Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister has proposed the hiring of a US-based management consultancy firm to set up a “Central Programme Management Unit,” on a US$2.3 million contract, reports the Sunday Times.

The aim of the unit will be to create “integrated and accelerated economic development across the country and restructuring and transformation of the economy to a vibrant and sustainable social market economy,” said Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Sri Lanka’s Minister for Defence Ruwan Wijewardene told an international peacekeeping summit in London that his government would not bow down to international pressure and would protect Sri Lankan troops.

Mr Wijewardene met with members of the British Sri Lanka Forum on the sidelines of the United Nations Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial Meeting in London last week.

Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister told Tamils in Jaffna that his government would enact a political solution to the island’s ethnic conflict which would solve porlbems faced by the Tamil people.

Speaking at the opening of a new administrative building of the Jaffna District Secretariat, Ranil Wickremesinghe said that many had expected the implementation of the 13th amendment and a further devolution of powers to the North-East following the end of the armed conflict in 2009. Though the previous government did not implement the amendment, the prime minister pledged that this government would address Tamil grievances and end racism on the island.

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Geneva said his government looks to obtain “expertise and technical assistance” from  the United Nations after a report by the Working Group of Enforced Disappearances called for international judges to be involved in an accountability mechanism.

Responding to the report, which reiterated the importance of including international actors in any accountability mechanism, Ravinatha Aryasinha told the UN Human Rights Council that Sri Lanka would “work closely and in consultation with the United Nations system and the OHCHR as well as other international experts”.

Members of the Global Tamil Forum met with US Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal in Washington this week to discuss justice and accountability on the island.

Joined by Assistant Secretary for Human Rights Tom Malinowski, Ms Biswal tweeted that she had a good discussion on “diaspora efforts to support reconciliation and accountability”.

The Sri Lankan government announced on Tuesday that it had decided not to proceed with plans to build an Indian funded coal power plant in Sampur. 

The construction of the power plant was opposed by locals and environmental activists. 

The ministry of power and renewable energy had decided "not to go ahead with constructing the [Indian coal power] plant", deputy the solicitor general, Sanjaya Rajaratnam was quoted by Ceylon News as saying. 

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A fire has destroyed shops and stalls at Kilinochchi market on Friday evening, after local fire services struggled to bring the blaze under control.  

It is not known how the fire, which broke out at midnight started. 

Market vendors, many who had only started to rebuild their lives after the end of the armed conflict, have been left with nothing but ashes. 

Sinhalese journalists from the South were taken on a tour of Jaffna by the Sri Lankan military last week, who briefed them on the "reconciliation process" that was allegedly underway in the region.

The journalists from various organisations were flown to the Tamil North-East in Sri Lankan air force planes, where they were greeted by military personnel.

The Sri Lankan government called on North Korea to “abide by its international obligations” in a statement released in response to a nuclear test launched last week.

Colombo condemned the testing and said it “notes with concern” that this is the second such test to be carried by the DPRK this year.

Sri Lankan went on to state that North Korea should “refrain from any action which would compromise peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula”.