Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Tilak Marapana said on Tuesday that the UNP's election losses at the recent local government polls was due to the singing of the national anthem in Tamil at Independence Day. 

Despite repeated calls for Sri Lankan military forces to stay out of the tourism industry, the Sri Lankan Army constructed and opened a tourist viewpoint in Point Pedro on Monday.

Sri Lanka’s government is in a crisis after coalition parties failed to reach a consensus on the way forward, following a massive defeat to former president Mahinda Rajapaksa at local government elections this week.

The Tamil National Alliance on Thursday rejected reports it would join the unity government, after Sri Lanka's coalition government plunged into crisis following its poor performance at the local elections this weekend. 

Three Hindu shrines across Mannar were vandalised last night, just one day before Hindus celebrate Maha Sivaraththri. 

The Vigneswaran temple in Thalaimannar, built in 1988 by the Indian Peace Keeping Forces, was broken into. Three statues have been stolen. 

Sri Lanka’s military in Mullaitivu declared open a new entrance to its 59 Division Headquarters earlier this month.

Sri Lankan troops across the North-East continued to impose themselves on civilian life in the region, with several divisions involving themselves in Thai Pongal festivities last month.

The Tamil Refugee Council has spoken out against the Australian government’s decision to deport a former LTTE cadre to Sri Lanka, stating that it “puts at risk his safety and possibly his life”.

Reconciliation and lasting peace will elude Sri Lanka for as long as there is no accountability for massacres and atrocities, the advocacy group PEARL has said.

In a statement marking 22 years since the Kumarapuram massacre, the organisation said “justice for this case, amongst many, remains crucial for healing processes to commence.”

A United National Party election pledge to build a thousand Buddhist shrines in the North-East will create conflict and resentment, a Northern Provincial Council member has said.

Filing a complaint with the elections commission, NPC member M. K. Sivajilingam said that the pledge to spend 500 million rupees building a thousand Buddhist viharas in the Tamil homeland was a pledge to use state money to sow conflict and resentment.

Trincomalee residents remembered the Kumarapuram massacre, in which Sri Lankan army corporals went on a murderous rampage through the village 22 years ago, raping and killing 24 Tamils.

Sri Lanka’s rupee hit a record low on Monday after local government election results from the weekend filtered through, showing former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s party achieving a significant victory.

The rupee traded at a record low of 155.00 on Monday, ending at 154.95/155.05 per dollar on Monday. Reuters reported that it also surpassed its previous all-time closing low of 154.60/70 hit on Tuesday.

Buoyed by his party’s victory at the local government elections this week, former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa has called for fresh parliamentary elections stating that people had “voted against the division of the country”.

“These results show people want a change now,” said Mr Rajapaksa, after his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) won control of 231 local councils out of a total of 340.

The TNA has called for unity among Tamil parties in the face of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s party’s landslide victories in the South.

In an interview with Tamil media on Sunday, TNA MP and spokesperson M. A. Sumanthiran said that they were pleased with the result in most districts of the North-East, while conceding that the party suffered setbacks in the Jaffna district.