As part of high-profile diplomatic visit by Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, to Sri Lanka, two Iranian warships IRINS Bushehr and Tonb also docked at Colombo Port.

At a time when consumer confidence is at its lowest in Sri Lanka since receiving a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Donald Lu Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs claimed that "Sri Lanka was a great come back story".

Sri Lanka has exported tea worth US$20 million to Iran to partially repay its US$251 million oil debts

“So far $20 million worth of tea has been exported to Iran under the barter trade agreement,“ Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena’s office said in a statement after talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

Senior US officials, including the head of USAID, the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka aired their concerns on Sri Lanka’s Online Safety Bill this week, a piece of legislation that has come under criticism for threatening freedom of expression online.

India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Santhosh Jha met with several Tamil political leaders during his first visit to Jaffna this week, where issues ranging from land grabs to fishing were discussed.

Tamils in Nochikulam launched a protest on Tuesday after a farmer survived being shot at, in what locals describe as the latest in repeated incidents of targeted gun violence.

Residents of Nochikulam blocked the Mannar-Medawachchiya main road, along Uyilankulam – Nochikulam.

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The Sri Lankan army has granted conditional access to seven temples out of 21 located within the high-security zone in Jaffna, mandating worshippers must use army transportation and provide their home address to reach the temples. 

TNA MP Nirmalanthan has opposed plans by the Sri Lanka Intelligence Service to build an office in Vavuniya.

Tamil families of the disappeared in Kilinochchi are marking seven years of continuous roadside protests, as they demand to know the whereabouts of their forcibly disappeared family members.

 Tamil Nadu fishermen from the village of Rameswaram have launched landmark mass protest against the continued detention of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy and have declared their intention to boycott the religious St Anthony’s festival.

A damning report released by the UN refugee agency has called for an “immediate relocation” of the 61 asylum seekers who have been stranded on the remote island for more than two years and have experienced violence, abuse and arbitrary detention.

Protests have been held in Thailaimannar in front of the Mannar Magistrate Court by residents calling for justice to be swiftly delivered in the case of 10-year-old Yasi Warnakulasuriya who was raped and murdered, 300 meters away from her home in Urmanani.