A young protester from the Vavuniya families of the disappeared protest has died from ill health.

24-year-old Nila Rasanayagam who has been searching for her disappeared brother passed away on Saturday.

Her brother Rasanayagam Jenisraj disappeared in Colombo in 2009. His family had not received any information about his fate since.

Ms Rasanayagam has become the eighth protester to die since protests started.

A documentary filmed and produced by British Tamil students highlighting the struggle of Tamil families of the disappeared protesting across the North-East has been released online today.

The documentary, entitled ‘Sri Lanka’s Disappeared’, was made freely available online after a series of screenings worldwide over the last year.

The TNA spokesperson M A Sumanthiran said he could see the mental agony of the families of the disappeared who protested against the hearings of the Office on Missing Persons in Jaffna and Kilinochchi this month, however he said the party's view was that the OMP was the way forward. 

The Sri Lankan navy announced that it had arrested a four year old child and a 28 year old man, claiming that the two had attempted to illegally enter the island from India.

Grammy and Oscar-nominated musician M.I.A. released a trailer for an upcoming documentary on her childhood earlier this week, reflecting on key events that have shaped her life including the genocide of Tamils.

Senior DUP members met on Saturday to discuss the future of the MP, Ian Paisley Jr following his suspension from parliament for 'paid advocacy' for the Sri Lankan government.

Mr Paisley Jr was found to have not declared trips to Sri Lanka worth up to £100,000, whilst supporting the then Rajapaksa government in an attempt to defeat a UN Human Rights Council resolution calling for accountability. 

A 'China-Sri Lanka friendship hospital' was launched in Polonnaruwa on Saturday at a ceremony attended by the Chinese Ambassador Cheng Xueyuan and the Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena.

The hospital, which will become a nephrology centre, "is being constructed following a request by President Sirisena to the Chinese government", China's state news agency, Xinhua reported. 

Japan and Sri Lanka this week held discussions on increasing military ties and maritime safety during the third Sri Lanka –Japan Dialogue on Maritime Security, Safety and Oceanic Issues, which took place in Colombo on July 19. 

A Sri Lankan parliamentarian claimed that the former regime in Colombo bribed at least five more British MPs today, after the UK Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards suspended British parliamentarian Ian Paisley Jr for not declaring trips worth up to £100,000.

A Buddhist monk has been arrested in Chilaw on suspicion of counterfeiting money.

Sri Lankan police arrested the monk who was in possession of counterfeit 1000 rupee notes after receiving information from businesses in the area, where the monk has attempted to make purchases using the counterfeit money.

Sri Lankan troops accused of war crimes have been deployed as United Nations peacekeepers in conflict zones around the world according to a confidential report by the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP).

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded approximately 1.6 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($10,000,000) in grant assistance to an American NGO to engage local communities in reconciliation activities in Sri Lanka.

The three-year initiative by Global Communities will partner with the Government of Sri Lanka and local civil society to address underlying challenges to reconciliation, the US Embassy in Colombo said in a statement.

“Our people should be in constant touch with each other. So that we know each other better and become even closer friends,” India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a gathering in Jaffna on Saturday.

Sri Lanka’s president pledged that he would press ahead with implementing capital punishment on the island, despite facing a barrage of criticism for the decision.

"I will go ahead with executing drug convicts," said Maithripala Sirisena at an event in Polonnaruwa on Saturday.