Acting president declares emergency in Sri Lanka ahead Presidential elections

News Network
July 18, 2022

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Colombo, July 18: Sri Lanka's acting president Ranil Wickremesinghe on Monday declared a state of emergency in the country with immediate effect, ahead of the July 20 election for the post of the president which fell vacant after Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation following the popular public uprising against him.

The government gazette number 2288/30 dated Jul 17 was issued Monday morning.

The 225-member Parliament is expected to elect the new president on July 20.

The president is empowered to impose emergency regulations in part 2 of the public security ordinance which says “(a) if the president is of the opinion that the police are inadequate to deal with a situation he may gazette an order calling out the armed forces to maintain public order”.

This means that security forces gain the power to search, arrest seize and remove weapons and explosives, and enter and search premises or persons.

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News Network
November 10,2023

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Iran has warned about the repercussions of the intensification of Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, which the Zionist regime has been bombing relentlessly since October 7. 

"Due to the expansion of the intensity of the war against Gaza's civilian residents, expansion of the scope of the war has become inevitable," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a telephone conversation with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Thursday.

The war started after the territory's resistance movements waged a surprise attack against the occupying entity, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm, in response to its decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

Most recently, Gaza's health ministry said the Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks had climbed to 10,812. The victims include 4,412 children, 2,918 women and 676 elders, while more than 26,000 people have been injured, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told a press conference in Gaza City.

Ever since the onset of the war, the Israeli regime has also conducted sporadic attacks on southern Lebanon, which have sparked a firefight between the regime and Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement.

Elsewhere across the region, Yemen's Armed Forces have conducted several rounds of drone and ballistic missile attacks against targets lying inside the occupied territories in response to the Israeli regime's unbridled aggression against Gaza.

The Iranian and Qatari officials vehemently condemned the Israeli regime's attacks on Gaza's civilians and voiced deep concern regarding the humanitarian situation in the coastal sliver.

The officials exchanged opinions concerning the available means of cessation of the Israeli regime's savage aggression, immediate implementation of a ceasefire, and continuous transfer of humanitarian supplies to Gaza's war-hit and besieged civilians.

They also addressed some of the initiatives that had been proposed so far concerning the manner of implementation of such a ceasefire.

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News Network
November 18,2023

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A far-right member of Israel’s legislature has called for burning down the Gaza Strip and blocking humanitarian aid to the besieged area amid the occupying regime’s brutal onslaught on the coastal silver, which has so far claimed more than 12,000 Palestinian lives.

Nissim Vaturi, deputy speaker of the Knesset and a member of the legislature's foreign affairs and security committee, made the call on Friday and said Tel Aviv must hold off on providing Gaza with relief aid until the more than 200 Israelis captured by Palestinian resistance movement Hamas are released.

Vaturi claimed that the Israeli regime has been “too humane” after the extremist cabinet of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu — under the international community’s pressure — approved the entry of two trucks of fuel per day into Gaza.

The fuel delivery was ordered to prevent the collapse of the war-ravaged city’s sewage treatment system, which risked a mass outbreak of viral diseases, as the besieged area is already beset by power outages and telecommunication disruptions.

“All of this preoccupation with whether or not there is internet in Gaza shows that we have learned nothing. We are too humane. Burn Gaza now, nothing less!” Vaturi wrote in a post on his X social media account.

“Don’t allow fuel in, don’t allow water in until the hostages are returned back!” he adds.

The Egyptian Red Crescent said 15 tons of diesel entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing from Egypt on Friday after the United Nations had warned of widespread starvation in the wake of intermittent shutdowns in internet and telephone services across the strip over the lack of fuel.

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News Network
November 11,2023

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Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi says the US is stonewalling a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as he starts a visit to Saudi Arabia to attend an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). 

President Raeisi arrived in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, his first visit since the two countries agreed to restore diplomatic relations in March.

Footage aired on the al-Ekhbariya channel showed Raeisi, wearing a traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, greeting Saudi officials at the airport after disembarking from his plane.

“If the crimes being committed nowadays in Gaza are not crimes against humanity, what is a fine example of such criminal acts then?" he said at Mehrabad airport in Tehran before heading to the kingdom. 

"America declares in its statements that it does not want the scope of the war to expand and has even sent messages to Iran and some countries.

“The statement is, however, not consistent with its actions. America is directing the war machine in Gaza. It is blocking a ceasefire in Gaza and expanding the scope of the war. The true nature of the United States must be exposed to the entire world,” the Iranian president noted.

Raeisi highlighted that his trip comes at the invitation of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

He went on to state that the Iranian request for an extraordinary summit on Gaza conflict dates back to a month ago.

“Heads of Muslim countries are expected to come up with a landmark decision on the issue of Palestine, which is the most pressing matter in the world. This decision should then be fully implemented and put into effect. This arena is no longer the sphere of words and declaration of positions. It should be the scene of actions,” the Iranian president underlined.

Raeisi described the immediate cessation of Israeli bombardments, mechanisms aimed at helping the oppressed and resilient people of Gaza, removal of the Israeli blockade on the territory, and realization of Gazans’ rights as the primary responsibilities of the OIC, stressing that the intergovernmental organization was originally founded to resolve the Palestinian issue.

“Upon my return from Tashkent, I stated that the issue of Palestine had overshadowed all other topics at the 16th ECO (Economic Cooperation Organization) Summit. I hope to make the Iranian nation’s voice heard, and that convergence and unity of Muslim countries could solve the Palestinian conflict,” he said.

Raeisi highlighted that all thinkers, scholars and the intelligentsia across the globe have expressed their solidarity with Palestinians, saying, “The international community is loudly protesting at the US support for the Zionist regime’s crimes and genocide, which in fact amount to war crimes.”

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip, including hospitals, residences, and houses of worship, since Palestinian resistance movements launched their surprise attack, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm, against the regime on October 7.

At least 11,078 Palestinians have been killed, including 4,506 children and 3,027 women.

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