Colombo: A gunman fired at a church in Sri Lanka, police said Saturday, with the country on high alert six years since Easter Sunday bombings killed hundreds.
The gunman opened fire Friday at a church in Manampitiya, 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of the capital Colombo, a police statement said.
The shooting damaged windows and no one was hurt, while a suspect has been arrested, police said.
“Initial investigations suggest that the suspect had targeted the church due to a personal enmity with the pastor,” the statement said.
Armed police and troops have been deployed to nearly all churches nationwide during Easter celebrations, with security heightened following the 2019 attack.
Suicide bombers in 2019 killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners, at three churches and three hotels.
More than 500 people were wounded in the attack, which officials blamed on a home-grown Islamist group.
The Catholic Church will commemorate the victims on Monday, by declaring them “Heroes of the Faith.”
Sri Lanka’s Catholic minority has maintained a campaign for justice since the bombings, saying that prior investigations failed to answer outstanding questions.
The Church has accused successive governments of protecting those behind the attack and several high-level investigations have identified links between military intelligence units and the bombers.
Gunman fires at Sri Lanka church ahead of Easter bombings anniversary
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Gunman fires at Sri Lanka church ahead of Easter bombings anniversary
- The shooting damaged windows and no one was hurt and a suspect has been arrested
Trump’s Alcatraz prison restoration plan gets cold reception from tourists
- Site known as ‘The Rock’ draws 1.2 million tourists a year
- US closed prison in 1963 due costs of operating on an island
SAN FRANCISCO: US President Donald Trump’s plan to turn Alcatraz back into a federal prison was summarily rejected on Monday by some visitors to the tourist site in San Francisco Bay.
Trump revealed a plan over the weekend to rebuild and expand the notorious island prison, a historic landmark known as “The Rock” and operated by the US government’s National Park Service. It’s “just an idea I’ve had,” he said.
“We need law and order in this country. So we’re going to look at it,” he added on Monday.
Once nearly impossible to leave, the island can be difficult to get to because of competition for tickets. Alcatraz prison held fewer than 300 inmates at a time before it was closed in 1963 and draws roughly 1.2 million tourists a year.
US Bureau of Prisons Director William Marshall said on Monday he would vigorously pursue the president’s agenda and was looking at next steps.
“It’s a waste of money,” said visitor Ben Stripe from Santa Ana, California. “After walking around and seeing this place and the condition it’s in, it is just way too expensive to refurbish.” he said.
“It’s not feasible to have somebody still live here,” agreed Cindy Lacomb from Phoenix, Arizona, who imagined replacing all the metal in the cells and rebuilding the crumbling concrete.
The sprawling site is in disrepair, with peeling paint and rusting locks and cell bars. Signs reading “Area closed for your safety” block off access to many parts of the grounds. Chemical toilets sit next to permanent restrooms closed off for repair.
The former home of Al Capone and other notable inmates was known for tough treatment, including pitch-black isolation cells. It was billed as America’s most secure prison given the island location, frigid waters and strong currents.
It was closed because of high operating costs. The island also was claimed by Native American activists in 1969, an act of civil disobedience acknowledged by the National Park Service.
Mike Forbes, visiting from Pittsburgh, said it should remain a part of history. “I’m a former prison guard and rehabilitation is real. Punishment is best left in the past,” Forbes said.
No successful escapes were ever officially recorded from Alcatraz, though five prisoners were listed as “missing and presumed drowned.”
Today a “Supermax” facility located in Florence, Colorado, about 115 miles (185 km) south of Denver, is nicknamed the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.” No one has ever escaped from that 375-inmate facility since it opened in 1994.
Congress in fiscal year 2024 cut the Bureau of Prisons infrastructure budget by 38 percent and prison officials have previously reported a $3 billion maintenance backlog. The Bureau of Prisons last year said it would close aging prisons, as it struggled with funding cuts.
18 British student groups support legal action to remove Hamas from UK terror list
- The groups, some of which are affiliated with student unions at leading universities, say the ban ‘creates an atmosphere where advocacy for Palestine becomes a legal risk’
- The prohibition of Hamas means it is a criminal offense for anyone in the UK to have links with the organization or show support for it
LONDON: Eighteen student groups at British universities have supported legal moves to remove Hamas from the UK’s list of proscribed terrorist organizations.
Some of the groups are affiliated with student unions at leading UK academic institutions, including the London School of Economics, the University of Edinburgh, and University College London.
The groups said the legal petition “defends the right of students, academics and communities to think freely, speak openly and organize without fear of being criminalized,” The Times newspaper reported on Monday.
In April, senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk instructed British firm Riverway Law to take legal action with the aim of removing his organization from a Home Office list of terrorist groups. The military wing of Hamas was banned by UK authorities in 2001. The ban was extended in 2021 to include its political bureau.
Lawyers from the firm said in April that by banning Hamas, “Britain is effectively denying the Palestinians the right to defend themselves.” The organization “does not pose any threat” to Britain’s national security, they added, and the ban was therefore “disproportionate.”
The prohibition of Hamas means it is a criminal offense for anyone in the UK to have any links with the organization or show support for it.
The student groups said the ban on Hamas “creates an atmosphere where advocacy for Palestine becomes a legal risk,” and students who participated in pro-Palestinian activism faced intimidation and threats.
“We therefore stand in support of Riverway Law’s application to deproscribe Hamas, not as an endorsement of any group, but to protect the civic space essential for academic freedom and open inquiry,” they said.
The student organizations backing the legal challenge include Edinburgh University Justice for Palestine Society, LSE Divest Encampment for Liberation, University of Birmingham Friends of Palestine, Newcastle Apartheid Off Campus, and the Students Against Apartheid Coalition at the University of Leeds.
Hegseth directs 20 percent cut to top military leadership positions
- In a memo dated Monday, Hegseth said the cuts will remove “redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership”
WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday directed the active duty military to shed 20 percent of its four-star general officers as the Trump administration keep pushing the services to streamline their top leadership positions.
Hegseth also told the National Guard to shed 20 percent of its top positions.
In a memo dated Monday, Hegseth said the cuts will remove “redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership.”
On top of the cuts to the top-tier four-star generals, Hegseth has also directed the military to shed an additional 10 percent of its general and flag officers across the force, which could include any one-star or above or equivalent Navy rank.
UN chief says strike on Port Sudan a ‘worrying development’
- Army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) “targeted Osman Digna Air Base, a goods warehouse and some civilian facilities in the city of Port Sudan with suicide drones”
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN chief Antonio Guterres is “concerned” by reports that Sudanese paramilitaries for the first time struck Port Sudan, the seat of the army-aligned government during the country’s two-year war, a spokesman said Monday.
“The attack on port Sudan is a worrying development threatening the protection of civilians and humanitarian operations in an area so far spared from experiencing the devastating conflict seen in many other parts of the country,” Farhan Haq told reporters.
He said that Sunday’s attacks “appear to be the latest in a series of retaliatory military operations” conducted by paramilitaries and the army to target airports in each other’s areas of control.
Army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) “targeted Osman Digna Air Base, a goods warehouse and some civilian facilities in the city of Port Sudan with suicide drones.”
He reported no casualties and “limited damage.”
AFP images showed smoke above the airport area, about 400 miles (650 kilometers) from the nearest known RSF positions on capital Khartoum’s outskirts.
The RSF, battling the regular army since April 2023, have increasingly used drones since losing territory including much of Khartoum in March.
The paramilitaries led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo are battling the regular army, headed by Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, in a devastating war that has killed tens of thousands and uprooted 13 million.
In the conflict’s early days, the government relocated from Khartoum to Port Sudan, which until Sunday had been spared the violence.
UN agencies have also moved their operations to Port Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have sought refuge.
Haq said the attacks “have not had a direct impact on the humanitarian operations or activities in Port Sudan,” but said that UN aid flights to and from the city had been temporarily put on hold.
“None of our offices, premises or warehouses have been impacted, and we continue to carry out our regular operations,” he added.
US Army pausing helicopter flights near Washington airport after close calls
- Two commercial planes had to abort landings last week because of an Army Black Hawk helicopter that was flying to the Pentagon
- Pause comes after 67 people died in January when a passenger jet collided in midair with a Black Hawk helicopter at Reagan airport
WASHINGTON: The Army is pausing helicopter flights near a Washington airport after two commercial planes had to abort landings last week because of an Army Black Hawk helicopter that was flying to the Pentagon.
The commander of the 12th Aviation Battalion directed the unit to pause helicopter flight operations around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport following Thursday’s close calls, two Army officials confirmed to The Associated Press.
The pause comes after 67 people died in January when a passenger jet collided in midair with a Black Hawk helicopter at Reagan airport.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that were not publicly announced. The unit is continuing to fly in the greater Washington, D.C., region.
The unit had begun a return to flight within the last week, with plans to gradually increase the number of flights over the next four weeks, according to an Army document viewed by the AP.
Thursday’s close call involved a Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 and a Republic Airways Embraer E170, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
They were instructed by air traffic control to “perform go-arounds” because of a “priority air transport” helicopter, according to an emailed statement from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The priority air transport helicopters of the 12th battalion provide transport service to top Pentagon officials. It was a Black Hawk priority air transport known as PAT25 that collided with the passenger jet in midair in January.
That crash was the worst US midair disaster in more than two decades. In March, the FAA announced that helicopters would be prohibited from flying in the same airspace as planes near Reagan airport.
The NTSB and FAA are both investigating the latest close call with an Army helicopter.
The Army said after the latest incident that the UH-60 Blackhawk was following published FAA flight routes and air traffic control from Reagan airport when it was “directed by Pentagon Air Traffic Control to conduct a ‘go-around,’ overflying the Pentagon helipad in accordance with approved flight procedures.”
But helicopter traffic remains a concern around that busy airport. The FAA said that three flights that had been cleared for landing Sunday at Reagan were ordered to go around because a police helicopter was on an urgent mission in the area. All three flights landed safely on their second approaches.
The NTSB said after the January crash that there had been an alarming number of close calls near Reagan in recent years, and the FAA should have acted sooner.
