Sri Lanka has signed the agreement for a $100 million USD loan from the World Bank for a project to modernise its education system.

The focus of the General Education Modernization (GEM) project will be on children from schools located in disadvantaged regions, the World Bank said.

Dr. Idah Pswarayi-Riddihough, World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka and the Maldives said that although Sri Lanka has made progress in expanding access to education, overall learning outcomes needed to improve.

A group seven of Indian fishermen have been arrested by the Sri Lankan navy this week, for allegedly engaging in “in illegal fishing in Sri Lankan territorial waters”.

Iran has reportedly dismissed a plan by Sri Lanka to clear $250 million of oil debts with tea shipments as “impossible”.

The Financial Tribune reports that the offer was made by Lucille Wijewardena, chairman of Sri Lankan Tea Syndicate, as Colombo attempts to get around international sanctions on Iran.

The leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party said the international community has a responsibility to help achieve justice, in a statement released to mark the genocidal acts of Black July.

“35 years ago, genocide erupted in Sri Lanka, as mobs carried out pogroms across the country, killing between 400 and 3,000 Tamils, brutalizing countless more, and leaving 150,000 people without homes,” said NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.

French Tamils marked the 35^th anniversary of the Black July pogroms, with a commemoration service in Paris this week.

Sri Lanka and China have vowed to strengthen defence ties, Xinhua reports.

Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary, Kapila Waidyaratne, said China had always been a valuable partner of Sri Lanka and the two nations had enjoyed diplomatic relations for 61 years, supporting each other in the regional and international sphere while making efforts to deepen pragmatic cooperation.

The Defence Secretary was chief guest at a reception at the Chinese embassy in Colombo, celebrating the 91st founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

Sri Lankan police attempted to break up a protest by fishermen in Mullaitivu today against illegal fishing by Sinhala fishermen. 

Local fishermen had met to discuss the issue, warning that their livelihoods were at stake as they could not compete with their Sinhala counterparts who were often assisted by the armed forces and have access to a wider consumer base. 

Following the meeting the local fishermen walked to the Mullaitivu fisheries office where they launched a protest calling for action on the issue. 

Families from Mullikulam village returned to their lands last week following days of protests over the Sri Lankan navy's occupation of their land.  

Over 100 residents who had been displaced returned to their original lands and began the arduous task of clearing them.

Amnesty International's Northern Ireland branch condemned the actions of the suspended DUP MP, Ian Paisley who failed to declare two luxury holidays paid for by the Sri Lankan government whilst lobbying to prevent against a resolution calling for an investigation into the mass atrocities, but stressed that the real scandal was that the victims of the crimes continued to be denied justice. 

“Ian Paisley’s historic suspension from parliament has received a lot of attention, but let us not forget that the real victims of this scandal are those who were disappeared, tortured and killed in Sri Lanka. This is really a scandal about an MP attempting to stand in the way of international justice for the tens of thousands of civilians who lost their lives at the hands of the Sri Lankan government and the so-called Tamil Tigers,"  Patrick Corrigan, Head of Amnesty International in Northern Ireland said in a statement today. 

“Mr Paisley saw fit to lobby the Prime Minister against a UN investigation into gross human rights violations, including the mass-killing of civilians at the end of the Sri Lankan war, for which no adequate investigation has ever been carried out. Mr Paisley’s intervention – which the House of Commons has found to be a breach of the rules on paid advocacy - was a moral disgrace, serving the interests of an abusive regime, not its victims."

The former state minister and UNP MP, Vijayakala Maheswaran was questioned by Sri Lanka's Organized Crimes Division today over allegedly making a 'pro-LTTE' statement.

Ms Maheswaran, who was questioned for over four hours at her home in Jaffna, was forced to resign from her ministerial portfolio after she was reported to have made a speech calling for the resurgence of the LTTE. 

The UNP also launched an investigation into the incident, with several backbenchers calling for her resignation and prosecutions at the time.