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.

The Sri Lankan government reportedly summoned the Canadian High Commissioner in Colombo over plans to construct a monument to victims of the Tamil genocide, thousands of miles away in the Canadian city of Brampton.

Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam, the Jaffna-born activist and athlete, who competed in the 1952 Olympics and won the first Gold Medal in any sport for Ceylon passed away on Thursday, 18 April 2024, aged 89 years old.

Tamil residents and members of the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) held another protest to demand the removal of a Sinhala Buddhist shrine, the Tissa Rahamaha Vihara, which was built illegally and on land occupied by Sri Lanka's military. 

Releasing its country report on Human Rights Practices in Sri Lanka, the US State Department said that 2023 was marred with a slew of “significant human rights issues” including torture, degrading treatment by the government, unjustified arrests, and extrajudicial killings.

Three Eelam Tamils, including a boy, have fled to Tamil Nadu, undertaking a treacherous journey by boat from Batticaloa over the rising cost of living and ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka. 

The two men and child were found seeking shelter from the sun at the sandbanks near Dhanushkodi when they were spotted by patrol boats and taken inland. 

A Sri Lankan oversight committee on ‘national security’ has issued a directive to seize land for a Buddhist shrine in Jaffna, which local Tamil residents have opposed.

Tea plantation workers in the island's hill country, a majority of whom are Malayaga Tamils staged a token strike demanding that their daily wage be increased to Rs.1700 ($5.67 USD) in keeping with the rising cost of living. 

They accused the tea companies of ignoring a directive from the Sri Lankan president who assured that their daily wage would be increased to Rs.1700 per day. The protest was organized by the Ceylon Workers Congress along with the support of several other trade unions. 

Services were held to mark 16 years since the assassination of Father Xavier Karunaratnam who was killed in a claymore attack by Sri Lanka's Deep Penetration Unit. 

On April 20, 2008, Father Karunaratnam's vehicle was attacked by a command-detonated landmine while it was being towed after breaking down on Father Karunaratnam's journey home following Sunday Mass. Father Karunaratnam, was seated in the driver seat steering the vehicle when shrapnel hit his head, causing brain injuries. He died on the spot.