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Six police officers arrested in connection with the alleged assault of a Catholic priest in Gampaha have been further remanded until January 29, 2026.

The officers were produced before the Gampaha Magistrate’s Court today (26), where the court issued the remand order pending further investigations.

In addition, the Magistrate directed that an identification parade be conducted on January 29, 2026, as part of the ongoing legal proceedings related to the incident.

Japanese panda fans gathered Sunday for the final public viewing at Tokyo’s Ueno zoo before twins Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei return to China this week.

Their departure on Tuesday will leave Japan with no pandas for the first time in half a century, and the chances of getting a replacement are poor, with Tokyo’s relations with Beijing at their lowest point in years.

China first sent pandas to Japan in 1972, a gift meant to mark the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two wary neighbors. The cuddly black-and-white bears immediately won Japanese hearts, and a dozen successors have become national celebrities.

The latest departing panda twins have attracted massive crowds despite a one-minute viewing limit per visitor in the panda zone set by the zoo. 

Visitors, many of them carrying panda-themed toys, call out the bears’ names and use smartphones to capture them as they nibble bamboo and stroll around. Many of those who couldn’t get panda viewing tickets still came to the zoo anyway to mark the last day.

Longtime panda fan Michiko Seki, in a panda-patterned black-and-white shirt, said she was happy to see and photograph the twins looking healthy and eating well. She was using the same camera she had bought when she started taking photos of their elder sister Xian Xian that left Japan two years ago.

Seki says she doesn’t want to see pandas stuck in the diplomatic row. “They are the animals that can provide tremendous comfort,” she said. “Japan needs pandas, and (I) hope politicians will work something out.”

Beijing lends pandas to other countries but maintains ownership, including over any cubs they produce. Xiao Xiao and his sister Lei Lei were born in the Ueno zoo in 2021.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, asked about China sending new pandas to Japan, said: “I know giant pandas are loved by many in Japan, and we welcome Japanese friends to come visit them in China.”

Devoted panda fan takes millions of photos

Web engineer Takahiro Takauji’s days revolve around pandas.

It started 15 years ago when he visited the Ueno Zoological Gardens and fell in love with the twin pandas’ parents, Shin Shin and Ri Ri, soon after their arrival from China.

“Their shape and the way they move are honestly so cute and funny,” he told The Associated Press in a recent interview at his home near Tokyo. “Sometimes they are baby-like; at other times they act like an old man.”

A daily zoo visit has since become essential. He has taken more than 10 million photos of the pandas, and published a number of panda photo books.

On a recent afternoon, Takauji was among thousands who entered a competitive online booking system to see the pandas one last time.

During the one-minute viewing session, Takauji held his camera high above the other fans and took as many as 5,000 still shots to capture every motion of Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei.

Back at home, in a room adorned with dozens of panda mascots and ornaments, Takauji carefully went through his fresh photos from the day and uploaded them on his blog, “Every Day Pandas.”

Having seen the twins since birth, he considers them “just like my own children.”

“I never imagined there would come a day when pandas would be gone from Japan,” he says.

Ties are strained between Tokyo and Beijing

Japan has faced increasing political, trade and security tensions with China, which was angered by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remarks that potential Chinese action against Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island Beijing claims as its own, could spark Japanese intervention.

Ties between Japan and China have been fraught since the Japanese aggression in the 19th century. There are still territorial disputes in the East China Sea as China’s rise is accompanied by security threats and increasing economic influence in the region.

Japan’s top government spokesperson, Minoru Kihara, acknowledged on Thursday that the Japanese Consulate in Chongqing has been without a consul for a month because China has delayed approval of a replacement.

Pandas have long been part of Chinese diplomacy

Giant pandas, native to southwestern China, serve as an unofficial mascot. Beijing lends them to other countries as a sign of goodwill and as part of research and conservation programs.

The first pair of pandas, Kang Kang and Lan Lan, that China gifted to Japan arrived in Ueno on Oct. 28, 1972. It was one month after Japan’s prime minister at the time, Kakuei Tanaka, and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai signed a joint communique normalizing ties between the countries. Japan noted it “fully understands and respects” China’s claim on Taiwan as “an inalienable part” of its territory.

China also gifted the first giant pandas around that time to other Western nations, including the United States, France, Britain and Germany.

China switched to leasing programs in the 1980s, with participating overseas zoos paying annual fees for habitat conservation or scientific research to benefit the species.

Japan has seen panda diplomacy turn political. A plan to bring a panda to Japan’s northern city of Sendai after the 2011 quake and tsunami disaster was shelved in the wake of a 2012 territorial dispute.

Pandas are beloved in Japan

Panda images appear in and outside of the Ueno zoo on cookies and sweets, stuffed dolls, stationery and photo books. Panda statues sit outside a train station. A department store has a section dedicated to panda goods.

“Pandas are a symbol of Ueno, a star,” said Asao Ezure, manager of a souvenir shop. “We worry how the pandas’ absence will affect us.”

Showing a cartoon of Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei on a shop signboard, Ezure says he believes that pandas will come back. “So we are not going to change the signboard.”

The absence of pandas at the zoo would cause an annual loss of about 20 billion yen ($128 million), according to Katsuhiro Miyamoto, an economics professor at Kansai University.

“If the situation continues for several years, the negative economic impact of having no pandas is expected to reach tens of billions of yen,” Miyamoto said in a statement. “For panda-loving Japanese, including myself, I hope they return as soon as possible.”

Source: adaderana.lk

The death toll from a ferry boat accident in the Southern Philippines has reached at least 15, with 316 people rescued, the Philippine Coast Guard said on Monday as the search continued for the dozens still missing.

The accident occurred at 1:50 a.m. [1750 GMT] on Monday while the passenger vessel, MV Trisha Kerstin 3, was en route to Jolo in Sulu province after departing from Zamboanga. The PCG said the vessel, operating within its authorised passenger capacity of 352, had 332 passengers on board and 27 crew.

Search and rescue teams scouring the area in relatively calm waters have helped speed up operations, Coast Guard Commander Romel Dua of Southern Mindanao District said by phone. He said 28 remain missing.

Dua said an investigation was underway to determine the cause of the accident. Military aircraft and vessels have been deployed to assist rescue efforts, Dua added.

Mujiv Hataman, governor of the island province of Basilan, shared clips from the scene at Mindanao’s Isabela port on Facebook, showing survivors being ushered off boats, with some wrapped in thermal blankets and others being carried on stretchers.

Hataman told DZBB radio that most survivors were doing well, but several elderly passengers needed emergency medical care. He added that authorities were still cross‑checking the passenger manifest as rescue efforts proceeded.

Scores of people die each year from ferry accidents in the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands with a patchy record on maritime safety.

Source:

A foreign tourist from Russia has lost her life following a drowning incident at Bentota Beach, police confirmed.

The woman was reportedly swimming in the sea together with a group of other foreign nationals when she ran into difficulty. Despite efforts to assist her, she was later pronounced dead.

The deceased has been identified as a 49-year-old Russian citizen. Bentota Police have initiated further inquiries to establish the exact cause of the incident.

A private jet crashed in flames as it was taking off from a Maine airport with eight aboard, the U.S. aviation regulator said, but their fate and identities were not immediately known.

Sunday’s crash of a twin-engine turbo-fan jet Bombardier Challenger 600 at Bangor International Airport happened at about 7:45 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement, adding that it planned to investigate.

Few details were available, but a government official briefed on the matter told Reuters there was a significant fire after the crash.

Light snow had started falling at the airport before the crash, weather reports showed, but authorities gave no immediate indication that weather played a role in the accident.

A winter storm warning covered most of Maine, including Bangor, the state’s third-largest city.

The plane had arrived in Maine from Texas, the government official said. The company listed as its registered owner shares a Houston address with Arnold & Itkin, a personal injury law firm.

FAA records show the craft went into service in April 2020.

The FAA said it would investigate the crash along with the National Transportation Safety Board.

Source: adaderana.lk

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, has announced a major investment initiative worth US$166 million to support Sri Lankan businesses and help move the economy from stabilization toward sustainable expansion.

In a statement, the IFC said the funding underscores its continued commitment to strengthening Sri Lanka’s private sector. The country-focused financing program is designed to widen access to credit for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly women-owned businesses and companies operating in the agri-business sector, with the aim of promoting inclusive growth and job creation.

The investment has been channeled through three leading private commercial banks in Sri Lanka and includes a US$50 million loan, US$80 million in Risk-Sharing Facilities, and US$36 million allocated for trade finance support.

Although SMEs make up more than 75 percent of businesses in Sri Lanka and provide around 45 percent of total employment, limited access to financing continues to constrain their growth. The IFC noted that this initiative aligns with national development priorities and World Bank Group objectives, offering targeted solutions to help SMEs overcome financing challenges and enhance economic resilience.

The IFC also highlighted its recent contribution to strengthening the country’s financial framework through the launch of a Secured Transactions Registry, which is expected to further improve credit access for small and medium-sized businesses.

More than 1 million customers in the United States, as far west as New Mexico, were without electricity, and over 10,000 flights were canceled on Sunday during a monster winter storm that paralyzed eastern and southern states with heavy snow and ice. 
 
As snow, sleet, freezing rain and dangerously frigid temperatures swept into the eastern two-thirds of the nation on Sunday, the number of power outages continued to rise.
As of 2:16 p.m. on Sunday, more than 1 million U.S. customers were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us, with at least 330,000 in Tennessee and over 100,000 each in Mississippi and Louisiana. Other states affected included Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, West Virginia and Alabama. 

More than 10,800 U.S. flights scheduled for Sunday were canceled, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Over 4,000 flights were canceled on Saturday. 
 
Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport said airlines had canceled all flights at the airport on Sunday. FlightAware data indicated that more than 80 percent of Sunday flights were canceled for several airports in large metropolitan regions, including New York, Philadelphia and Charlotte, N.C.
 
Delta Air Lines on Sunday said that it intended to operate on a reduced schedule “subject to real-time frozen precipitation and afternoon storm conditions.”

The airline had adjusted its schedule on Saturday, with additional cancellations in the morning for Atlanta and along the East Coast, including in Boston and New York City, and said it would move experts from cold-weather hubs to support de-icing and baggage teams at several southern airports.
 
The National Weather Service’s latest forecast for Sunday through Monday morning calls for heavy snow from the Ohio Valley to the Northeast, including up to 18 inches in New England. Much of the Southeast and parts of the Mid-Atlantic are expected to get rain and freezing rain.
 
Forecasters predicted “bitterly cold temperatures and dangerously cold wind chills” from the southern plains to the Northeast in the wake of the storm, bringing “prolonged hazardous travel and infrastructure impacts.”

Federal, state governments declare emergencies
 
Calling the storms “historic,” President Donald Trump on Saturday approved federal emergency disaster declarations in South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, and West Virginia.
 
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia declared weather emergencies on Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security said.
 
Power lines could be particularly vulnerable because of the potential for ice, officials said.
 
“The situation with this storm is pretty unique, just because it’s going to stay cold for a period of time,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on the “Fox News Sunday Briefing” program. “This ice that has fallen will keep those lines heavy, even if they haven’t gone down immediately.”

The Department of Energy on Saturday issued an emergency order authorizing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to deploy backup generation resources at data centers and other major facilities, aiming to limit blackouts in the state.
 
On Sunday, the DOE issued an emergency order to authorize grid operator PJM Interconnection to run “specified resources” in the mid-Atlantic region, regardless of limits due to state laws or environmental permits. U.S. electric grid operators on Saturday stepped up precautions to avoid rotating blackouts.
 
Dominion Energy, whose Virginia operations include the largest collection of data centers in the world, said if its ice forecast held, the winter event could be among the largest to affect the company.

Source:adaderana.lk

The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) has announced the commencement of an island-wide indefinite trade union action starting at 8.00 a.m. today (26), following what it describes as the Ministry of Health’s failure to carry out previously agreed corrective measures.

GMOA Media Spokesperson Dr. Chamil Wijesinghe said the action will be implemented through a series of five trade union measures, emphasizing that doctors are not refusing to work but will operate strictly within the limits of available resources and approved conditions.

Under the action plan, medical officers will refrain from issuing prescriptions for medicines that are not available at hospital clinics or outpatient departments for purchase from private pharmacies. Similarly, prescriptions or referrals for laboratory tests unavailable within the public hospital system will not be issued for external laboratories or private institutions.

The GMOA has also decided not to support the establishment of new hospital units unless the approved number of doctors is provided and official authorization is granted. In addition, doctors will withdraw from politically motivated clinics and health camps, and will step away from duties at hospitals, clinics, and OPDs if assistant officers are not assigned to support patient examinations.

Addressing the media, Dr. Wijesinghe stressed that responsibility for any disruption to the free health service would rest with the Ministry of Health and the government if essential facilities are not ensured. He further stated that the GMOA’s Central Committee will meet on Wednesday (28) to decide on further steps, warning that the ongoing trade union action could be intensified in the coming days.

Today marks 28 years since the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) carried out a devastating bomb attack on the revered Sri Dalada Maligawa, one of Sri Lanka’s most sacred religious sites.

The attack occurred in the early hours of January 25, 1998, at approximately 6:05 a.m., when a lorry packed with explosives was detonated near the Sri Natha Devalaya area in Kandy. The blast caused extensive damage to the temple complex and its surroundings.

Sixteen civilians lost their lives in the attack, while three LTTE members later arrested in connection with the incident were sentenced to death. Although several sections of the temple sustained severe damage, the Sacred Tooth Relic itself was not harmed.

Restoration work on the damaged areas was later completed at an estimated cost of Rs. 150 million.

To mark the anniversary, multiple organizations conducted Bodhi Puja ceremonies at the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic today, paying homage to the victims and offering prayers in remembrance of those who perished in the tragic incident.

The Department of Meteorology says several rounds of showers are expected today (26) in the Northern, North-Central, Eastern, North-Western and Uva provinces, as well as in the Matale and Nuwara-Eliya districts.

In other areas of the island, isolated showers or thundershowers may develop after 2.00 p.m. The Met Department also warned that parts of the Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces, along with the Galle and Matara districts, could receive fairly heavy rainfall of around 50 millimetres.

Meanwhile, strong winds ranging between 30 and 40 kilometres per hour are likely at times over the eastern slopes of the central hills, the Northern, North-Central, North-Western and Eastern provinces, and in the Matara, Hambantota and Monaragala districts.

Misty conditions are expected during the early morning hours in some locations in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Central and Uva provinces, as well as in the Galle and Matara districts.

The general public has been urged to take necessary precautions to reduce potential damage caused by localized strong winds and lightning associated with thundershowers.

Three individuals attempting to illegally bring a large stock of narcotics into Sri Lanka were arrested at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) early this morning (25) by Airport Customs officers and personnel from the Customs Narcotics Control Unit.

The arrests took place at the arrivals terminal’s Green Channel, which is reserved for passengers declaring no goods. During inspections, officers detected suspicious luggage belonging to the passengers.

Authorities identified the suspects as a 29-year-old bricklayer from Nattandiya, a 29-year-old businessman also from Nattandiya, and a 32-year-old businessman from Grandpass, Colombo. The trio had arrived from Muscat, Oman at around 4:00 a.m. on SalamAir flight OV 437.

A detailed search of five pieces of luggage led to the seizure of 10.394 kilograms of Kush concealed in 10 packets, along with 1.912 kilograms of Hashish hidden in 18 packets. The total estimated street value of the drugs is Rs. 133.94 million.

The suspects and the seized narcotics have been transferred to the Katunayake Airport Police Narcotics Bureau for further investigations.