A fresh attempt to acquire Tamil land in Vadamaradchi East for reported Sri Lankan military use was suspended on Thursday after the landowner, local residents and activists intervened to block the survey.

Sri Lanka's deputy defence minister has told parliament that land held within the Palaly High Security Zone deemed vital to national security will not be returned to its Tamil owners, and that a further 1,661 acres are to be permanently acquired for the military, with still more sought to expand the airport, even as displaced families across the North-East enter their third month of weekly protests demanding their land back.

For Toronto-based dancer Kajaanan Navaratnam, an early connection to Tamil culture became the foundation for an international performance career, eventually leading him to one of the biggest sporting events in the world: the FIFA World Cup 2026 opening ceremony in Canada.

A Tibetan independence activist has died after setting himself on fire outside the United Nations headquarters in New York, in a act of protest that Tibetan exile groups described as an appeal for Tibetan independence and unity.

Relatives and clergy have gathered at St Peter's Church in Navaly to mark 31 years since the Sri Lankan Air Force dropped 13 bombs on the church and a neighbouring Hindu temple where hundreds of Tamil civilians, urged by the military itself to shelter in places of worship, had taken refuge, killing 147, an atrocity for which no Sri Lankan government has ever accepted responsibility.

As Sri Lanka's Buddhist clergy faces an unprecedented reckoning over child sexual abuse, with nearly 300 monks accused in three years and one of its most senior figures under arrest, the Chief Prelate of the Asgiriya Chapter has called on Buddhists to close ranks, casting the mounting allegations as a defamatory campaign against the faith.

Prison officers responding to the deadly unrest at Negombo Prison were attacked by inmates who allegedly dropped large stones onto their heads, according to Sri Lankan prison authorities, as investigations continue into one of the country's deadliest prison incidents in recent years/