The European Union (EU) will visit Sri Lanka in October in order to assess whether a ban on imports of fish from the island can be lifted, announced the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Mahishini Colonne told a media briefing that the EU Technical Evaluation Team “will engage in technical discussions to regarding measures that have been put in place and future steps for the revocation of the EU ban on fishery products”.

The visit is scheduled to take place from the 5th to the 9th of October.

Sri Lanka’s military will be deployed to Nepal to rebuild temples destroyed in the devastating earthquake, which hit the country in the Himalayas earlier this year.

The government allocated RS345m to the Ministry of Buddhasasana for the rebuilding of the Buddhist temple in Swayambhunath and the Rato Machindranath Hindu temple in Lalitpur.

Cabinet ministers approved the plans earlier today.

An Indian real estate developer is planning to build a 96-floor tower, which would be the tallest building in Sri Lanka.

The structure, worth Rs330m, will be built by Shreepati Edifice (Pvt) Ltd and will be a tribute to the Sri Lankan cricket team who won the World Cup in 1996.

The company signed an agreement with the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka on Wednesday to construct the tower.

The Chief Minister of the Northern Province CV WIgneswaran urged British MPs at the All Party Parliamentary Group For Tamils (APPGT) to avoid supporting any form of domestic inquiry in Sri Lanka, during his visit to the UK earlier this month.

The APPGt in a press release after meeting the chief minister of the Northern Provincial Council said,

The Chairman of Federation of National Organisations spoke out against the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and slammed the concept of federalism, reports The Island.

Gunadasa Amarasekera, who is also president of the Patriotic National Movement, said “federalism will be a stepping stone to Eelam”.

Speaking at a news conference, Mr Amarasekara warned against voting for the United National Party (UNP) saying “with the kind of pressure mounting on Sri Lanka the separatists will achieve what they dream of if Ranil Wickremesinghe and the UNP are voted into power".

Comparing the situation in Sri Lanka to that of Kosovo and South Sudan, Mr Amarasekara went on to add "the TNA manifesto clearly spells out that it is advocating separatism and whether Ranil likes it or not, the TNA will do what it wants with the help of the international community”.