Sri Lanka’s Army announced that it had agreed a ‘national’ vetting process with the UN for personnel that it sends out on UN peacekeeping assignments.

In a statement published on the army website, it said,

The Sri Lankan Prime Minister has said reviving “fallen” education in the North would take at least another ten years.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said this at Temple Trees on Wednesday at a ceremony to hand out permanent appointment letters for around 400 teachers to the Northern Province.

“The whole system of education in the North had fallen today. What have to do is to lay the foundation stone to revive this system in the province. It will take time,” he said.

A newly elected local government member has been arrested in connection with the anti-Muslim violence in Kandy.

Kumara Mohottige Samantha Perera alias Araliya Samantha, a member elected to a divisional council in the Kandy district was arrested by the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID).

Mr Samantha is a member of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, the Rajapaksa-led Sri Lanka Freedom Party breakaway that swept the elections in the Sinhala South.

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A temporary police checkpoint in Maniyanthottam, Jaffna was set ablaze by unknown persons on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka’s Army Chief Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake met with Northern Province Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran to offer army leadership for school cadet programmes, reports the army website.

The Commander also cited examples of the Army’s potential for deepening civil and military cooperation.

Sri Lanka's military has received strong cirticism from civil society for its pervasive involvement in civilian affairs of the northern province. 

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The Tamil National Alliance using support of the EPDP to form gain control of Local Governing bodies will be considered as forsaking party policy for personal gain, said the Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran.

Mr Wigneswaran was speaking at the opening of the office of the Tamil National Green Movement , reports Tamil Diplomat.  

China would never interfere in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka nor attach additional conditions to its assistance to Sri Lanka, the Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka has said.

Ambassador Cheng Xueyan’s remarks came at a meeting with the Secretary General of Sri Lanka’s National Economic Council, according to a press release by the Chinese Embassy.

The Sri Lankan Cabinet has granted approval to abolish an economic management committee headed by the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The decision was made in a cabinet meeting chaired by Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, who has previously submitted two cabinet papers requesting the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management be disbanded.

The President said that the CCEM has done nothing fruitful to the country in its existence.

The Central Bank and the Securities and Exchange Commission were also removed from Wickremesinghe’s National Policies and Economic Affairs Ministry today, as tensions between the coalition parties continue.

Protesters in Trincomalee on Tuesday called on the government to release Tamil political prisoners, many who have been detained for years without charge under Sri Lanka's notorious anti-terror legislation. 

The United States president, Donald Trump reauthorised special trade tariffs for a number of countries, including Sri Lanka. 

Signing the US Omnibus Spending Bill on March 23, Mr Trump ensured GSP was authorised until December 2020. The previous programme ended December 31, 2017.  

Sri Lanka's minister of industry and commerce, Rishad Bathiudeen sought to downplay the importance of the trade tarrif however.