A Tamil journalist was attacked in Jaffna on Friday while she was riding her motorcycle home.

Sumithi Thangarasa, a freelance journalist, said she was on her way home from the temple when she noticed she was being followed by an unknown person on another motorcycle.

She attempted to swerve her vehicle away when she noticed the attacker was attempting to crash into her, but the attacker followed and crashed into her and threatened her verbally before fleeing the scene.

Sumithi said she had suffered shock and some injuries from the attack, which she reported to Jaffna police.

The Sri Lankan government has strongly considered the possibility of resuming the ferry service between Rameshwaram and Talaimannar according to the tourism minister.

Speaking at a World Tourism Day event at the University of Jaffna, the minister, John Amaratunga, said the government was keen as the service would benefit Northern Province tourism.

The minister all said he frequently requested the Tamil diaspora to return and invest in tourism.

At the same event the chief minister of the North, C V Wigneswaran, agreed that the province’s tourism industry was in need of growth but that that was being inhibited by external factors.

Sri Lanka’s army commander has said the army can reinstate camps in the North if necessary and clamoured for the forces to be given powers to deal with Jaffna’s gang problem.

Speaking at the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, commander Mahesh Senanayake said “the army is strong and national security is one of its main duties. We know better about national security than others. Nothing has changed. It is the army which secured victory for Sri Lanka in its fight against the LTTE. Similarly, the army will be always ready with its services to safeguard the country.”

A group of Sinhalese people including two Buddhist monks who had been handed over to police in Mullaitivu for attempting to install a Buddha statue have told the court they were just carrying out research.

The Sri Lankan president on Friday claimed the LTTE was preparing an air strike from Chennai during the end of the armed conflict in 2009. 

“The Tigers were going to operate an aircraft from Chennai or some other jungle in Tamil Nadu to bomb and destroy targets in Colombo,” Sirisena was quoted by Economy Next as saying. “I was the acting defence minister. All the others had fled because they feared air attacks.”

“Even I did not stay in Colombo. I was at several locations outside Colombo in case the Tigers attacked the capital city.”

Sri Lankan police this week arrested three men who took a photograph at Pidurangala Rock with their bottoms showing.

The arrest was made after a Buddhist monk filed a complaint claiming the men had made a religious insult by taking the photograph with the Sigiriya rock in sight. 

The Sri Lankan prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe has also ordered an investigation into the photograph. 
 

Sri Lanka’s finance minister has claimed it “is not the end of the world” despite Sri Lanka’s rupee continuing to tumble to record lows this week as foreign investors exited government securities.

The rupee hit a new low of 169.40 per dollar, despite interventions from Sri Lanka’s Central Bank in an attempt to stop the fall. Foreign investors sold a net 110.5 million rupees worth of shares on Thursday, extending the year-to-date net foreign outflow to 5.77 billion rupees worth of equities, according to Reuters.

The murder case of the Sunday Leader editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge has been postponed until January 17.

Progress on the investigation was presented by the Criminal Invesigations Department (CID) yesterday. 

Two officers, former OIC Sugathapala and the Senior DIG Prasanna Nanayakkara, are accused of concealing and destroying information pertaining to the murder of the former Sunday Leader editor who was gunned down in Colombo and are key suspects in the case. Both were granted bail in July. 

The International Monetary Fund has urged Sri Lanka to push through with pledged reforms to large state-owned enterprises. 

"Reforms need to accelerate to strengthen the Sri Lankan economy's resilience to domestic and external shocks, given still significant vulnerabilities," the IMF official, Manuela Goretti said following her visit to Colombo from September 13 to 27. 

"In the face of greater market volatility in emerging markets, the authorities have maintained a strong policy stance with prudent monetary policy and further fiscal consolidation," she added. 

Parliamentarians from the United National Party welcomed the Sri Lankan president’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly this week, where he rejected ‘foreign influences’.

“What president told at the General Assembly is that Sri Lanka should be allowed to work independently without any interference,” said UNP MP Hector Appuhamy, speaking alongside fellow parliamentarian Kavinda Jayawardene at a press conference. “This is something that has to be done, and therefore, what President said was correct.”

Sirisena was accompanied by Buddhist monks and a senior leader from the extremist Jathika Hela Urumaya party during his visit to the United Nations, where he vowed to protect the “pride of the security forces” and call for war crimes charges against Sri Lankan troops to be dropped.