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.

Residents of Valikamam North staged their twelfth consecutive weekly protest on Friday outside the Sri Lankan military commander's bungalow at Myliddy, demanding the release of the privately owned ancestral land that remains occupied under the High Security Zone (HSZ).

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/

Amnesty International has called for an urgent and independent investigation into the deaths of two prisoners transferred from Negombo Prison, warning that allegations of torture and ill-treatment against other inmates are “deeply alarming”.

Tamil families of the forcibly disappeared across the North-East have announced an international conference on 30 August, renewing their rejection of Sri Lanka's domestic accountability mechanisms and their decade-long demand for international justice, as more than 400 mothers and fathers have now died without ever learning the fate of their loved ones.

The Sri Lankan military has agreed to reopen the permanent road to the Rajarajeshwari Amman Temple in Palaly, blocked for years by an army vehicle-repair depot, and to allow daily worship until 10pm, a concession within one of Jaffna's most militarised zones that nonetheless leaves thousands of displaced families still barred from their land.

Vanni District MP Thurairasa Ravikaran has called for justice over the Negombo Prison violence, an investigation into former president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga over alleged Chemmani cover-up claims, and the release of military-occupied land in Keppapulavu.

Farmers and residents in Vavuniya have protested against the alleged encroachment of the catchment of the Kovilkulam tank, warning that development on the land threatens the reservoir's water supply and the farming livelihoods of a community reliant on the dry zone's centuries-old network of village tanks.