Clashes between Tamil civilians and Navy personnel took place after a member of Sri Lanka’s Navy was caught trespassing a home in Mannar.

The clash happened after families in Arippu, Manner noticed a rise in theft and decided to set up a neighbourhood watch system to tackle the issue. The trespassing member of Sri Lanka’s Navy was captured by local villagers and held until the early hours of Wednesday morning, causing other Navy personnel to fire warning shots demanding the release of the captured soldier.

One villager told reporters,

The European Union will double its development aid to Sri Lanka over the next four years "in support of the government's reconciliation priorities" said a press release this week.

The assistance, totalling €210 million (approximately Rs. 34 billion) for the years up to 2020, will also be used to fund “the resettlement of Internally Displaced People, assisting transitional justice and building local government capacity, as well as supporting development in Sri Lanka's poorest areas”.

The first phase of a Chinese project to build a ‘Central Expressway’ in Sri Lanka has sharply increased by 12 million rupees, after the government failed to make savings on other projects reports the Sunday Times.

The Sri Lankan government is till currently in talks with China’s Exim Bank to fund the first phase of the expressway, which is a 37.1 km stretch from Kadawatha to Mirigama. However, the government’s failure to plan for a 12km viaduct and to make savings on the third phase of the project has led to a grand total of Rs. 158 billion or US$ 1.1 billion.

The Royal Borough of Kingston in the United Kingdom has officially twinned with Jaffna, after a signing ceremony in London on Tuesday.

Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran said the event was a "historic" occasion, as he addressed the ceremony attended by hundreds of locals.

His comments were echoed by Councillor Kevin Davis, who spoke of how Kingston has twinned with other cities around the world, such as in Korea and Germany, that have also suffered the "tragic loss" of war.

A Sri Lankan army major who was convicted of shooting dead a handcuffed LTTE cadre in 1998, was ordered to pay Rs 2 million in compensation to the family after a High Court ruling, the Colombo Page reported. 

The now retired army major, Wimal Wickramage, who shot handcuffed Robert Velinthan who was under army custody at the time, as  was also given a suspended sentence of two years. 
 

The UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues Rita Izsák-Ndiaye met with the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), R Sampanthan on Wednesday in the parliament complex in Colombo. 

The President of the European Council has backed the return of the GSP+ trade concessions for Sri Lanka, said Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Following a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels, Mr Wickremesinghe tweeted that Mr Tusk “greatly admired the sacrifices made by the government of Sri Lanka… to make Sri Lanka a democratic state, despite undergoing dictatorships, corruption and terror in the past”.

He went on to state that Mr Tusk “would give his fullest support to help Sri Lanka revive the GSP+ relief once more”.

Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has praised the current Sri Lankan president for speaking out against corrupt investigations into former military personnel.

“I am happy that the truth has finally dawned on the President about these things,” said Mr Rajapaksa in an interview to BBC Sinhala last week.

Mr Sirisena slammed government commissions investigating former military figures on charges of corruption as political stating "military commanders who led the successful campaign to crush separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 should not be humiliated in such a way".

The Director General of Sri Lanka’s Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption  has told Sri Lanka’s president that she intends to resign reports the New Indian Express.

Ms Dirukshi Wickremesinghe’s resignation comes as Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena , last week, accused the Bribery Commission of following a political agenda.

Sri Lankan authorities ruled that the use of ‘Sinhale’ flags was not illegal and have returned all seized items to their owners, reports The Island.

The Sri Lankan police had initially seized ‘Sinhale’ flags from an event in Colombo earlier this year. After ruling that the use of these flags, which depict a lion holding a sword, was not illegal, the flags have since been returned to the Swarnahansa Foundation, which organised the event.