Sajith Premadasa, the United National Party’s candidate for Sri Lanka’s upcoming presidential polls, launched his election manifesto this morning, pledging to strengthen the military, increase UN Peacekeeping involvement, create a “National Intelligence Act” and implement a “Sri Lanka First” foreign policy.

The manifesto was launched after presented it to senior a Sinhala Buddhist monks including the Chief Prelate of Malwatta chapter, this morning.

<p>United National Front's (UNF)&nbsp;leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said he will be the Prime Minister in a future government if Sajith Premadasa is elected as President.</p> <p>Speaking at a media briefing in Colombo yesterday, Ranil said that the UNF had achieved a lot under the current government and that it would continue under a new government, Colombo Gazette reported.&nbsp;</p> <p>When asked who the Prime Minister will be to take the process forward, Wickremesinghe said that he will be the Prime Minister and Sajith Premadasa the President.</p>

The families of Tamil asylum seekers who have fled to the UK are being harassed, threatened and in some cases physically assaulted by Sri Lankan security forces, said the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) in a press release last week.

“Spouses and parents in the villages of the north of Sri Lanka are being visited by police and army within days of the person in London giving a media interview or participating in a protest,” said the ITJP.

An upscale Colombo cafe triggered outrage over social media and has launched a reported investigation from Sri Lanka’s official languages commission after it displayed a sign instructing its employees that “No Tamil” is to be spoken.

Today marks 24 years since over half a million Tamil men, women and children fled their homes in Jaffna, ahead of a major military offensive by the Sri Lankan government led by Chandrika Kumaratunga, in what became known as the Jaffna Exodus.

On October 30, 1995, the entire town of Jaffna, the largest Tamil population centre in Sri Lanka, streamed out in a mass exodus for the safety of the Vanni, which was then controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

<p>K.M Razool, a senior Tamil language journalist, has taken legal action against his former employer, Capital FM, after he was suspended for not publishing unverified content which would attack TNA leadership and favour the SLPP candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the lead up to the Sri Lankan general election.</p> <p>Razool has reported that he was nearly assaulted after he refused to produce news which specifically attacked TNA (Tamil National Alliance) leadership as well as the UNP (United National Party). The content he was asked to publish would have targeted TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran, and Sambanthan.</p>

The General Secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), a Sinhala extremist group in Sri Lanka, has vowed to settle in Mullaitivu at the site of a controversial Buddhist vihara, located in a Tamil majority district in the North-East.

The Sri Lankan government claimed it had achieved a “great victory” in securing a $480 million dollar grant from the United States as part of Millennium Challenge Corporation Grant.

Sri Lanka’s cabinet approved the grant on Tuesday, which will allow American funding of infrastructure and traffic management projects across the island.

"This is a great victory for the government and augurs well for the future," said Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera in a statement after the grant was approved.

Implementation of the deal is set to being early next year.

During a session in Brussels, Secretary-General of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Helga Schmid met with Sri Lanka’s Ambassador for the EU, Grace Asirwatham, and noted that trade relations between Sri Lanka and the EU had witnessed significant growth in recent years.

The EU is the largest export market for Sri Lankan goods accounting for nearly 30% or 2.8 million euros. 

<p>Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s (SLPP) presidential candidate said he will rehabilitate more than 250 former LTTE cadres, who are still being held in custody and reintegrate them into society.</p> <p>“There had been around 5,000 Tamil youth at camps even before 2005. By 2015, we rehabilitated all of them except for 274 individuals. They too will be rehabilitated,” Gotabaya told the crowd at a rally in Vavuniya.</p> <p>At his manifesto launch earlier this month, Gotabaya claimed that his government had taken steps “to pardon, rehabilitate and release 13,784 Tiger members who surrendered with arms.”</p>