The US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs met with Sri Lanka’s president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo earlier today and pledged stronger ties between the two governments, despite the Sri Lankan leaders being accused of overseeing war crimes.

China’s foreign minister said Beijing “will not allow any outside influences to interfere with matters that are essentially internal concerns of Sri Lanka,” after meeting with Sri Lanka’s president in Colombo earlier today.

Sri Lanka’s prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is set to visit India next month, after foreign minister Dinesh Gunawardena visited Delhi and held talks with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar on the relationship between the two governments.

A Sri Lankan navy pick-up truck collided with another vehicle on the A9 highway near Panikankulam on Sunday night leaving a victim in a serious condition at Maankulam Hospital. 

Sri Lankan counter terrorism officers arrested two Tamil men yesterday in Udaiyarkaddu, Mullaitivu, accusing them of having links to a former LTTE cadre who they claimed to have found in the possession of explosives.

The officers from Puthukkudiyiruppu Police Station in Mullaitivu were reportedly instructed to arrest the two men by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID).

Sri Lankan police are reportedly carrying out further investigations.

The All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) has warned that any constitutional amendments demanded by Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government to weaken parties that represent the various ethnic groups of the island will have “dangerous outcomes” for ethnic harmony on the island.

A joint search operation; involving army, special task force (STF) and police officers, was carried out in Kurunagar, Jaffna between 5:30 am and 6:00 am today, as military surveilance in the North continues. 

The police ordered an unexpected round-up of the local residents, in which no suspects were arrested and no suspicious items were recovered. Police officials insisted that these operations were carried out for the sake of national security.

Sri Lankan police officers have arrested a Tamil youth in Batticaloa over the alleged possession of a T-56 rifle last week.

The youth, identified as 24-year-old Kumarapodi Thanujan, was arrested after Sri Lanka's Special Task Force conducted a raid on Saturday at 10 pm in the Valaichchenai area.

The Sri Lankan government is “unleashing a chilling process of repression targeting critics and human rights defenders,” said a report by the International Truth and Justice Project – Sri Lanka (ITJP) and Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), which documented at least 69 recent incidents of intimidation and threats

The former Chief Minister of the North held talks with top South Indian actor Rajinikanth on Saturday.

C V Wigneswaran paid the Kollywood icon a visit at his home in Chennai to discuss issues facing Tamils in Eelam and in Tamil Nadu.

He reportedly extended an invite to Rajinikanth and requested that he meet Eelam Tamils in the homeland.

The Sri Lankan government is reportedly set to release a soldier who was sentenced to death over the massacre of eight Tamil civilians, according to an opposition parliamentarian who applauded the move.

A Sri Lankan navy truck has killed one Tamil man and seriously injured another, after a road collision in Mullaitivu earlier this morning.

The vehicle, from the Gotabaya Navy Camp in Mullaitivu, was driving near Vadduvakal Bridge on the Mullaitivu - Paranthen main road, when it was involved in a collision. 

A protest in Jaffna called for the release of Tamil political prisoners who have been jailed in prisons across the island, following the death of one Tamil man after 26 years of imprisonment.