Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena paid a visit to Battaramulla last week, where the Ministry of Defence’s construction of a new headquarters is currently underway.

Members of the Sri Lankan army visited the United Kingdom last month to compete in the Armed Forces Parachutes Championship.

The Chief Minister of the Northern Province met the Mahanayake Thero of the Malwatte chapter to discuss Tamil grievances on Saturday.

Chief Minister Wigneswaran described the problems faced by Tamils in their everyday lives to the senior Buddhist monk reports Uthayan.

Muslims in Jaffna protested against the genocide of Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar government.

Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena received an elephant that was donated by the State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, offering it to a Buddhist temple in Kandy.

A senior civil servant under the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa was sentenced for 3 years on Thursday over corruption, AFP reported.  

Lalith Weeratunga was found guilty of misappropriating funds belonging to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), spending 600 million rupees on gifting textiles and other items to Buddhist devotees during Mr Rajapaksa's 2015 re-election bid 

The director of the TRC at the time, Anusha Palpita was also sentenced for three years for allowing the misappropriation of funds to take place. 

Bangladesh's commerce minister called for a swift Free Trade Agreement with Sri Lanka by the end of next year. 

“Let us sign before end-2018, it is time that we focus on much broader trade levels,” Bangladesh's minister, Tofail Ahmed was quoted by LBO as saying in Colombo recently. 

“Bilateral trade has been on the increase but the volumes are not so great, we can do better.”

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Sri Lanka and Australia this week, as Sri Lanka's Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, Kapila Waidyaratne led a delegation to Canberra on September 6. 

The MoU on People Smuggling and Transnational Crime was aimed at increasing cooperation between the two countries on smuggling operations and maritime crime. 

Sri Lanka's Minister of Prison Reforms, Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Hindu Religious Affairs, D M Swaminathan introduced new regulations on Friday tightening inmates' access to medical services in hospital. 

Inmates requiring medical treatment will need the approval of three doctors in order to be admitted to the prison's hospital. Previously the recommendation of one doctor was sufficient. 

The US Senate Committee on Appropriations has approved the 2018 State & Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill, which includes new and harsher conditions on funds to be given to Sri Lanka.

The committee approved $51.35 billion in total for diplomatic and humanitarian programs that "strengthen U.S. national security and support American values abroad".