A Tamil man who had been reported as missing by his family in Mannar last week, has been found dead on Friday morning.

Thirty-year-old Antonis Nimal who is employed as an outreach officer at the Nanattan divisional council was last seen leaving for work on Saturday morning. His wife reported him missing to Murungan police on Saturday night as he had not returned home that evening.

A 47-year-old Tamil man has been arrested in Omanthai yesterday, on charges that he allegedly was in possession of a T-56 assault rifle and ammunition.

The man, who has not yet been identified, was arrested after Sri Lankan police raided a house in Konthakankulam area in Omanthai. Police stated they had received a confidential tip-off with regards to the rifle.

They allege to have found the rifle with 189 pieces of ammunition.

The Swiss government announced it was sending “experienced diplomat” Jörg Frieden to Sri Lanka, amidst raised tensions between the two governments after claims that a Swiss embassy employee was abducted, molested and threatened at gunpoint in Colombo last month.

A Tamil man who has been imprisoned for 14 years over a reported assassination attempt on Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2006, has now been acquitted of all charges. 

Chandrabose Selvachandran had been jailed by Sri Lankan authorities, after being held on suspicion of the attack. Selvachandran is currently suffering from cancer and was receiving treatment whilst imprisoned.

The Sri Lankan government confirmed it was “currently reviewing” action to be taken at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), including starting “top-level engagements” at withdrawing from a resolution on accountability for violations of international law. 

A mural painted on a wall of a supermarket in Pitakotte has sparked controversy, after its depiction of a dragon-like creature emerging from an American flag coming towards Sri Lanka.

Republic Next reports that the mural may be a possible nod to the widespread opposition in the south to the United States Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) grant.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran has reiterated his call for federalism, despite the new Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa repeatedly stating his opposition to devolving powers.

The Australian government has been found to have created fake horoscopes, as part of an advertising campaign to discourage those fleeing Sri Lanka from coming to the country.

The General Secretary of the Sinhala nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) has been arrested by Sri Lankan police, after they decided to reopen a criminal case into a 2016 road traffic accident.

Champika Ranawaka, a former Sri Lankan government minister who defected from the previous Rajapaksa regime to back the United National Party, was remanded by the Colombo Magistrate.

A vigil was held in Amparai on Tuesday, honouring the mothers and fathers of disappeared Tamils who have died whilst campaigning to find the whereabouts of their children.

The candlelit vigil at Thambiluvil was attended by more than 100 people. They marched through the streets with a banner bearing the portraits of at least 58 activists who have passed away.

In a report released by the World Economic Forum on the Global Gender Gap, Sri Lanka saw its gap in gender parity continue to grow.

United Nations peacekeepers deployed in Haiti, including Sri Lankan soldiers, have fathered hundreds of babies with young mothers - sometimes through sexual violence - before abandoning them, reports a new study published this week.

The study, published today on The Conversation, says that “girls as young as 11 were sexually abused and impregnated by peacekeepers and . . . ‘left in misery’ to raise their children alone”.

That includes Sri Lankan peacekeepers linked to a paedophilic sex ring in Haiti, where at least 134 soldiers exploited nine children from 2004 to 2006. The Sri Lankan military repatriated 114 of the soldiers after a group of children identified them as paedophiles, but none have ever been prosecuted.