The Sri Lankan government has leased out the Chinese-funded Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport to two companies, an Indian and Russian firm for the management of the airport once dubbed as “the world’s emptiest airport” for 30 years. 

The Sri Lankan government has leased out the Chinese-funded Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport to two companies, an Indian and Russian firm, as ongoing financial woes force it to transfer management of what was dubbed  “the world’s emptiest airport”.

Tamils in Vakarai, Batticaloa, held a protest this week to oppose the establishment of an ilmenite mine and a prawn farm due to the impact they will have on their livelihood and the environment. 

Sri Lanka’s president Ranil Wickrememsinghe said the island “can never return Aragalaya,” as he opened a new Indian-funded hotel at the site of the previous anti-government protests in Colombo.

“Two years ago this was the site of a huge struggle,” said Wickremesinghe. “Today we have a huge hotel in its place”.

SJV Chelvanayakam, fondly known as Thanthi Chelva, is being remembered in Batticaloa and Jaffna today to mark 47 years since his death. 

Chelvanayakam was responsible for spearheading the Vaddukoddai resolution, which was overwhelmingly ratified by the Tamil votes in the 1977 parliamentary elections. 

An extremist Sinhala Buddhist monk and lawmaker claimed that he has never used racist terms against Muslims, despite having repeatedly been racist and delivered hate speech against Muslims on the island.

Ahead of his headline London show, the comedian sat with the Tamil Guardian in London, wearing his “Seeni Appa" (Sugar Daddy) T-shirt, to speak about his Tamil identity and how it has been integral to his comedy and to his audience.

Argentina called on Sri Lanka to arrest Iranian minister Ahmad Vahidi, who was touted to visit the island alongside Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi this week, accusing him of orchestrating a 1994 attack on a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.

The request from the Argentinian government comes less than two weeks after a court in the country held Iran responsible for the attack and demanded Sri Lanka, as well as Pakistan, which the Iranians visited before arriving in Colombo on Wednesday, arrest Vahidi.

As part of their global annual report, Amnesty International slammed the Sri Lankan government’s human rights record noting that “impunity remained entrenched with the Sri Lankan government making no notable progress around the right to truth, justice and reparation for those affected by war”.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and his delegation landed in Sri Lanka to inaugurate the Uma Oya Hydropower project this morning, just hours after the United States warned that it could impose sanctions on countries engaging in trade with Iran.

Nishan Duraiappah, the Chief of Peel Regional Police, was aware of a Supreme Court ruling that found Sri Lanka’s police chief had personally participated in torture, and still decided to meet him in Colombo, according to a report in Global News.