Workers from the British demining organisation Mine Action Group (MAG) have uncovered human skeletal remains during landmine clearance operations at a children’s park in Sampur, in the Trincomalee district. The discovery was made on Sunday 20 July, just metres from the location where at least 57 Tamil civilians were massacred by Sri Lankan government forces in July 1990.

Tamil landowners from Valikamam in Jaffna staged a protest outside the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo earlier this week, demanding the immediate return of their ancestral lands still under the control of the Sri Lankan military.

A chief monk of a temple in Habaraduwa has been arrested on the charge of molesting a female tourist on the premises.

The 81-year-old monk is reported to have offered food and beverages to the 41-year-old tourist from New Zealand on her visit to the temple. He allegedly invited her to a room in the temple and molested her there.