A former UN staffer described the crimes committed by the Sri Lankan army against the Tamil population as a genocide in an interview with PTI at the Jaipur Literature Festival in India this week. 

"It is very fair to say that the Army committed genocide. The atrocities in Sri Lanka were definitely towards ethnic cleansing," Benjamin Dix, who worked as a United Nations communication manager in the Vanni during 2004 - 2008, said. 

"The Sri Lankan Army does not believe that they committed atrocities. It is a propaganda that they liberated Tamils from the Tamil leadership. It was not a liberation, but destruction of the Tamil community," 

The Sri Lankan navy on Sunday arrested 12 Tamil Nadu fishermen for allegedly poaching off the coast of Talaimannar, PTI reported. 

Two fishing trawlers were seized and the nets of over 50 boats were snapped, the Puducherry Fishermen's Association said. 

The men are accused of fishing in Sri Lankan waters and using banned fishing nets.

Sri Lanka's Central Bank Governor Ajith Cabraal on Sunday rejected the president's statement that over Rs. 9 trillion in foreign loans are accounted for as "ridiculous and untrue". 

The statement "may even be bordering on lunacy", Mr Cabraal was quoted by the island as saying. 

"If what the president claims is correct, the unaccounted loans will amount to a staggering 90% of GDP!" Mr Cabraal added. 

"Although the President may have made this irresponsible statement to sling mud at the previous regime as he regularly does, I do not think he realizes the grave danger that he is imposing on our economy with media releases of this nature. 

Sri Lanka’s archaeology department is attempting to evict recently resettled residents of a Mannar village.

Families in Malikaipitty in the Nanattan division, a village of around 69 households who have been resident there for over four decades are being pressured by the archaeology department to leave, citing the discovery of an ancient site close by.

The villagers have been resident there for over forty years but were displaced during the war, during which time their homes were destroyed.

“We are only just building our homes anew,” one resident said, “and now they are trying to make us leave. But this is our land.”

Around Rs 9 trillion in foreign loans are unaccounted for in finance ministry records the Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena said at a media briefing on Friday. 

"Furthermore, a large sum of funds that should have been deposited with the treasury have gone to private companies and institutions and that has been done in a systematic manner to avoid disclosure," he was quoted by Ada Derana as saying. 

"There were sale of state owned institutions and state properties during the last 3 years of the current government too, and some of these deals were done without even informing the cabinet of ministers."

A Tamil student was attacked by a group of Sinhala students at the University of Jaffna's Vavuniya campus this week, suffering injuries to his chest and face. 

The mob continued to taunt the victim as fellow Tamil students attempted to take him to hospital, saying, "you're LTTE aren't you? You should go to the army hospital". 

The attack happened after second year Sinhala students entered the dormitories of first year Tamil students and began ragging them. 

The victim remains admitted at Vavuniya hospital. 

The Indian High Commission to Sri Lanka, celebrated Republic Day in Jaffna on Friday marking 69 years of independence. 

A 32 year old man from Point Pedro was arrested this week in Rameswaram after he allegedly arrived by boat without valid travel documents, PTI reported. 

The man, C A Malan, was detained by the Indian coast guard after reaching Dhanushkodi in a fibre glass boat. 

Mr Malan was handed over to the Indian marine police for further investigation. 

The chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday urged the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to take action against a new law introduced by Sri Lanka which allows for the prolonged detention of Indian fishermen if they were found guilty of fishing in the island's waters. 

The new law has led to “widespread resentment and panic among the fishermen of Tamil Nadu, especially among those fishing in the Palk Bay,” Mr Edappadi wrote in a letter to Mr Modi, The Hindu reports. 

Sri Lanka's president, Maithripala Sirisena said on Friday he had not decided about whether he would contest the next presidential election. 

"I have not decided whether to contest the next presidential elections or not," Mr Sirisena told journalists this morning

"Yet, I will continue to do politics as long as I am alive. I am a political animal. It is in my genes. I will do politics with or without positions," he was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying.