The Sri Lankan government has expressed concern over a recent Memorandum of understanding, signed between the US Embassy in Colombo and the Trincomalee Urban Council, to establish an ‘American Corner’, a public information centre.

Unnamed officials said the External Affairs Ministry had no knowledge of this and did not authorise the MoU, reported the DailyMirror.

Two American corners already exist in Jaffna and Kandy.

A party in coalition with Sri Lanka’s ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU,) announced today, that steps would be taken to mobilise the public in calls to abolish the 13^th Amendment of the constitution.

JHU parliamentarian, Ven. Athuraliye Ratana, stressed that the public must urge the government to change its stance on the 13^th Amendment.

The Director General of the Commonwealth Business Council, Mr Peter Callaghan, met Sri Lanka’s Minister of External Affairs, G.L Peiris, for discussions relating to the arrangements for the Business Forum, a side-line event that will be held at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

Amidst discontent over Sri Lanka's hosting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), Sri lanka will launch a campaign to ‘promote’ the Colombo ahead of the meeting.

A ruling government coalition party, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), have submitted a motion proposing a 19th amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution, earlier on Thursday.

The proposal “aims primarily to repeal the 13th amendment”, which was labelled in the motion as a “threat to the independence, sovereignty, unity and the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka”.

Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse has warned the government of the consequences in case the TNA wins the Northern Provincial Council polls, due to be held later this year.

“I can assure you that the government has not taken a decision to make any changes to the existing legislative procedure in respect of Provincial Councils. President Rajapaksa has clearly stated that the elections to the Northern PC would be held in September and therefore the status quo remains"

Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department has questioned the Tamil National Alliance MP for Vanni, Sivasakthi Anandan, over Saturday’s memorial event in Vavuniya.

Anandan said he was questioned as to why he organised the commemoration event when he reported to the CID office in Colombo, accompanied by fellow MPs MA Sumanthiran and Suresh Premachandran, BBC Sinhala reported.

A government document has revealed that the China Development Bank is to increase its lending to Sri Lanka development projects, now totalling to more than US$1.4 billion.