In a frank interview with BBC Sinhala, the Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena dismissed concerns over ongoing detentions of political prisoners, stressing "there are no political prisoners in Sri Lanka". 

"Also, there are no secret prisoners in Sri Lanka under my government," Mr Sirisena said.

Sri Lanka's Office on Missing Persons (OMP) is to begin meeting with families of the disappeared from next month, with the first meeting taking place in Mannar. 

"The OMP will from May onwards visit different places to speak to families of the missing and disappeared to share our plans and obtain their views on how we should proceed. First meetings in Mannar on 12th May," Saliya Pieris, the chairman of the OMP tweeted yesterday.

The World Bank on Thursday approved $100 million credit to improve Sri Lanka's education system, aimed at improving GCE and A level grades, with a particular focus on children in disadvantaged areas. 

A court in India has sentenced two individuals, who were accused of trying to revive the LTTE by procuring cyanide capsules. 

The two men, K Krishnakumar and V Subashkaran were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by the District Judge A Kayalvizhi, The Hindu reported. 

Mr Krishnakumar was the prosecution said found to be in possession of 600gm of cyanide powder and 75 cyanide capsules on July 20, 2015. 

^{Photograph Tamilwin}

A 15 year old girl was reported missing in Jaffna this week by her parents. 

The girl, Kasthuri, who is originally from Mulliyavalai East, Mullaitivu, was staying at her relative's house in the Kalviyankaattu region of Jaffna when she disappeared on April 18th. 

Sri Lankan police on Saturday arrested 8 Tamil youths for allegedly taking part in sword fights in the Kokkuvil region over the past two days. 

The youths, from Manipay and Tellipalai, have been accused of being associated with the 'Ava gang'. 

Journalists from across the North-East gathered in Batticaloa on Saturday to participate in a demonstration calling for media freedom and demanding justice for the killings of numerous Tamil journalists. 

The demonstration was held on the thirteenth anniversary of the abduction and murder of the Tamil journalist and editor of TamilNet, Dharmeratnam Sivaram. 

The owners of the ‘Sridhar Cinema’ building in Jaffna town have filed a case against Douglas Devananda, leader of the EPDP, in a bid to recover their property, which is currently illegally occupied by the EPDP, and to recover damages accrued over the 22 year illegal occupation.

The Sridhar Cinema was built by the family which owns the land, on Stanley Road, in 1974 but was closed down around 1990 due to the war, when the landowners also fled Jaffna.

Police officers in stations across the Jaffna division have had their leave suspended indefinitely, with the North’s police chief citing failure to tackle gang violence around Jaffna town and its suburbs as the reason.

Officers belonging to the nine police stations in the Jaffna division have had their leave cancelled by the Northern Province’s Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police, Roshan Fernando.

Tamils across the North-East remembered S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, referred to fondly as Thanthai Chelva and the father of Tamil nationalism, with a blood held in Batticaloa and a commemorative event held at his memorial in Jaffna. 

The Sri Lankan government has placed a ban on the construction of a genocide memorial in Jaffna University, student union representatives have reported.

Construction on the monument to commemorate the thousands of Tamils killed in the final stages of the war, including Jaffna University students, began last week.

Reform policy implementation in Sri Lanka looks to “become slower and more challenging,” as “pressure for more populist policies” may rise as Sri Lanka enters an election cycle, said Fitch Ratings today.

US soldiers in military uniform held a music concert in Trincomalee on Wednesday, as they marked their arrival on the island for this year’s Pacific Partnership exercise with the Sri Lankan navy

The exercise, set to take place over the next two weeks, will see at least 36 different events with personnel from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, France, Peru, and Japan, alongside Sri Lankan soldiers.

The Sri Lankan government announced that it will ban the sale of all meat, alongside the liquor and gambling, for the Buddhist festival of Vesak, which is due to be celebrated next month.