The Swiss justice minister Simonette Sommaruga on Tuesday signed an immigration treaty with the Sri Lankan interior minister, Seneviratne Bandara Nawinne, which will include the repatriation of Tamil asylum seekers. 

Sri Lanka's deputy speaker said the island's powerful Sinhala Buddhist clergy must first give their blessings to a proposed bill on a Buddhism on the island, before it is presented to parliament.

Deputy Speaker Thilanga Sumathipala, who is also the head of Sri Lanka Cricket, said the Maha Sanga must first approve the proposed Buddhist Temporalities Ordinance act before it can be passed.

The Sri Lankan army organised an event to mark “International Children’s Day” for Tamil schoolchildren in the Vanni.

The Sri Lankan government has rejected criticism over an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code which will restrict the rights of those who have been arrested to have access to their lawyers, and pledged that it will push ahead with the amendment.

Dharsha Jegatheeswaran and Gajen Mahendra 

Over 2000 Tamil Nadu fishermen were allegedly attacked by the Sri Lankan navy on Sunday, who threw stones and iron balls, reported PTI. 

The president of the Fishermen's Association, Mr Sesuraja was quoted by the new agency as saying that no one was injured however many fishing boats were damaged. 

The incident has renewed calls in Tamil Nadu to retrieve Katchatheevu island from Sri Lanka - an issue which the Tamil Nadu government said was a high priority. 

Switzerland's minister for justice Simonetta Sommaruga said she intends to discuss the repatriation of Tamil asylum seekers during her visit to Colombo next week. 

Ms Sommaruga hopes to form a "bilateral agreement governing repatriations from Switzerland and to intensify cooperation between the two countries on the issue", Swiss Info reported. 

The commander of Sri Lanka’s navy met with the US Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Biswal, at a symposium in the United States last month.

Buddhist monks at Sri Lanka’s ‘Temple of the Tooth’ blessed a series of Sri Lankan army flags, as commanders lined up to obtain blessings to celebrate the upcoming 67th anniversary of the Sri Lankan army.

Sri Lanka’s prime minster admitted to parliament that the government still does not know much debt it owes, in an address earlier this month as government debt continues to grow under the current Sri Lankan regime.

“We still don’t know the exact total debt number,” Ranil Wickremesinghe confessed to parliament, reports Forbes.

The All Ceylon Hindu Congress joined the Northern Province's chief minister, C V Wigneswaran in calling for a federal solution to the ethnic conflict as a means to ensure harmony. 

Sri Lanka's prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe pledged on Sunday that a draft counter-terrorism bill designed to replace the existing Prevention of Terrorism Act would be ready for discussion by next week. 

Sri Lanka’s governor of the Northern Province pledged to give compensation to vendors affected by a fire at Kilinochichi market last week.

Reginald Cooray told affected business owners that they would each receive Rs. 25,000 in compensation for their losses, at a meeting in the Kilinochchi Divisional Secretariat Auditorium.

The Ezhuga Tamil rally which drew thousands of Tamils in Jaffna last week, is “the expression of Tamil frustration witnessing the bases of their political power being compromised in favour of perpetuating Sinhala hegemony,” said exiled journalist J S Tissainayagam in the Asian Correspondent this week.