Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday condoled the death of R. Sampanthan, one of the seniormost Tamil politicians in Sri Lanka, and also the leader of Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

“My deepest condolences to the family and friends of veteran TNA leader R. Sampanthan. Will always cherish fond memories of meetings with him,” the Indian PM wrote in a message posted on X.

“He relentlessly pursued a life of peace, security, equality, justice and dignity for the Tamil nationals of Sri Lanka. He will be deeply missed by his friends and followers in Sri Lanka and India,” added PM Modi.

External Affairs Minister of India, S. Jaishankar too sent his condolences on the demise of Sampanthan, who maintained close contacts with India and Indian leaders.

“Deeply saddened to hear about the passing away of Sri Lankan Tamil leader Shri R. Sampanthan,” said Jaishankar.

“Recall my many meetings and conversations with him over several decades. He dedicated his entire life fighting for the equality, dignity and justice for Tamils in Sri Lanka,” the EAM mentioned.

Sampanthan, 91, passed away on Sunday night while undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Colombo.

One of the longest-serving lawmakers in Sri Lanka, Sampanthan was elected to the parliament from the Eastern district of Trincomalee in 1977.

With the TNA having the second-highest number of MPs, Sampanthan was the Opposition leader of the country’s Parliament from 2015 to December 2018. He remained an MP for 23 straight years since entering the Parliament in 2001. AGENCIES

 Indonesia has vehemently condemned Israel’s decision to legalise five Jewish settlement outposts in the West Bank, the country’s foreign ministry announced on Monday.

“Israel’s settlement and continuous occupation in Palestine’s territory are violations of international law and relevant UN resolutions”, the ministry said via their official social media channels, reported Xinhua news agency.

The ministry emphasised Indonesia’s commitment to advocating for the implementation of the two-state solution and holding Israel accountable in concert with the international community.

Indonesia steadfastly supports the Palestinian people’s entitlement to an internationally recognised, independent, and sovereign state. AGENCIES

Australian Police are currently investigating the cause of a serious two-vehicle traffic crash after three female passengers aboard a bus were killed in Queensland during the weekend.

Around 11:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, a four-wheel drive towing a caravan and a bus crashed on the Bruce Highway at Gumlu, a coastal town located in the state’s north, reported Xinhua news agency.

“Three passengers on the bus died at the scene, including a woman in her 30s, a woman in her 20s, and a 56-year-old Townsville woman. Multiple other people were taken to hospital, some with serious injuries,” Queensland Police said in its latest statement on the accident.

Following the crash, the Bruce Highway was closed in both directions at Gumlu before reopening to traffic at midnight.

Queensland Police Superintendent Graeme Paine provided an update to the local media outlet ABC News Breakfast on Monday morning, saying that officers are working to confirm the identities of a female in her 30s and another in her 20s, with several people still receiving treatment in the hospital.

“One of those is in critical condition. So there are certainly some concerns held for the safety of that person,” Paine noted.

According to the superintendent, the incident occurred in a zone that has a speed limit of 100 km per hour. The bus was travelling northernly on the highway and the four-wheel drive was heading in a southern direction.

“The impact that had occurred, it pushed the bus across to the railway line, hence we had the closure of the railway line at the time,” he added.

Given that an incident of this nature appeared “very complex,” the officer didn’t touch upon the cause of the accident, but stressed the necessity of going through “a holistic investigation.”

“Our specialist crash investigators have forensically examined the scene. They are currently interviewing additional witnesses and there will be further analysis of evidence,” said Paine.

Reports from the Queensland Ambulance Service suggested that a total of 35 patients were assessed at the crash site.

“Two patients with life-threatening injuries were airlifted to Townsville Hospital, and two patients with life-threatening injuries were airlifted to Ayr Hospital and four stable patients were transported by road to Ayr Hospital. Sadly, three people were deceased at the scene,” said the local emergency agency.

In addition, 24 other patients were identified with minor injuries and declined hospitalisation.

With a population of 124, Gumlu is a remote locality in the Whitsunday region, lying 1,223 km north of Queensland’s capital Brisbane, with Bruce Highway as the major artery connecting a slew of towns along the state’s eastern coast.

Whitsunday Mayor Ry Collins described to ABC Radio that the section of the highway could be challenging as it “feels like a country road.”

“There’s no shoulder on the road. It is a fairly open section so I’d imagine the vehicles coming either way would have been able to see each other but there’s obviously been something happened here where one’s veered into the other’s lane,” said Collins. AGENCIES

 Iran’s Constitutional Council has validated the first round’s results of the country’s 14th presidential election, meaning candidates could now begin electoral campaigns for the run-off.

The announcement was made by Hadi Tahan Nazif, spokesman for the council, an institution that oversees the process and results of elections, in a televised interview with the state-run IRIB TV on Sunday.

He said the institution confirms the results following investigation and reviews, Xinhua news agency reported.

None of the four candidates vying in the first round had made any objection to the election results during the legal time frame for voicing complaints, he said, adding that the election campaigns could continue until Thursday morning, or 24 hours before the run-off.

In the first round of voting for the snap presidential race that started early on Friday and ended at midnight after being extended three times, no candidate obtained more than 50 per cent of the total votes needed to call a winner.

The country was thus sent into a run-off scheduled for July 5 between top contenders — reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s former Health Minister, who received more than 42 per cent of the votes in the first round, and principlist Saeed Jalili, the former chief negotiator in the nuclear talks between Tehran and world powers, who garnered more than 38 per cent of the total.

Iran’s 14th presidential election, initially set for 2025, was rescheduled following the unexpected death of former President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on May 19. AGENCIES

 Iraqi explosive experts have defused six bombs, believed to have been planted by Islamic State (IS) militants years ago in the historic al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul, a police source said.

“They were homemade bombs planted in a complex way, but the explosive experts have dismantled them without causing any casualty,” Major Ahmed Saber from Mosul police told Xinhua news agency.

He said the site is now ready to resume the restoration work undertaken by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), which was halted after the reported discovery of bombs in the southern wall of the mosque’s prayer hall on Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The IS blew up the al-Nuri Mosque and its iconic leaning minaret on June 21, 2017, with deliberately placed bombs.

UNESCO has been overseeing efforts to rebuild the mosque and other heritage sites in Mosul following the defeat of the IS. AGENCIES

Explosions were heard in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital amid Russian missile attacks, a local official and media outlets reported.

The air defence was operating near the capital, and the debris from the destroyed missile hit an apartment block in Kyiv’s northern Obolonskyi district, said the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, on social media.

There were no immediate reports of casualties, reports Xinhua news agency, citing Klitschko.

According to the media reports, an air raid alert was declared in Kyiv and five regions in northern, central and northeastern Ukraine during the attacks. AGENCIES

Medical professors at three South Korea University-affiliated hospitals vowed on Monday to start an indefinite voluntary walkout later this month, amid a prolonged standoff between doctors and the government over its medical reform plan.

The emergency committee of the professors serving as senior doctors at the university announced the walkout starting July 12, excluding the operation of emergency rooms and intensive care units, calling for the government to “withdraw its pressure on medical students and trainee doctors” and engage in dialogue, Yonhap news agency reported.

“The medical community sought to launch a dialogue by offering solutions and compromises, but the government has flatly ignored all and abused its administrative orders,” the committee said in a statement.

The announcement came after professors at Severance Hospital, Gangnam Severance Hospital and Yongin Severance Hospital also began suspending the treatment of outpatients, non-emergency surgeries, and other services from Thursday last week.

Senior doctors at Asan Medical Center are also anticipated to launch a one-week walkout starting Thursday.

Despite strong opposition from doctors, the government finalised an admissions quota hike of some 1,500 students for medical schools in May to address the shortage of doctors.

Last month, the government asked hospitals to swiftly accept the resignations of trainee doctors who have left their worksites in protest of the government’s medical reform, in an apparent move to appease the junior doctors.

About 12,000 trainee doctors have left their jobs since late February to protest against a hike in the number of medical students. In a punitive step, the government ordered hospitals not to accept the resignations of trainee doctors to prevent them from seeking jobs at other clinics.

Last week, a committee formed by the medical community to navigate joint responses to its monthslong standoff with the government over the medical reform plan, decided to convene a nationwide debate on July 26 regarding the government’s medical reform. AGENCIES

A plenary Central Committee meeting of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) has continued for the third day in a row, state media reported on Monday, amid attention being paid to whether it would announce follow-up measures to implement a new partnership treaty with Russia.

The third day of the 10th plenary meeting of the WPK’s eighth Central Committee was held on Sunday “to work out detailed and practical measures for successfully fulfilling the tasks for 2024,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

“The participants are intensifying the discussion while conducting an in-depth study of the draft resolutions to be submitted to the plenary meeting and thoroughly exploring ways to carry out the tasks for the second half of the year entrusted to their sectors and units,” the KCNA said as reported by Yonhap news agency.

The plenary meeting began on Friday, with five agenda items approved by all members of the WPK Central Committee, the KCNA said, without further disclosing other details.

On the second day, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended the meeting to “discuss and decide on a series of important immediate issues arising in maintaining the upturn in the comprehensive development of Korean-style socialism,” it said.

North Korea usually holds a party plenary meeting for a few days in June. But this year’s meeting has drawn more attention due to the possibility that it could discuss detailed measures to expand cooperation with Russia following its signing of a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty with Moscow.

Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a summit in Pyongyang on June 19 and clinched the treaty that calls for providing military assistance to each other without delay if either side comes under an armed attack. AGENCIES

North Korea fired two ballistic missiles in an eastward direction on Monday, South Korea’s military said, after warning of countermeasures against a joint military exercise held by South Korea, the US and Japan. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said one short-range ballistic missile was launched from the Jangyon area in South Hwanghae province at about 5:05 a.m. in a northeastern direction. Another unidentified ballistic missile was launched at around 5:15 a.m.

It did not provide further details, such as how far the missiles flew, Yonhap news agency reported.

“While strengthening our monitoring and vigilance against additional launches, our military is maintaining a full-readiness posture while sharing North Korean ballistic missile data with US and Japanese authorities,” the JCS told the media.

On Sunday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry denounced the three-day multi-domain “Freedom Shield” exercise, saying the country would take “offensive and overwhelming” countermeasures against what it called an attempt to strengthen a military bloc.

The drills, which ended on Saturday, involved fighter jets and warships, including a US aircraft carrier.

The latest launch came five days after North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Wednesday.

North Korea claimed the next day to have successfully conducted a multiple warhead missile test, but South Korea has dismissed the claim as “deception”, saying the launch failed as the missile exploded in midair.

North Korea has ratcheted up cross-border tensions in recent weeks, launching trash-carrying balloons to South Korea in a tit-for-tat move against anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent by North Korean defectors and activists in South Korea.

The latest launch also took place amid growing concerns over deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership” treaty during a summit last month in Pyongyang.

The pact includes a pledge for the two countries to come to each other’s aid if attacked. AGENCIES

 North Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile eastward on Monday, South Korea’s military said, marking its second launch in a week.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the launch but gave no further details, saying an analysis is underway.

The latest launch comes after North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Wednesday, Yonhap news agency reported.

North Korea claimed to have successfully conducted a multiple warhead missile test, but South Korea has dismissed the claim, saying the launch failed as the missile exploded in the air. AGENCIES