<p>Sri Lanka’s parliament has passed an interim budget in the lead up to election pledging 1.47 trillion rupees (£6.32 billion) to be spent in the first four months of 2020.</p> <p>The budget passed unanimously and expects to raise 745 billion rupees during those first four months whilst seeking permission to gain a loan of 721 billion rupees. Sri Lanka currently holds a fiscal deficit of 2.2% of GDP.</p> <p>The two front-runners for the presidential candidates, Sajith Premasada and Gotabata Rajapaksa, have claimed that if they would provide a number of handouts including free of charge fertilizers and higher wages.</p>

<p>The wives of three politicians who were arrested for their alleged 'LTTE links' began a hunger strike on Thursday after&nbsp;hearing that their husbands will be held in detention for another week.</p> <p>Umah Devi, wife of Gadek assemblyman G. Saminathan, Sumathy,&nbsp;wife&nbsp;of S. Chandru, businessman&nbsp;and Vimala Jakumaran,&nbsp;wife of Melaka local authority councillor V. Suresh Kumar, started their hunger strike&nbsp;as they are frustrated with and disappointed at the arrests of husbands.</p>

<p>Sri Lanka's Health Minister, Rajitha Senaratne, said the government had no evidence of Sri Lankan&nbsp;troops killing Tamil civilians during the war.</p> <p>Senaratne claimed that people were killed in the crossfire but there is no evidence to show that civilians were directly targeted.</p> <p>Senaratne said the government rejected the "Darusman Report" on Sri Lanka&nbsp; which accused&nbsp;the Sri Lankan military of intentionally killing Tamil civilians.&nbsp;The "Darusman Report" was produced in 2011&nbsp;by a panel of experts appointed by former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and headed by Marzuki Darusman.</p>

A team of Sri Lankan army special forces were in the UK last week, where they took part in various military exercises with British troops, despite Sri Lankan troops still not being held accountable for human rights abuses committed against Tamils.

A Tamil woman has been murdered at her home in Kondavil, Jaffna this week, with Sri Lankan police reportedly launching a murder investigation into her death.

According to reports, the woman was found with her throat slit by the back entrance of her home.

She has been identified as 61-year-old Chandra Thesi of Neddilipai, Kondavil.

Thesi had been living alone at the house, when her body with her clothes torn, was discovered on Monday.

The Sri Lankan navy has been blocking Tamil fishermen in Talaimannar from access to fishing waters for over two months, leaving their livelihoods threatened and their families facing various hardships, according to local groups.

Local fishermen state that the navy has brought back a “pass system” which means that only those that have military clearance can fish in the waters fishing around the islet of Theedai and its surrounding waters, where hundreds used to go for their daily catch.

Sri Lankan police are currently investigating the alleged discovery of a cache of LTTE uniform and related documents that were reportedly uncovered in Mullaitivu on Monday.

The discovery was reportedly made in Iranaippalai in Puthukudiyiruppu.

Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa once more vowed to release Sri Lankan troops accused of rights abuses and pledged to ensure the end of “foreign... interference” as he launched his election manifesto for next month’s presidential polls on Friday.

Rajapaksa claimed that his government had taken steps “to pardon, rehabilitate and release 13,784 Tiger members who surrendered with arms” and lamented how that process was not in place for Sri Lankan soldiers accused of war crimes.

Sri Lanka’s security forces received intelligence that an attack was due to take place on Easter Sunday but may have allowed it to proceed in order to “create chaos and instil fear” ahead of presidential elections, said a parliamentary select committee report this week.

The report which was presented to Sri Lanka’s parliament on Wednesday, found that though members of the security apparatus, including chief of the State Intelligence Service Nilantha Jayawardena, received information on possible attacks more than a fortnight before the bombings, there were delays in sharing the intelligence.

Kalaiyarasi Kanagalingam, a 14-year-old survivor of Mullivaikkal, spoke about the last memory of her father and the importance of Tamil genocide recognition at a conference hosted at the Houses of Parliament and attended by several senior British politicians and international legal experts on Thursday.

Read her full speech to the conference below.