A senior official from India's Ministry of External Affairs visited Batticaloa on Friday to inspect progress at the third stage of India's housing scheme. 

Postal voting for Sri Lanka's local government elections is to begin on January 22 for officials at police stations, election offices, district secretariats and the divisional secretariat. 

Officials at other government offices will be allowed to start their postal vote on January 25-26. 

Around 560,000 applications for postal voting have been accepted by the Election Commission. 

The Sri Lankan government "do not want to punish the offenders who committed war crimes – including torture, rape, plunder and acted brutally, calling them heroes instead" the chief minister of the Northern province, C V Wigneswaran told the Huffington Post in an interview this week. 

Asked for his opinion on Colombo's seeming lack of seriousness in implementing a credible transitional justice program, Mr Wigneswaran said, 

"Do you think the government would ever be serious in furthering the transitional justice process? They are good at talking. They will go on talking and the world community and Tamils would be fooled again and again."

The US government is to award $1.2 million to Sri Lanka over three years towards countering human trafficking. 

“The United States has a strong commitment to working with international partners to tackle the root causes of modern slavery and protect victims and vulnerable populations.  Through the EQUIP project, we will continue to support the government of Sri Lanka in combating the scourge of human trafficking," the US ambassador to Sri Lanka, Atul Keshap said. 

An EPDP local government candidate was arrested in Jaffna on Friday night.

Kanthaiah Sivaji who is contesting under the EPDP at the Chavakachcheri divisional council (prathesiya sabai) election was arrested by Kodikamam police who had an arrest warrant from Chavakachcheri court, after the candidate failed to turn up in court in relation to a traffic accident.

Pakistan’s Army Chief said that his country and Sri Lanka were probably the only two countries who understand what it takes to 'defeat terrorism', the Daily Mirror reports. Pakistan has long been a supporter of Sri Lanka and has come to its defence at international platforms including the UN Human Rights Council.

The Pakistan Chief was on a two day visit at the invitation of the Sri Lankan Army Commander.

Sri Lanka will be celebrating its 70th Independence Day on a grand scale, “having regained its world image” according to the Home Affairs Minister.

Sri Lanka, which was relegated to the background, will proudly celebrate this year’s Independence Day after winning over the international world and regaining its world image, said Home Affairs Minister Vajira Abeywardena in a press release, reports dailynews.lk.

The European Union discussed the implementation of the cosponsored UN Human Rights Council resolution with Sri Lanka, meeting in Colombo for the 21st meeting of the EU-Sri Lanka Joint Commission today. 

The ongoing use of torture, the lack of accountability and justice, as well as the failure to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act were highlighted in a joint statement issued following the meeting. 

The Sri Lankan government has "stalled on its key pledges to provice justice for conflict-related violations and strengthen human rights protections", Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2018, published today. 

“Victims of abuses who struggled for years seeking justice finally had a moment of hope two years ago when Sri Lanka pledged to the UN to take action,” HRW's South Asia director, Meenakshi Ganguly said.

In an op-ed marking Sri Lanka's unity government's 3rd anniversary in power, The Economist said the president was 'struggling to keep his promises of reform', nothing that the 'economy is weak and the opposition strong'. 

Read full op-ed here. 

Extract reproduced below: