The Sri Lankan Finance Ministry is being queried on how approval was granted to establish a controversial ethanol distillery in Kalkudah, Batticaloa.

Permission was granted for the distillery, under then Finance Minister and current Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake, in violation of the Sri Lankan government’s National Drug Prevention Policy, the Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) reports.

Sri Lanka's minister of ports and shipping, Mahinda Samarasinghe, said this week that an agreement was "virtually finalised" with China Merchants Port Holdings on the Hambantota port city deal. 

“I don’t see any major issues now on the table. We’re confident we can finish it soon,” Mr Samarasinghe was quoted by Economy Next as saying. 

“The Chinese side displayed a positive attitude and the agreement is virtually finalised. We can finish it fairly soon.” 

Sri Lanka's Joint Opposition are planning to stage a protest on Monday demonstrating against the government's plan to hand over the re-development of the oil tank facilities in Trincomalee to India. 

The Joint Opposition parliamentarian, Dullas Alahapperuma, was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying that "they would gather all the anti-government forces to compel the Government to revise its decision to sell country’s assets."

Sri Lanka's Joint Opposition are planning to stage a protest on Monday demonstrating against the government's plan to hand over the re-development of the oil tank facilities in Trincomalee to India. 

The Joint Opposition parliamentarian, Dullas Alahapperuma, was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying that "they would gather all the anti-government forces to compel the government to revise its decision to sell country’s assets."

A merger of the North-East is looking unlikely, the spokesperson for the Tamil National Alliance, suggested today at a press conference.

Speaking to journalists at his Jaffna office, TNA MP and spokesperson M. A. Sumanthiran, said that while the TNA's demand for a merger had not changed, he personally believed that if a merger were not to happen now, a possibility for it would be more likely to arise in the future.

"If we want the North-East to be merged, the cooperation of Muslims living in the East is important," Mr Sumanthiran said. "For this we are holding discussions with Muslim parties."

Sri Lanka's president Maithripala Sirisena this week promoted the current army commander, General Crisanthe de Silva to Chief of Defence Staff. 

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has had discussions with the unity government's UNP And SLFP regarding clearly the defining the meaning of 'unitary state', which translates into the Sinhala word 'Ekeeya'. 

Quoting a senior government official, Ceylon Today said that the discussions were aimed at including a Tamil equivalent of the word. 

"That means the exact corresponding word in Tamil for the word Ekeeya may probably be used in the Tamil version of the Constitution too," the official was quoted as saying. 

The Sri Lankan army have laid the foundation stone for a new building at a military-run holiday resort in Kayankerni last week.

A new officer’s mess is to be constructed at the “Coral Cove” holiday resort, which is operated by the Sri Lankan security forces.

The Governor of the Eastern Province Austin Fernando, a former defence secretary, is to be appointed as the new Secretary to the President reports Adaderana.lk

The appointment comes following the resignation of PB Abeykoon, who cited personal reasons for vacating the post.

Austin Fernando, a former advisor to the United Nations served as Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary from 2001-2002.

A feasibility study is set to take place looking at an Indian government led project for a 50MW solar power plant in Trincomalee.

The governments of Sri Lanka and India signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in a host of development projects including a solar power plant in April this year.

Speaking to the Hindu Sri Lanka’s Minister of Power and Renewable Energy Sulakshana Jayawardena, said “ We have acquired the land to set up the 50MW solar plant envisaged in the MOU. We have to now work out the process of executing the project, in consultation with India. The next step would be to undertake a feasibility study and do the groundwork.”