskirts of Gaza City,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

    Israel’s plans to expand the fighting and take control of Gaza City have sparked international outcry as well as domestic opposition.

    Ahead of the offensive, the Israeli military said the call-up of the reservists would begin in early September.

    Gaza City residents described relentless bombardments overnight.

    “The house shakes with us all night long — the sound of explosions, artillery, warplanes, ambulances, and cries for help is killing us,” one of them, Ahmad al-Shanti, told AFP.

    “The sound is getting closer, but where would we go?”.

    Another resident, Amal Abdel-Aal, said she watched the heavy strikes on the area, a week after being displaced from her home in Gaza City’s Al-Sabra neighbourhood.

    “No one in Gaza has slept — not last night, not for a week. The artillery and air strikes in the east never stop. The sky flashes all night long,” she added.

    Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said air strikes and artillery fire overnight targeted areas to the northwest and southeast of Gaza City.

    Late Thursday, the Israeli military detailed a range of operations across the Gaza Strip in recent weeks.

    It said the manoeuvres and strikes “created the conditions” for the military to intensify pressure on Hamas and lay the groundwork for the next stages of the campaign.

    As Israel tightened its grip on the outskirts of Gaza City, meditators continued to wait for an official Israeli reaction to their latest ceasefire proposal that Hamas accepted earlier this week.