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Former Deputy Minister Sarana Gunawardena was sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment today after the Colombo High Court found him guilty on corruption-related charges linked to vehicle procurement during his tenure at the National Lotteries Board.

The judgment was delivered by Colombo High Court Judge Mohomed Mihal, who also ordered the former minister to pay a fine amounting to Rs. 1.8 million.

The case was initiated by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, which had filed four indictments against Gunawardena. The charges alleged that while serving as Chairman of the National Lotteries Board, actions connected to the rental-based procurement of vehicles had resulted in financial losses to the State.

After considering the evidence presented, the court found the accused guilty on all four counts.

Although a four-year rigorous imprisonment sentence was imposed for each individual indictment, the court ruled that all sentences would run concurrently. As a result, the total effective prison term remains four years.

In addition to the prison sentence, the court imposed financial penalties in connection with the convictions, including the ordered fine.

The ruling marks the conclusion of proceedings relating to allegations surrounding procurement decisions made during Gunawardena’s leadership at the National Lotteries Board.

China's President Xi Jinping hailed an "invincible friendship" with Pyongyang as he arrived in North Korea Monday, his first trip abroad this year after hosting back-to-back summits in Beijing.

China, Washington's chief geopolitical rival, has been North Korea's main trading partner by far for decades and a key source of diplomatic and economic support for the country hit by multiple international sanctions.

Military officers lined a red carpet as an Air China plane carrying Xi arrived for his first visit since 2019, video from Xinhua showed.

A banner that read "We warmly welcome Comrade Xi Jinping" and hailing the two countries' "unbreakable friendship" hung below Chinese and North Korean flags at the airport.

Xi made the trip after hosting US President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin separately in Beijing, and as North Korea's nuclear talks with Washington remain deadlocked.

The White House said last month that Xi and Trump "confirmed their shared goal to denuclearise North Korea" during their summit in Beijing.

However, leader Kim Jong Un's powerful sister said on the eve of Xi's arrival that North Korea's nuclear weapons programme was "the line of no retreat".

Minseon Ku, a diplomacy professor at DePaul University, told AFP that "Beijing probably has accepted North Korea as a nuclear state" but Xi "will probably tell Kim that China wants stability more than anything".

China has "always prioritised stability and is currently having to manage its relations and differences with the US", Ku said.

Seong-Hyon Lee, a visiting scholar at the Harvard University Asia Center, also said Beijing is shifting towards "underwriting regime durability" rather than seeking to coerce North Korea into denuclearisation.

"China's broader regional strategy benefits from a stable, heavily armed, and aligned buffer state that absorbs US and allied military bandwidth," he told AFP.

Elevated status

North Korea has repeatedly declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear state since Kim and Trump's 2019 summit collapsed over the scope of denuclearisation and sanctions relief.

Kim has also been emboldened by the war in Ukraine, securing critical support from Moscow after sending troops to fight alongside Russian forces.

Some analysts say the summit could be Xi's way of countering Russia's growing influence over North Korea, but DePaul's Ku stressed that "overall, Moscow is not a major power like China".

"Moscow-Pyongyang power relations are more equal than Beijing-Pyongyang; Moscow needs Kim for their war in Ukraine as much as Kim needs technology sharing and food from Russia," she said.

In an article published on the front page of North Korea's Rodong Sinmun, Xi pledged closer cooperation.

"No matter how the times change or how the international situation evolves, the traditional friendship between China and North Korea is always invincible," Xi wrote.

Xi last met Kim in September, when he invited the North Korean leader and Putin to a military parade in Beijing marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Taiwan counterweight

Trump has made little progress on North Korea, especially on the nuclear front, despite his earlier high-profile summits with Kim.

North Korea is also the only country with an official, binding military alliance with China.

"America is currently engaged in offensive warfare potentially harmful to China's key interests, such as energy supplies," Vladimir Tikhonov, Korean Studies professor at the University of Oslo, told AFP.

"It appears Xi is trying to consolidate the alliance" with North Korea partly for that reason, he said.

Beijing claims self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory, and North Korea could also serve as a useful counterweight to US partners in the region, including South Korea and Japan, analysts said.

Long-frosty China-Japan ties have deteriorated since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, a security hawk, suggested last year that Tokyo might intervene militarily in any Chinese attempt to take Taiwan.

"As China's international standing rises, Beijing is likely seeking to draw Pyongyang more actively into its diplomatic orbit," said Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University.

Source: AFP 

Sri Lanka Police said that another person who was receiving treatment in hospital following the fire at an elders’ home in Anguruwatota has succumbed to injuries, increasing the death toll from the tragedy to 13.

Another five individuals who sustained serious injuries in the incident have been admitted to hospital.

A magistrate’s inquiry into the incident was conducted last morning (04), when Horana Magistrate Lakmini Vidanagamage visited the site.

The burnt bodies were removed in the presence of the magistrate, and among them, the body of a cat that had died in the fire was also discovered.

Police stated that 71 residents were staying at the elders’ home at the time of the incident.

When the fire broke out on June 03, 10 people died inside the building after being caught in the blaze.

The five injured individuals are currently receiving inpatient treatment at the Horana Base Hospital.

Approximately 50 residents who survived the fire were temporarily accommodated at the Batagoda Junior School last night.

Last morning, with the assistance of Sri Lanka Army personnel, those residents were safely transferred to another branch of the same elderly care organization located in Galpatha.

Additionally, the director of the elders’ home in Anguruwatota was remanded until June 11 by the Horana Magistrate’s Court.

(Adaderana.lk)

Health authorities have sounded the alarm over a significant rise in dengue infections across the country, with confirmed cases this year reaching 35,228 — reflecting an increase of approximately 30 to 40 percent compared to the corresponding period last year.

According to the National Dengue Control Unit, the Western Province has emerged as the most affected region, while the Colombo District continues to record the highest number of infections nationwide.

In response to the growing public health concern, the Ministry of Health has announced a special islandwide mosquito control programme to be conducted on June 8, 9 and 10. The operation is set to cover 74 Medical Officer of Health (MOH) divisions across 14 districts identified as vulnerable to disease transmission.

Authorities said the campaign will be carried out with the assistance of the Sri Lanka Police and the Sri Lanka Armed Forces, focusing particularly on areas recognised as dengue hotspots.

Officials also warned that the operation will extend beyond awareness and prevention efforts, with enforcement measures expected during inspections. These include the issuance of red notices and legal action against individuals found maintaining premises that support mosquito breeding.

The intensified response comes as health authorities seek to contain the spread of dengue and reduce the risk of further escalation in affected communities.

 Colombian pop star Shakira will perform her official song for the 2026 World Cup at the competition's opening ceremony in Mexico.

Shakira will perform Dai Dai, along with Burna Boy, on Thursday, 11 June at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, before Mexico and South Africa play the first of the tournament's 104 games (20:00 BST).

Dai Dai - an Italian phrase meaning "let's go" or "come on".

Colombian reggaeton star J Balvin and South African singer-songwriter Tyla will also perform at the show in Mexico.

Opening ceremonies will precede each of the first matches played in the host nations of USA, Canada and Mexico.

Canadian singer-songwriters Michael Buble and Alanis Morissette will headline the opening ceremony at BMO Field in Toronto before Canada take on Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday, 12 June (20:00 BST).

In the USA, pop star Katy Perry and rapper Future will perform before the USA take on Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday, 12 June (Saturday, 02:00 BST).

Shakira, along with Madonna and K-pop boyband BTS, will also co-headline the Super Bowl-style half-time show at this summer's World Cup final on 19 July.

BBC

A powerful earthquake has struck the Philippines, destroying buildings and triggering tsunami alerts across Asia.

The magnitude 7.8 quake struck off the southern island of Mindanao shortly before 7:40am local time on Monday (23:40 GMT Sunday), according to the United States Geological Survey.

The initial earthquake was followed by more than an hour of aftershocks, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS).

Video posted on official social media channels showed a three-storey building that housed a Jollibee restaurant collapsing in a cloud of debris and dust in Mindanao’s General Santos City, startling onlookers.

Other images showed extensive damage to buildings, including smashed windows and caved-in roofs.

The Philippine seismology authority said the city, which lies in the southern region of Soccsksargen, experienced a 7 out of 10 “very strong” earthquake on its internal intensity scale.

The number of potential casualties is yet to be confirmed.

Mary Ann Blanco Rhudy, a Catholic nun working for Notre Dame of Dadiangas University in General Santos, said she was travelling to the college when the earthquake struck.

“The cars on the road were moving erratically. I am lucky that they didn’t crash against each other,” she told Al Jazeera.

“The trees on the side of the road were also swaying violently.”

Rhudy said some of the buildings at the college have partially collapsed.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said on Monday morning that emergency agencies had been activated, including the Office of Civil Defence and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Marcos urged people to follow government advisories about the risk of tsunami waves.

“To our kababayans [countrymen] in the affected provinces, please heed the tsunami warning. Move to higher ground now. Do not wait. Your life is more important than anything left behind,” Marcos said.

Marcos said schools across several provinces of Mindanao have been closed for the day.

The US-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said earlier that tsunami waves as high as 3 metres (9.8 feet) could hit coastal areas of the Philippines, and waves of up to 1 metre (3.3 ft) were possible in parts of Indonesia and Malaysia.

The first waves were expected to hit the Philippines and parts of Indonesia at about 10am local time (02:00 GMT), followed by southern Japan and Taiwan at about 11am (03:00 GMT), and Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands an hour later, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

The US National Tsunami Warning Center, which downgraded the quake from an earlier estimate of magnitude 8.2, said the quake posed no threat to coastal areas of the US.

Officials in Japan, the Philippines, and Indonesia have issued alerts warning of hazardous waves and advising citizens in coastal areas to get to safety.

Philippine authorities said people in nine provinces – including Sarangani, Davao Occidental, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu – should immediately evacuate to higher ground or further inland.

“Owners of boats in harbours, estuaries or shallow coastal water of the above-mentioned provinces should secure their boats and move away from the waterfront,” PHIVOLCS said.

“Boats already at sea during this period should stay offshore in deep waters until further advised.”

Indonesia also issued an immediate evacuation order for parts of northern Sulawesi, northern Gorontalo province and the Sangihe Islands, with residents urged to move to higher ground.

A tsunami warning is also in place for Japan’s outlying islands, including Okinawa and the country’s southern coast.

Officials in the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam cancelled earlier tsunami warnings, but said there was still a risk of strong currents and dangerous beach conditions.

- Al Jazeera 

Proceedings in the money laundering case filed against Yoshitha Rajapaksa, son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, have been postponed by the Colombo High Court until July 9 as related legal proceedings continue before the Court of Appeal.

The case was taken up before Colombo High Court Judge Udesh Ranatunga, where the prosecution informed court that a revision petition submitted by the accused had already been called before the Court of Appeal on the previous day and fixed for hearing on June 16, 2026.

Deputy Solicitor General Janaka Bandara told the court that the prosecution had communicated to the Court of Appeal that no evidence would be led in the High Court proceedings until the matter before the appellate court had been considered.

Based on that position, the prosecution requested that the High Court postpone the case without summoning witnesses.

Accepting the request, Judge Ranatunga ordered that proceedings be deferred until July 9 and directed witnesses to appear on the next scheduled date, subject to the outcome of the appeal process.

The Attorney General has filed indictments against Yoshitha Rajapaksa under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, alleging that he unlawfully acquired five plots of land valued at more than Rs. 73 million.

The ICC Women's T20 World Cup was launched in stunning fashion on Sunday as London's famous Waterloo Bridge was transformed into a massive cricket pitch for the first time.

All 12 captains were in attendance at the famous London landmark ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup in England and Wales, which begins June 12, with the world's best players taking part in the Captains' Carnival high above the River Thames.

It was the first public gathering of all 12 captains ahead of the T20 World Cup and served as a powerful symbol of the global growth, visibility and appeal of women’s cricket in front of well-known London landmarks that included Big Ben, St Paul’s Cathedral and the London Eye.

The famous Waterloo Bridge was turned into a vibrant celebration of cricket and culture as anticipation builds for the upcoming event that promises to redefine what is possible for women’s cricket on the global stage.

“This is a landmark moment for women’s Cricket and a fitting way to launch what we believe will be the most exciting and ambitious ICC Women’s T20 World Cup ever staged," ICC Chairman Jay Shah said.

"This will help elevate the buzz and excitement around the event, providing the final boost to the anticipation for the tournament before the first ball is bowled on June 12 in Birmingham. 

"This event is another expression of the ICC’s commitment and belief linked to the agenda of building a more inclusive, global game.”

With ticket sales already around 200,000 – a record-breaking figure achieved before the tournament has even begun and comfortably eclipsing previous ICC Women’s T20 World Cup benchmarks – even more records are set to be smashed when the action gets underway in less than a week.

“Seeing these 12 captains playing cricket in a global first on an iconic London stage is a sign of how far the women’s game has come and where it’s headed," ICC Director and England Cricket Board Chair Richard Thompson said.

“With just five days to go until the opening game, this landmark captain’s event sets the scene for what promises to be the most attended and most widely covered Women’s World Cup ever.”

Source: ICC

Former head of the State Intelligence Service (SIS), Major General (Retired) Suresh Sallay has been admitted to the Colombo National Hospital, a short while ago.

Hospital sources said that he was admitted to the hospital’s Emergency Treatment Unit (ETU) for medical care.

Further details regarding his current health condition have not yet been released.

Earlier today, the wife of Major General (Retired) Suresh Sallay, Manori Sallay stated that her husband served the country for 38 years, dedicating his life, and that the time has now come for the public to show gratitude for that service.

She made these remarks when she visited the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) today to meet Suresh Sallay, who has reportedly begun a “fast unto death” in protest.

She further said that although she had asked her husband to abandon the hunger strike, he was not willing to accept it and continues to stand against what he considers injustice.

She also claimed that Suresh Sallay, who is still only a suspect, is being treated in a very inhumane manner and that there is no fairness in the way he is being handled.

Sallay's wife, son, and brother visited the CID today to see him while he is being held under detention orders.

Meanwhile, the wife of Major General Suresh Sallay wrote to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), calling for an independent criminal investigation into alleged inhumane treatment during his detention in the custody of the Criminal Investigation Department.

In her letter, she requested an inquiry into allegations including torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, abuse of authority, denial of medical care, and other possible offences allegedly committed while he remains in state custody.

The letter outlined 10 points based on information reportedly conveyed by Maj. Gen. Sallay during a family visit on June 6, when he met his son and brother. The letter noted that the alleged treatment raises serious concerns over his safety, health, dignity, and fundamental rights.

According to the correspondence, Maj. Gen. Sallay has informed his family that he has commenced a “fast unto death,” stating that he can no longer endure what he describes as continued mental distress, degrading treatment, and systemic unfairness while in custody.

He has also reportedly said that he remains confident that pending writ proceedings will establish his innocence and has instructed his legal representatives to continue legal action even in the event of his death.

Given the reported hunger strike and concerns over his health, his wife has urged the IGP to intervene immediately.

She further noted that a separate complaint regarding alleged inhumane treatment was submitted to the IGP’s office on March 7. However, she claims that no response has been received so far, and that the family has not been informed of any investigation, statements recorded, or officers assigned to inquire into the matter.

The letter stated that the absence of a response is particularly concerning given that the allegations involve a person in state custody, where authorities have a heightened duty to protect life, health, safety, dignity, and constitutional rights.

Accordingly, she requested that the IGP treat the latest communication as a renewed complaint and an urgent request for immediate intervention, investigation, and accountability.

The former head of the State Intelligence Service, Major General (Retired) Suresh Sallay was arrested by the CID on February 25 over allegations linked to the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings and remains in detention under a court order.

(Source - Adaderana.lk)