A Buddhist monk, a Sri Lankan judge and several other wealthy businessman may be cleared of keeping illegally captured elephants and may even get the animals returned to them after recent changes in Sri Lankan law, reports the Associated Press.

A trial involving 42 people may see several of them released without charge after recent measures adopted by the Sri Lankan cabinet will allow them to keep the elephants, provided they can demonstrate they did not know the animals were captured illegally.

"This is nonsense," said Sumith Pilapitiya a former World Bank environmental specialist. "The onus is on the buyer to make sure the paperwork is right."

Sri Lanka’s Housing and Construction Minister Sajith Premadasa declared plans to establish model villages named after Sri Lankan soldiers, reports The Island.

Speaking in Anamaduwa, Mr Premadasa said that villages would be named after Sri Lankan soldiers who oversaw the final phase of the armed conflict, in which tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were slaughtered by Sri Lankan army shelling.

Sri Lankan soldiers escorted a group of students from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura on a tour of Mullaitivu this week, showing them around the ‘Final Battle Zone’.

Sri Lankan soldiers organised a clinic this week, where Tamil civilians had their vision checked by Southern optometrists and surgeons.

The former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa was defiant about his role in the armed conflict which ended in 2009, saying "if eradicating the LTTE terrorist organisation is a crime which needs punishing, then he has no problems with going to prison", Adaderana reported. 

He also defended his family against accusations of corruption and authoritarianism saying "the Rajapaksas did not pilfer this country, they only saved it and did so by putting their lives on the line."

Tamil Nadu fishermen have condemned Sri Lanka's new fishing law which bans bottom trawling as "draconian", and urged Delhi to put pressure on Sri Lanka to repeal the law.  

“This is draconian and aimed at crushing the livelihood of the fishers once for all,” the leader of the mechanised boat fishermen association, P Sesu Raja, was quoted by The Hindu as saying. 

Jaffna University has signed a collaboration agreement with the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences  worth over US $900,000, reports Colombo Page.

The agreement which will span a period of 3 years will be utilised to upgrade laboratory faculties for technical assistance and capacity building of the Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Technology at the Kilinochchi campus and at the Faculty of Science at the Jaffna campus of the University of Jaffna.

Sri Lanka will immediately import 200,000 metric tons of rice from India, Pakistan and Myanmar confirmed the Ministry of Industry and Commerce on Friday.

The Sri Lankan government has also commenced government level talks on the possibility of purchasing rice from Thailand.

The latest announcement comes after the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen on Monday said that the country was not facing any shortage in rice stocks.

Sri Lanka’s navy is set to receive its largest vessel in a longstanding agreement with India.

Sri Lanka’s navy officials are currently in India to learn to operate a new Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) ahead of an official handover in August.

A spokesperson from Sri Lanka’s navy said the officials were in India to validate that the ship met their requirements.

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The Government of Sri Lanka and Japan have agreed a concessionary loan of approximately $273 million was reports Colombo Page.

The agreement was signed with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for a water supply expansion project in the Western Province.

The Chief Representative of JICA Sri Lanka Fusato Tanaka, told press said the “project will contribute to improve the water situation in Western Province in line with rapid urbanisation.”

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