China is Sri Lanka's biggest investor, particularly in real estate, the Sunday Times reports.

Data from the Central Bank confirmed that China was the biggest contributor to Sri Lanka's foreign direct investment (FDI) with a high number of infrastructure and real estate projects on the island being developed by China.

A number of Tamil political prisoners will be released as soon as possible, the Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe has announced.

Paying an official visit to Jaffna on Tuesday, Mr Rajapakshe said that while the department had been taking steps to release all Tamil political prisoners, certain numbers of them would be released according to the offences committed and on the advice of the Attorney General.

Over thirty hospitals in the Northern Province are operating without permanent doctors, the Northern Provincial Council's health minister has said.

Health minister P. Sathiyalingam said that 32 out of 102 hospitals in the Northern Province had no permanent doctors and were functioning with trainee doctors and recalled retired doctors.

The central government has promised a solution to the shortage by December, Mr Sathiyalingam said.

Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena assured Thailand’s Prime Minister that a government of good governance which gives priority to democracy has now been established in Sri Lanka, reports Colombo Page.

The Sri Lankan government has announced it will carry out an extensive investigation into police attacks on students protesting in Colombo.

Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed a special committee to probe the attack on students, during a demonstration on Thursday calling for the Higher National Diploma in Accountancy to be given degree status.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mangala Samaraweera in a media release suggested the attacks may have been part of a conspiracy to discredit the government by likening it to 'inhumane' previous regime.

The Northern Province today said the month of November will be dedicated to planting trees.

The project, which will see 500,000 trees planted, was inaugurated by Chief Minister Wigneswaran. TNA MPs Sritharan, Saravanapavan and Siddharthan, the NPC's agricultural minister Aiyngaranesan and education minister Gurukularajah, NPC Councillor Ananthy Sasitharan and several other officials attended the event in Semmani, alongside pupils from local schools.

Statistics produced by the Jaffna District Secretariat found that at least 7393 acres of land Tamil in Jaffna was under occupation of Sri Lanka’s military forces.

Following a survey conducted in September, the Jaffna District Secretariat found that Sri Lanka’s army occupied the land of 10,359 civilians, whilst the navy and police occupied the land of 136 civilians.

The parents and relatives of Tamil political prisoners have written to the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and opposition R. Sampanthan, demanding that the party clarify their stance on Tamil political prisoners before the end of the week.

The families of hundreds of Tamil political prisoners said that they had been left confused and distressed by the conflicting stances expressed by different party members.

The TNA has offered different explanations to the issue, with some calling for a general amnesty and others saying an amnesty would benefit those accused of war crimes.