Sri Lanka’s Irrigation department has withdrawn all flood warnings issued from June 1 near five major rivers of the country, according to a statement from it. The rivers are Kelani River, Kalu River, Attanagalu Oya, Gin River and Nilwala River, according to the department.

The department said on Saturday that it is constantly monitoring the changes in the rainfall conditions across the country and those of the water levels of major rivers, Xinhua news agency reported.

All the arrangements have been made to issue prior warnings and information of flood situation as necessary, the department added.

The Meteorological Department said in its latest forecast that the prevailing rainy condition in the southwestern part of the island is expected to enhance to some extent in the next few days from Saturday.

According to the disaster management centre, 282,797 people remain affected by adverse weather conditions due to rain-related disasters.  AGENCIES

French President Emmanuel Macron has urged for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and called for a political solution while meeting with his US counterpart Joe Biden, who is on a state visit to France. “After nine months of conflict, the situation in Rafah, and the human toll, are unacceptable,” Macron said on Saturday at a joint press conference.

“It is intolerable that Israel is not opening all the crossing points to humanitarian aid, as the international community has been demanding for several months,” he added as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.

Biden said they would continue to work for the return of all hostages to their homes and a ceasefire in Gaza.

Biden’s state visit comes two days after he participates in the ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings in France.  AGENCIES

 The Prime Minister of Haiti’s transitional government, Garry Conille, has reportedly been hospitalised in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Conille is suffering from chronic asthma and has had breathing difficulties, media outlets in the Caribbean state reported on Saturday evening, citing people close to him. Preparations were being made to transfer the Prime Minister to a hospital abroad.

In late May, Haiti’s transitional presidential council elected Conille, who had served as Prime Minister from September 2011 to May 2012, as interim Prime Minister to lead the Caribbean state out of the serious political crisis.

Amid a serious crisis involving political conflicts, security, and supply problems, Conille has been tasked with paving the way for the first elections since 2016.

Violence by armed gangs, which, according to UN figures, already controlled around 80 per cent of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, escalated once again at the end of February.

Former interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who did not return from a trip abroad at the end of February due to the security situation in Haiti, resigned in April when the council was in place. Henry had taken over the reins of government shortly after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021.  AGENCIES

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani has strongly condemned deadly Israeli airstrikes on the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip.

In a statement released on Saturday by the Ministry, Kanaani denounced Israel’s killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians during the attacks as a “horrendous and shocking crime”.

The “crime” perpetrated by Israel was a consequence of the “inaction” of governments and relevant international organisations in the face of eight months of “war crimes and violations of all international laws and regulations as well as international humanitarian law” by Israel in Gaza, said the Spokesman.He blamed the US and certain European countries for providing arms to Israel and backing it in its offensive, Xinhua news agency reported.

At least 210 Palestinians were killed and more than 400 others injured in the Israeli airstrikes on Saturday in central Gaza.

Khalil Al-Dakran, director of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah city in central Gaza, told Xinhua that a large number of wounded Palestinians were sent to the hospital due to intense Israeli bombing on the Nuseirat camp and the city, some of whom have been confirmed dead.

The Israeli army has been waging a large-scale offensive on Gaza since October 7, 2023, after Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on the Israeli towns adjacent to the strip, killing nearly 1,200 people.

The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks in the enclave has risen to 36,801, with 83,680 people injured, as updated by the health authorities in Gaza on Saturday. AGENCIES

A Shia militia in Iraq has claimed responsibility for a drone attack on a site in Israel.The militia, known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, said in an online statement that its fighters launched a drone attack at dawn on Saturday “on a vital site in the occupied territories” as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.

The military claimed the attack was carried out “in solidarity with the people of Gaza,” pledging more targeting of “the enemy’s strongholds”.

The statement did not provide additional details about the targeted site or any resulting casualties.

Since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict on October 7, 2023, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has launched multiple attacks on Israeli and US bases in the region.

AGENCIES

The Israeli war cabinet approved a pilot plan presented by Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant to replace the rule of Hamas in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, the media reported. According to the plan, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will protect several areas in the northern Gaza Strip and allow the presence of local leadership that should be responsible for running daily life in the Strip.

The IDF will clear the area of Hamas militants and then leave the places and secure them remotely to prevent their return, Xinhua news agency reported.

Then, Israel will allow the arrival of humanitarian aid trucks in coordination with international bodies to transfer the aid to a local body for distribution.

At the same time, the IDF will prevent Hamas from reaching these places.

According to a political source cited by Israel’s state-owned Kan TV news, the plan is coming “too little and too late,” especially considering the possible imminent disintegration of the war cabinet due to the expected withdrawal of Minister Benny Gantz.

AGENCIES

Israeli Wartime Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz postponed his expected resignation announcement following a rescue operation in the Gaza Strip in which four Israeli hostages were released.

On May 18, Gantz announced that he would resign from the government on June 8 if the cabinet did not formulate an action plan to secure goals, including the return of the hostages held in Gaza and the defeat of Hamas, Xinhua news agency reported.

The rescue operation was carried out by Israeli forces in collaboration with the police’s elite National Counter Terror Unit and the Israel Security Agency, while at least 94 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes in the same area.

The hostages, 25-year-old Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, 40, Almog Meir Jan, 21, and Andrey Kozlov, 27, were abducted while attending the Nova festival, an outdoor music event in a rural area near the Gaza-Israel fence.

The Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said that the four were located in proper medical condition in two buildings at the heart of Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.

AGENCIES

Pakistan reported the fifth polio case so far this year after a child was paralyzed in Quetta city of southwest Balochistan province and eventually died, the Pakistani Health Ministry said Saturday.The affected two-year-old child developed an onset of paralysis on April 29 in his legs, the ministry said in a statement, adding that “he became progressively ill with weakness spreading to his arms, and unfortunately passed away in a hospital in the southern port city of Karachi a few weeks later.”The samples taken from him, his brother, and his cousin, who live in the same house, confirmed the presence of wild poliovirus type 1, said the statement.The virus isolated from the samples belongs to the imported YB3A cluster of WPV1, it added.The government is focusing its efforts on closing the outbreak and enhancing polio vaccine and routine vaccination coverage rates in the province to ensure strengthened immunity for children, the ministry said.More than 50 environmental samples have tested positive for poliovirus this year in Balochistan, including 21 from the provincial capital Quetta alone, according to the statement.In 2024, four cases have been detected from Balochistan while the other one came from the southern Sindh province.  AGENCIES

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has instructed Palestine’s envoy to the UN to request an emergency session of the UN Security Council to discuss the repercussions of the Israeli attacks on the central Gaza Strip, the media reported.

Abbas is engaged in intensive diplomatic efforts with Arab and international stakeholders to convene the emergency session, the aim of which is to address the “ongoing Israeli aggression” against the Palestinian people and compel Israel to comply with the resolutions of international legitimacy, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA said on Saturday.He emphasised the urgent need for international intervention to halt the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank, adding that Israel continues to exploit “international silence and US support” to “perpetrate crimes,” according to the report.On Saturday, at least 210 Palestinians were killed and more than 400 others injured in Israeli airstrikes on central Gaza, Xinhua news agency reported.Since its onset last October, the deadly conflict between Israel and Gaza-ruling Hamas has led to 36,801 Palestinians killed and 83,680 others injured in the strip, local health authorities said in an update earlier on Saturday.  AGENCIES

 The second meeting of the regional contact group for Afghanistan was held in the Iranian capital Tehran, the media reported.

Special representatives of Iran, China, Russia and Pakistan attended the meeting held at the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s Institute for Political and International Studies on Saturday, the official news agency IRNA report said.

In a message sent to the meeting, Iranian caretaker Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani said that the US should release Afghanistan’s assets, which had previously been frozen, Xinhua news agency reported.

He added nearly three years had elapsed since the US troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, the country was still struggling to solve outstanding problems in economy and development.

Bagheri Kani noted that although Afghanistan’s caretaker government had managed to attain achievements in tackling certain challenges, the freezing of the country’s assets had hindered post-war recovery.

Speaking at a press conference following the meeting in Tehran, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, the Iranian president’s special envoy on Afghanistan affairs, said the participants highlighted the necessity to resolve Afghanistan’s issues through regional dialogue and cooperation.

He noted that addressing issues such as fighting terrorism and improving humanitarian conditions relied on regional cooperation.

Among the other issues discussed during the meeting were ensuring common borders’ security and those about Afghan refugees, said Kazemi Qomi.

He added the US, “which faced a failure in Afghanistan after 20 years of occupation,” should be held to account for the country’s current problems.

The US troops pulled out of Afghanistan in August 2021 after 20 years of occupying the country following waging a war against it in 2001 on the pretext of fighting terrorism.  AGENCIES