Spain has withdrawn its ambassador to Israel in the latest escalation of a deepening diplomatic dispute between Madrid and Tel Aviv over Israel’s assault on Gaza and the recent United States and Israeli attacks on Iran.

The editor of the Sri Lankan news website Lanka e News has been arrested by police shortly after returning to the island having fled almost 16 years ago.

The bodies of dozens of Iranian sailors killed when a United States submarine attacked and sank the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena off the southern coast of Sri Lanka are set to be returned to Iran, according to Iranian authorities.

Another Tamil parent who spent years searching for answers about his forcibly disappeared family members has died without learning their fate, highlighting the continuing anguish faced by families of the disappeared across the Tamil homeland.

A Sinhala Buddhist monk led a small demonstration in Colombo expressing solidarity with the United States and Israel, praising both countries for what he described as supporting Sri Lanka in “defeating terrorism”.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has said it will keep its peacekeeping force in the town of Akobo despite an order by the South Sudanese military to vacate the area ahead of a planned offensive.

In a statement issued on Monday, the UN mission warned that military operations in and around the town could place civilians at grave risk.

A former colonel in Syria’s Air Force Intelligence has appeared before a London court charged with crimes against humanity, in what prosecutors say is the first case of its kind brought under British law.

Former Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran has reiterated that there must be no compromise in the demand for the complete repeal of Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), warning that its abolition should not be tied to the introduction of new legislation.

Vanni District Member of Parliament Thurairasa Ravikaran has criticised members of the Rajapaksa family for portraying themselves as humanitarians while expressing concern over the ongoing war in the Middle East, accusing them of hypocrisy given their role in the atrocities committed against the Tamil people  in 2009.