Sri Lanka’s president and accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa met with Russia’s Ambassador to Colombo Yury Materiy, as he sought closer ties with Moscow this week.

“President Rajapaksa and Russian Ambassador Yury Materiy discussed a number of important economic areas, including generating more demand for Ceylon Tea in Russia, tourism industry, fuel, coal, gas, aviation, education, trade and fertilizer,” said a Sri Lankan statement.

An elderly Tamil who was living alone at her Jaffna home was reportedly brutally raped and murdered last week.

The woman, who authorities have identified as 78-year-old Sana Thavamani, lived alone in Kankesanthurai.

She was found dead last Friday. An autopsy was carried out at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital which stated she had been murdered after being raped.

Investigations are reportedly still ongoing.

Tamil protestors in Karainagar beat back attempts by the Sri Lankan military to appropriate further land as it looks to expand a naval base in the area in yet another land grab in the North-East.

An attempt was made to survey the privately owned land in the Neelankadu area in the Karainagar J / 145 Grama Niladhari Division on Tuesday.

A court in Canada has upheld the Tamil Genocide Education Week Act, which recognises the genocide against Tamils in Sri Lanka and aims to spread awareness about the atrocities, as a constitutional challenge by several Sinhalese groups was dismissed.

An elderly couple from Tamil Eelam were found unconscious on a beach in Tamil Nadu and have been admitted into hospital where they remain in critical condition, as they become the latest asylum seekers to flee Sri Lanka for India.

R Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said that although the worldwide Tamil diaspora could contribute economically to alleviate the crisis in Sri Lanka, they would not do so unless the ethnic issue on the island is resolved once and for all.

India’s Union Minister Piyush Goyal told an audience in Tamil Nadu that the country would become a US$30 trillion economy “very soon” as it looks to “capture the world market”.

“In all sectors, we want to become a global industry,” Goyal said at an event in Coimbatore.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted his government’s support for Sri Lanka during its ongoing economic crisis whilst speaking at the G7 meeting.

Commenting on aid provided by India, Modi stated:

“We have dispatched about 35,000 tonnes of wheat as humanitarian aid to Afghanistan in the last few months. And even after the heavy earthquake there, India was the first country to deliver relief materials. We are also helping our neighbour Sri Lanka to ensure food security”.

US President Joe Biden announced US$20 million in “additional assistance to strengthen food security in Sri Lanka” which will reportedly feed over 800,000 children, as Colombo desperately looks for international assistance in the midst of its economic crisis.

Tamil National Alliance MP S Sritharan delivered a scathing address to Sri Lanka’s parliament last week, where he denounced the army’s attack on Tamils at a petrol station in Mullaitivu and state-sponsored Buddhist colonization of the North-East in defiance of court orders, and called for justice for both.

Speaking in parliament, the lawmaker described how “fellow citizens belonging to another ethnicity of this country has been savagely attacked by the Sinhala army and Sinhala police”.