The Sri Lankan army showcased held a military exhibition, showcasing its “soft capabilities” at a school playground in Mullaitivu this week, reports Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence.

According to the MoD website, the Sri Lankan military displayed its exhibition at the “Oddusuddan Maha Vidyalaya play ground” last week, noting that the Sri Lankan Security Force Commander Maj Gen N.A.J.C Dias “graced the glorious occasion as the Chief Guest”.

Foreign observers will be invited to Sri Lanka once the president officially declares elections announced Sri Lanka’s election commissioner on Sunday.

 “It has been the general practice in the recent part to invite foreign election monitors for a general election or a presidential election. Accordingly, if there is a presidential election next we will invite foreign observers,” said Mahinda Deshapriya.

A Tamil man from Mannar has been arrested by the Terrorism Investigation Department, the Uthayan reported.

Thangathurai Jeyins, 38, attended a court hearing, when he was arrested and taken to Vavuniya, his wife told the paper.

She said that Sri Lankan intelligence officers in a letter told her that he was arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and needed to be rehabilitated due to his membership of the LTTE 20 years ago.

Sri Lanka has been appointed to chair the Meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). The country was proposed to the 118 high contracting parties by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), who selected Sri Lanka to represent the bloc.

Sri Lanka's ambassador to the UN, Ravinath Ariyasinhe expressed appreciation for the faith put in Sri Lanka by the group and said their acceptance showed the government's commitment to the UN's multi-lateral system.

"I am deeply humbled by the confidence placed in Sri Lanka, and the recognition of Sri Lanka's contribution to the field of disarmament over many decades - through the the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace initiative, the Conference on Disarmament (CD), the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA), the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and particularly since the ending of the terrorist conflict by its comprehensive demining programme, a key focus area of the CCW," he said.

Sri Lanka says it is still considering ways to release the five Tamil Nadu fishermen who were sentenced to death for drug trafficking.

“The process is being discussed at the highest levels and the issue is being looked at from all angles. A decision may be taken in a day or two,” presidential spokesperson Mohan Samaranayake told The New Indian Express on Friday.

“One of the options discussed is a staggered process beginning with the commutation of the death sentence to life imprisonment, followed by repatriation to India under the 2010 bilateral agreement on the transfer of sentenced prisoners, and then lastly, setting them free through a presidential pardon,” Samaranayake said.

A group of Eelam Tamil refugees and a Malaysian citizen have commenced a hunger strike, after being quarantined and charged with a range of offences at a refugee camp in Tiruchirapalli, India.

The group of 26 people, which includes 25 refugees who have fled from Sri Lanka and a Malaysian citizen, are being charged with illegal entry into India and for being associated with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a banned organisation in the country.

The hunger strikers have called for the cases against them to be completed as soon as possible.