Five members of a Tamil family fled Sri Lanka and arrived by boat on the coast of Rameswaram in the early hours of Monday, according to Indian press reports, as people continue to leave the island.

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) announced a 15% increase in electricity tariffs, ahead of a key visit by a senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official to the island next week.

ITAK candidate Sivam Pakkiyanathan has been elected Mayor of the Batticaloa Municipal Council, with the backing of members from the opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB).

This week marks 69 years since Sri Lanka’s first anti-Tamil pogroms, when government backed Sinhala mobs murdered more than 150 Tamils across the island – the first of many massacres that were to take place in the decades to come.

A newly released report by the Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research (ACPR) has detailed the extent to which Sri Lanka’s security forces continue to maintain an oppressive culture of surveillance and intimidation in the Tamil North-East, more than 16 years after the end of the armed conflict.

As Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake arrived in Berlin today, Human Rights Watch has called on Germany to press for meaningful action on human rights and accountability for mass atrocities.

Sri Lanka’s President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has openly admitted to the “collapse” of the country’s social structure and systemic corruption across public institutions but pointed to Buddhism as “the foundation for a disciplined and culturally sophisticated nation”.

Sri Lanka and China have signed two Memoranda of Understanding to set up a working group on trade facilitation and on industrial and supply chain cooperation, according to a statement from the Chinese Embassy in Colombo.

Tamil organisations across Canada have strongly condemned recent racist and xenophobic attacks targeting Canada’s Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, warning that such narratives seek to undermine the Tamil Canadian community.

An injunction has been issued by the occupying Sri Lankan police in Jaffna against 27 individuals and organisations, as Tamil protests continued against the illegal construction of the Buddhist vihara on privately owned Tamil land.

The Center for Peace and Reconciliation based in Kilinochchi has issued an appeal to the Sinhalese public to refrain from visiting illegally constructed Buddhist viharas in the North-East, as their construction in the Tamil homeland continues.

A young British woman accused of attempting to smuggle drugs into Sri Lanka has described the appalling conditions of the overcrowded prison where she is currently being held, as her legal case slowly proceeds through the courts.

The UK government has confirmed that an investigation remains ongoing into allegations that British mercenaries, including former SAS soldiers, may have been involved in the commission of war crimes against Tamils alongside the Sri Lankan military.

Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) leader and Jaffna parliamentarian Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has urged the Sri Lankan government to officially designate the Chemmani site in Jaffna as a mass grave and to provide immediate funding and protection for the ongoing excavation process.