The former chief minister of the Northern Province, C V Wigneswaran yesterday criticised any decision to grant Sri Lanka more time to implement the co-sponsored UNHRC resolution 30/1, arguing that nothing has been gained by extra time given so far. 

Sri Lankan army uniforms, army helmets and live rifle bullets were amongst the items seized by police during a raid on the house of an underworld drug kingpin accomplice this week.

The Sri Lankan military has manufactured its own multi-barrel rocket launchers (MBRLs), a weapon that the army used to devastating effect in a military offensive that slaughtered tens of thousands of Tamil civilians almost a decade ago.

<p>International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials are to visit Sri Lanka on February 15 to discuss granting the fifth tranche of the US$ 1.5 billion loan.&nbsp;</p> <p>The granting of the tranche was postponed last year following weeks of political crisis after the president sacked the prime minister and dissolved parliament.&nbsp;</p> <p>The IMD disbursed US $1 billion of the $ 1.5 billion three year EFF loan that was agreed in 2016.&nbsp;</p> <p>In the wake of Sri Lanka’s political turmoil, several major international agencies downgraded the government’s credit rating, in what was seen as a blow to the island’s economy.&nbsp;</p>

Senior US policy figure Samantha power will be speaking at an event in Colombo later this month marking “30 years in parliamentary politics” for Sri Lanka’s current media minister Mangala Samaraweera.

The force commander of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Mali praised the “discipline” of Sri Lankan peacekeepers this week, as he met with Sri Lankan military officials in Colombo. 

The Sri Lankan army has been accused of selling cigarettes to underage students at a canteen it runs on occupied land in Mullaitivu.

Residents of Puthukudiyiruppu said the army canteen, named ‘Kamuko Café’, had been selling cigarettes to local students, despite it being illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21.

The revelations have angered locals as the canteen is already reviled for being set up on occupied private land, the return of which the landowners have been campaigning for over two years.

A new media centre funded by a British Tamil student group was opened at a Mullaitivu school on January 29.

The media centre at Kumulamunai Maha Vidyalayam was a project conceived and funded by the UK Tamil Students Union (UKTSU).

Families in Keppapulavu, demonstrating outside a military camp against the occupation of their lands, were forced to cover their make-shift shacks with sheets due to ongoing military harassment. 

The protesters, many of whom are woman, reported being continously photographed and watched by military intelligence, expressing concern and intimidation at the military's continous gaze.

Activists in Tamil Nadu, India held a protest this week in Bangalore condemning the Sri Lankan president's visit to the country to speak at an event organised by The Hindu newspaper.