The annual inflation rate could be upto to a 42-month high in July according to a Reuters poll 13 analysts.

It is expected to have risen to at least 9.4 % in July, the highest point since January 2009. The IMF has predicted an increase to 9.5% this year.

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is planning to set up an oil refinery in Sri Lanka, with an investment worth $3.6 billion.

A senior official told the Business Standard that the government will supply the company with the land.

Speaking at the International Cuban Solidarity Day held in Colombo, the minister for housing and construction, Wimal Weerawansa said, 

TNA MP and TELO political coordinator, Sivajalingam, was arrested and detained by the Sri Lankan Army on Thursday for remembering the massacre of political prisoners at Welikade prison during the 1983 pogrom, reported TamilNet. 

Paramilitary operatives are reportedly intimidating and threatening voters in the district of Batticaloa, TamilNet reported.

The first Tamil asylum seeker to be deported from Australia since the end of the 2009 massacre, Dayan Anthony, has withdrawn all claims of torture and mistreatment by Sri Lankan authorities , immediately after being released from 16 hours of interrogation in Sri Lankan police custody.