Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha and other party leaders have slammed Union Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju, for saying that India would continue to provide training to Sri Lanka since it was a friendly nation.

“I am surprised to learn that the Government of India has openly declared that the said training will go on since Sri Lanka is a friendly country.

Sri Lanka’s Prison Department will be interviewing over 150 candidates to find two executioners, reports Colombo Page.

The death penalty has not been implemented since 1976. With 357 prisoners currently on death row, and 1164 since 2004, many have served over 15 years in prison just waiting for their sentences to be carried out.

The department is now faced with the challenging task of whittling down 178 eager candidates to fill just two roles – hangman and assistant.

Having been baffled, incredulous and frustrated by the UK FCO's travel advisory warning, the Sri Lankan government now fears that other countries could follow suit with "copycat" advisory warnings.

Speaking to the Sri Lankan Sunday Times, the External Affairs Ministry's Secretary, Karunatilleke Amunugama, said,

The Sri Lankan Economic Development Ministry has announced it is to receive a grant worth €60 million for its District Development Programme.

According to the Daily Mirror, the announcement was made by the head of the EU delegation, Bernard Savage during a meeting with Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapakse on Monday.

The money will go to projects selected by the Sri Lankan government and implemented by UN and World Bank agencies.

A newly constructed shrine of the Buddha in the Vanni district has been unveiled by Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence.

The Ministry of Defence graciously reported that the shrine was built “in order to cater to the religious needs and spiritual upliftment of the people”.

They further added that the “meritorious act of building the temple was undertaken by the 56 Division of the Sri Lanka Army”.

In another move politically marginalising the North-East, the number of MP’s elected from the Vanni district has been reduced by the Sri Lankan government, whilst an increase has been allocated for Moneragala in the South.

Responding to calls from Tamil Nadu to expel Sri Lankan army personnel from India, the Indian Minister of State for Defence, MM Pallam Raju, said that India would continue to train them.

In a statement, Pallam Raju said,

Reports of a further prison attack last week in Galle against Tamil political detainees have emerged.

The Jaffna newspaper, Uthayan, reported this morning, that Tamil political prisoners were attacked in Galle prison last week, leaving several injured and one detainee, 34-year-old Sundaram Satheeskumar, in a coma.

Satheeskumar was arrested by in 2008, from his home in Kodikaamam, and imprisoned in New Magazine prison in Colombo. According to Uthayan, when his wife, Kavitha, and his young daughter, Sahitya, went to visit him on the 24th August, they were informed by prison guards that he had been transferred to Galle prison three days ago. When they then went to Galle, they found Satheeskumar admitted to Karapitiya Hospital in a coma.

Japanese envoy Yasushi Akashi has offered to liaise between the international community and Sri Lanka in order to help ‘develop’ the relationship, which has been strained over war crimes and Sri Lanka's failure to conduct independent investigations into the allegations.

In a press conference in Saturday, Akashi said that he told Mahinda Rajapakse that Japan is "willing to assist in the efforts to develop the relationship between Sri Lanka and the international community."