Sri Lanka has permitted the Chinese Navy training ship, Po Lang, to dock at its port for "naval exchanges and capacity building" activities, despite a 12-month moratorium introduced this year barring foreign research vessels, after security concerns raised by India and the US.

The Sri Lankan government headed by Anura Kumara Dissanayake has reached a decision to dismantle an “Office for the Affairs of Sri Lankans Abroad” which was specifically instituted by former president Ranil Wickremesinghe to bring in investments from the diaspora and assist with ‘philanthropy’ and ‘reconciliation’ efforts. 

Sri Lanka's new government headed by president Anura Kumara Dissanayake has taken an executive decision to reject the resolution tabled at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) which looks set to extend the mandate of a war crimes evidence gathering mechanism for a further year.

Following the election of Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Sri Lanka has secured a $200 million loan from the World Bank as part of the second instalment of the World Bank’s Resilience, Stability, and Economic Turnaround (RESET) Development Policy Operation (DPO).

Excavations at Colombo Port have uncovered eight human skeletons, at a former High Security Zone (HSZ) in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo, in yet another mass grave on the island.

Speaking to News First, Professor Raj Somadeva confirmed that two of the skeletons have already been excavated and are currently under police protection.

Sri Lanka's head of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), Kanishka D. Wijeratne, has agreed to step down after Sri Lanka's Supreme Court accepted a case challenging his appointment.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake vowed to expedite investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings this week, as he visited the site of the attacks and was confronted by relatives of the victims.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to extend its ‘crucial’ mandate to ensure its continued reporting and evidence collection of Sri Lanka’s human rights abuses for future prosecutions. 

As Sri Lanka’s new president concluded talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week, the global body warned Colombo that “vulnerabilities and uncertainties do remain” and that it still needed to maintain "hard-won gains".

Tamil families of the disappeared said that more than 280 people had died in recent years, without never knowing the fate of their loved ones who were forcibly disappeared by the Sri Lankan state.

Fishermen from Thangachimadam, along with families of those imprisoned by the Sri Lankan Navy, have embarked on a hunger strike, demanding the immediate release of their relatives who were arrested for allegedly crossing into Sri Lankan waters while fishing.

The Indian Consulate in Jaffna organized a tree-planting campaign and a cycle parade in Jaffna town to mark Mahatma Gandhi's 155th birthday last week.