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Sri Lanka has launched an investigation to obtain information on four of its citizens with links to the banned Islamic State, who were arrested in India when on an alleged mission to carry out terror activities in the country, a media report said on Tuesday.

Acting on a tip-off, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Sunday apprehended four Sri Lankan nationals at the Sardar Vallabhai Patel airport in Ahmedabad after they travelled from Colombo via Chennai. The men travelled to India to carry out terror activities at the behest of the banned terror outfit Islamic State (IS) and are members of IS radicalised by a leader from Sri Lanka who is living in Pakistan, according to the Indian police.

Sri Lanka’s state intelligence has asked for further information from its Indian counterpart to verify the background of the suspects and probe their links to the IS, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported. Sri Lankan authorities will "immediately investigate" to take further action once the information is obtained, the newspaper said, citing sources.

Public Security Minister Tiran Alles and Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Deshabandu Tennakoon said they were taking these reports seriously and closely monitoring the developments. “We are working in close coordination with our Indian counterparts to ensure that all necessary measures are taken to address any potential threat," Alles was quoted as saying.

“We are working in close coordination with our Indian counterparts to ensure that all necessary measures are taken to address any potential threat," Alles was quoted as saying. The accused, Mohammad Nusrat (35), Mohammad Faarukh (35), Mohammad Nafran (27) and Mohammad Rasdeen (43), informed investigators that they were earlier associated with the banned Sri Lankan radical militant outfit, National Thowheeth Jamath (NJT), and joined IS after getting in touch with Pakistani handler Abu Bakr Al Bagdadi, said Gujarat Director General of Police Vikas Sahay.

The Iranian government has requested the US to assist in probing the deadly helicopter crash that killed President Ebrahim Raisi, his foreign minister, and six others but Washington won't assist Tehran largely due to "logistical reasons", according to a senior American diplomat.

Raisi, 63, a possible successor for Iran's supreme leader, the 85-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and six others were found dead on Monday hours after their helicopter crashed in fog, leaving the Islamic Republic without two key leaders as extraordinary tensions grip the wider Middle East. US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller at a press briefing on Monday said the US when asked for assistance by the Iranian government made it clear that it was ready to offer assistance, as it would do in response to any request by a foreign government in this sort of situation, but was not able to provide any help.

"I’m not going to get into the details, but we were asked by the Iranian government for assistance. We said that we would be willing to assist. It’s something that we would do with respect to any government in this situation. Ultimately, largely for logistical reasons, we weren’t able to provide that assistance," Miller told reporters. In response to a question on the United States extending official condolences and participating in a moment of silence for Raisi at the UN Security Council, Miller said the US had been quite clear that Raisi was a "brutal participant" in the repression of the Iranian people for nearly four decades but Washington regretted any loss of life in a helicopter crash like incident.

"We regret any loss of life. We don’t want to see anyone die in a helicopter crash. But that doesn’t change the reality of his record both as a judge and as the president of Iran and the fact that he has blood on his hands," Miller said. "Our fundamental approach to Iran has not changed and will not change. We will continue to support the people of Iran, to defend their human rights, their aspirations to an open, free society and democratic participation."

Miller also responded to a remark by former Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who blamed US sanctions for the incident.

Iran has offered no reasons for the crash that brought down the helicopter, which fell into mountainous terrain in a sudden, intense fog.

United States President Joe Biden has defended Israel against the war crimes charges in the world’s top courts. 

“There is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas,” Biden said. Hours earlier, he had issued a strongly-worded statement saying that the ICC warrants were “outrageous”. “Contrary to allegations against Israel made by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), what’s happening in Gaza is not genocide. We reject that,” Biden said in his speech.

These remarks came after Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), said he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes committed during the war in Gaza.

Sri Lanka has launched an investigation to obtain information on four of its citizens with links to the banned Islamic State, who were arrested in India when on an alleged mission to carry out terror activities in the country, a media report said on Tuesday.

Acting on a tip-off, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Sunday apprehended four Sri Lankan nationals at the Sardar Vallabhai Patel airport in Ahmedabad after they travelled from Colombo via Chennai. The men travelled to India to carry out terror activities at the behest of the banned terror outfit Islamic State (IS) and are members of IS radicalised by a leader from Sri Lanka who is living in Pakistan, according to the Indian police.

Sri Lanka’s state intelligence has asked for further information from its Indian counterpart to verify the background of the suspects and probe their links to the IS, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported. Sri Lankan authorities will "immediately investigate" to take further action once the information is obtained, the newspaper said, citing sources.

Public Security Minister Tiran Alles and Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Deshabandu Tennakoon said they were taking these reports seriously and closely monitoring the developments. “We are working in close coordination with our Indian counterparts to ensure that all necessary measures are taken to address any potential threat," Alles was quoted as saying.

“We are working in close coordination with our Indian counterparts to ensure that all necessary measures are taken to address any potential threat," Alles was quoted as saying. The accused, Mohammad Nusrat (35), Mohammad Faarukh (35), Mohammad Nafran (27) and Mohammad Rasdeen (43), informed investigators that they were earlier associated with the banned Sri Lankan radical militant outfit, National Thowheeth Jamath (NJT), and joined IS after getting in touch with Pakistani handler Abu Bakr Al Bagdadi, said Gujarat Director General of Police Vikas Sahay.

Palestinian detainees from Gaza are routinely shackled to hospital beds, blindfolded, sometimes naked, and forced to wear nappies, a practice one medic described as “torture”, the BBC has reported citing medical workers in Israel.

A whistle-blower reportedly revealed that procedures in one military hospital were “routinely” performed without painkillers, causing detainees “an unacceptable amount of pain.” Quoting Another whistle-blower, the report noted that painkillers were used “selectively” and “in a very limited way” during an invasive medical procedure on a Gazan detainee in a public hospital.

Additionally, critically ill detainees in makeshift military facilities were reportedly denied proper treatment due to public hospitals' reluctance to transfer and treat them, according to BBC.

The Israeli army stated that detainees at the facility were treated “appropriately and carefully.”

Recent clashes between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine state have intensified, endangering thousands of mostly Muslim Rohingya residents. Witnesses in Buthidaung reported massive fires, which Rohingya activists attribute to the AA.

However, the AA denies these claims, blaming the Myanmar military for starting the fires during air attacks. Caught between the military, which seized power in a coup over three years ago and is now under investigation for genocide against the Rohingya, and the AA, thousands of Rohingyas are fleeing to safety.

"As of now, people are still on the road looking for a safe place," said Nay San Lwin, co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition advocacy group, to Al Jazeera. "There is no food or medicine at all. Most of them couldn’t carry their personal belongings."

Iran announced on Monday that it will hold its 14th presidential election on June 28, following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi and his entourage in a helicopter crash.

"The election calendar was approved at the meeting of the heads of the judiciary, government, and parliament," state media said.

Raisi, his foreign minister, and seven others died in a helicopter crash in northwestern Iran. The ultraconservative Raisi had been in office since 2021, a period marked by mass protests, an economic crisis worsened by US sanctions, and armed exchanges with Israel.

An Indian-origin delivery driver was on Monday sentenced to 30 months in jail for stealing meat products worth more than SGD 170,000 while working with a wholesale distributor.

Sivam Karuppan (42) sold the stolen meat to a customer and pocketed the sales proceeds for himself and another colleague working with the distributor, Chee Song Foods, ‘Today’ reported. A case against his colleague is yet to go to court. The duo’s nationality was not stated in the report. Karuppan's co-accused, also an Indian-origin, is Neshan Gunasundram (27), who was employed by the company as a warehouse supervisor.

Gunasundram's role was to supervise the flow of goods in and out of the warehouse, including instructing other workers on the correct quantity of meat products for loading and delivery to customers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the International Criminal Court's prosecutor for seeking arrest warrants for him alongside Hamas's leaders over alleged war crimes in the Gaza conflict.

"I reject with disgust the comparison of the prosecutor in the Hague between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas," Netanyahu said. "With what audacity do you compare Hamas that murdered, burned, butchered, decapitated, raped and kidnapped our brothers and sisters with the IDF soldiers fighting a just war unlike any other,” he added.

The chief ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, on Monday said there were reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant along with three Hamas leaders bore criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. 

The International Criminal Court's (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan said on Monday that he has requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence chief Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders over alleged war crimes in Israel and Gaza.

The Hamas leaders for whom the warrant was requested include Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar; Mohammed Al-Masri, the commander-in-chief of the military wing of Hamas who is widely known as Deif; and Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas' Political Bureau. Khan said he had reasonable grounds to believe the five men "bear criminal responsibility" for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. This comes after more than seven months of war in Gaza.

A panel of pre-trial judges will determine whether the evidence supports the arrest warrants. But the court has no means to enforce such warrants, and its investigation into the Gaza war has been opposed by the United States and Israel.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been granted permission to appeal his extradition to the United States. On Monday, Assange's legal team argued at London's High Court that he might not be able to rely on his right to free speech in a US court.

The Australian-born Assange, 52, faces 18 charges in the US, mostly under the Espionage Act, related to WikiLeaks' significant release of classified US documents—the largest security breach of its kind in US military history. In March, the High Court had provisionally allowed Assange to appeal, citing potential discrimination as a foreign national, while inviting the US to provide assurances.

Following Monday's hearing, two senior judges agreed that Assange's concerns about the First Amendment warranted a full appeal, though this appeal is unlikely to occur for several months.

South Africa’s highest court on Monday ended a bid by former president Jacob Zuma to stand as a candidate for Parliament in a national election on May 29 citing his previous criminal conviction.

The country’s apex judicial institution, the Constitutional Court (ConCourt), upheld the initial decision by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to disqualify 82-year-old Zuma's candidacy on the grounds of his 15-month prison sentence for contempt of court in 2021. Zuma had been nominated as the leader of the recently-established Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Party, named after the erstwhile armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC) during the freedom struggle that ended in 1994 with Nelson Mandela becoming the country’s first democratically-elected President.

When MK named him as its candidate whose photo should appear on the ballot paper, the IEC declared that Zuma could not run because of the constitutional provision that prohibited anyone sentenced to more than 12 months in prison from being a member of parliament.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on Monday won a major reprieve as a London court permitted him to appeal against his extradition to the US on espionage charges.

Had the court ruled in the US's favour, Assange would have exhausted all legal avenues in the UK.

He has resisted extradition from the UK for over a decade after his Wikileaks website published thousands of confidential US documents in 2010 and 2011. The US Department of Justice described the leaks as “one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States”.

The files suggested the US military had killed civilians in unreported incidents during the war in Afghanistan.

According to US authorities, Assange endangered lives by failing to redact the names of Intelligence operatives in the documents. However, his lawyers have argued that the case is a politically motivated form of "state retaliation". The 52-year-old Australian national has been held at Belmarsh high-security prison in London since 2019 when he was taken into custody from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he had sought asylum.

On Monday, two High Court judges at the Royal Courts of Justice granted the Australian-born Assange permission to appeal against his extradition order. They agreed with his legal team on the issue of assurances from the US administration that Assange would be protected by and allowed to rely on the First Amendment of the country’s Constitution, which protects freedom of speech in the US, and the death penalty would not be imposed.

“Based on the principle of the separation of powers, the US court can and will apply US law, whatever the executive may say or do,” barrister Edward Fitzgerald told the court on behalf of Assange. The High Court ruling in favour of Assange means he will be able to challenge US assurances at a full hearing over how his prospective trial in America would be conducted and whether his right to free speech would be infringed on being extradited.

His appeal is expected to be heard sometime next year as he continues his fight against being extradited after the UK government had signed off on the order in June 2022.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian besides other officials, lost their lives in a helicopter crash on Monday. 

President Raisi was a hardline cleric close to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. 

According to a report by ‘Tehran Times’, the incident occurred when they were going to the provincial capital city of Tabriz. A helicopter carrying Raisi made a “tough landing” during a visit to the country’s northwest, the national TV reported.

The incident occurred due to dense fog in the region, the TV said adding that the helicopter crashed near a copper mine called Sungun. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, governor of East Azarbaijan Province Malek Rahmati, and Friday prayer leader of Tabriz Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem were also aboard the copter. “The funeral ceremonies for the president and his companions will take place on Tuesday at 9:30 am local time (06:00 GMT) in Tabriz,” the official IRNA news agency said, adding that Raisi’s body will later be taken to Tehran.

Raisi will be buried in his hometown of Mashhad in northeast Iran, according to ‘Al Jazeera’. 

Meanwhile, First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber has taken over as interim president and will remain in the post until a new presidential election is held within 50 days.

China on Monday denounced Taiwan’s new President Lai Ching-te for his assertion that the self-ruled island is sovereign and vowed to uphold the status quo.

Lai, 64, also known as William Lai, who succeeded his independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) colleague Tsai Ing-wen after winning the popular vote in the January Presidential election this year, was sworn in as the president at a ceremony held in Taipei on Monday. China views Taiwan as a rebel province that must be reunified with the mainland, even by force.

Lai's DPP party does not seek independence from China but maintains that Taiwan is already a sovereign nation.

In his no-holds-barred inaugural speech, Lai called on China to stop threatening the island, promised to uphold the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, and called on Beijing to work jointly for peace. Lai urged Beijing to replace confrontation with dialogue and avowed that Taiwan would never back down in the face of intimidation from China, the Hong Kong-based 'South China Morning Post' reported.

Much on the expected lines, China hit back with its Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin countering Lai by saying: "Taiwan independence is a dead end".

“Regardless of the pretext or the banner under which it is pursued, the push for Taiwan independence is destined to fail,” Wang told a media briefing. A Chinese mainland spokesperson said Lai had sent “a dangerous signal” of seeking “Taiwan independence” and making provocations to undermine cross-Strait peace and stability in his speech upon assuming the role of Taiwan region's new leader.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and a number of other officials were found dead Monday at the site of the helicopter crash in northwestern Iran, Iranian media reported.

Raisi was 63 years old and was a former judiciary chief.

According to ‘Tehran Times’, he was born in Mashhad, Iran's second-biggest city. Mashhad is also home to the country's holiest Shia Muslim shrine. As a student, Raisi participated in protests against the West-backed Shah, who was ousted in 1979 in an Islamic Revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Raisi was the first deputy of the Judiciary from 2004 to 2014, working under two heads of the judiciary. From 2014 to March 2015, he also served as Iran's Attorney General.

In the June 2021 presidential election, he got over 18 million votes, becoming the 13th President of Iran, says a report by ‘BBC.’

A British court is expected to deliver a final decision on Monday regarding the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, concluding 13 years of legal battles and detentions.

Two judges at the High Court in London will determine if they are convinced by U.S. assurances that Assange, 52, will not face the death penalty and will be protected by the First Amendment right to free speech if tried for espionage in the US. Assange's legal team indicates that he could be extradited within 24 hours of the decision, released from jail, or entangled in further legal proceedings. "I have the sense that anything could happen at this stage," his wife Stella remarked last week.

"Julian could be extradited, or he could be freed." She added that her husband hopes to be present in court for the pivotal hearing.

India stands with the people of Iran at this time of tragedy, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday, expressing shock over the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

Raisi, Abdollahian and a number of other officials were found dead Monday at the site of the helicopter crash in northwestern Iran, Iranian media reported.

"Deeply shocked to hear of the passing away of Iran's President Dr Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister H. Amir-Abdollahian in the helicopter crash," Jaishankar said on X. "Recall my many meetings with them, most recently in January 2024. Our condolences to their families. We stand with the people of Iran at time of this tragedy," he said.

The 63-year-old Raisi and his entourage were heading to the northwestern city of Tabriz after returning from a visit to a locality on the Azerbaijan-Iran border on Sunday.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister and others have been found dead at the site of a helicopter crash on Monday after search through a foggy, mountainous region of the country's northwest, state media reported. 

According to a report on ‘en.irna.ir’, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Guardian Council spokesman Hadi Tahan Nazif has announced that according to the Constitution, the vice-president will take over as interim president with the Supreme Leader’s approval. ‘Tehran TImes’ reported that in accordance with Articles 130 and 131 of the first edition of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran (adopted in 1979), the first vice president – who is now Mohammad Mokhber – steps in and assume the duties of the president if the president is unable to fulfill his legal duties due to dismissal, resignation, absence, illness, or death.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and others were found dead at the helicopter crash site in the mountainous regions of East Azarbaijan, AP reported citing state media in Iran.

State news Agency IRNA had identified the helicopter as the US-made  Bell 212 and it was reportedly completely burned in the crash on Sunday. India Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X, “Deeply saddened and shocked by the tragic demise of Dr. Seyed Ebrahim Raisi, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. His contribution to strengthening India-Iran bilateral relationship will always be remembered. My heartfelt condolences to his family and the people of Iran. India stands with Iran in this time of sorrow.”

President Raisi, 63, was elected in 2021 and the subsequent period saw stricter morality laws being implemented and violent crackdowns on anti-government protests. 

A 45-year-old mute woman from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) was detained by the Army along the Line of Control in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Monday.

The woman was detained from forward Pukherni village in Laam sector late on Sunday night, they said.

According to an identity card recovered from her possession, the woman is a resident of Sakhi Nath village in Kotli district of PoK. She is believed to have inadvertently entered the Indian territory, the officials said.

Hopes are fading that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister have survived a helicopter crash in mountainous terrain and icy weather in the north of the country, an Iranian official said today after search teams located the wreckage.

“We can see the wreckage and the situation does not look good,” the head of Iran’s Red Crescent, Pirhossein Kolivand, told state TV. According to Al Jazeera, the Iranian Red Crescent says that the entire cabin of the helicopter is significantly damaged and burned. And they say that as of now, there are no signs of the survivors on the site.

After nearly 12 hours of searching, state TV reported early this morning that a Turkish drone appeared to have detected “the coordinates of the accident” because it identified “a source of heat” and informed Iranian rescue teams.