A British Foreign Office Minister has said that the UK is committed to supporting Sri Lanka achieve its commitments on reconciliation and human rights.

The Sri Lankan government is set to receive a loan of US$75 million from the World Bank in order to address “challenges in the financial sector”.

Sri Lanka’s Secretary to the Treasury, Ministry of Finance and Media met with World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka and the Maldives Idah Pswarayi-Riddihough to sign the agreement from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA).

“A strong financial sector can help Sri Lanka sustain its developmental returns. Efficient financial markets can boost the competitiveness of Sri Lankan firms and overall job creation,” said Ms Pswarayi-Riddihough.

Photograph: ColomboPage

Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister repeated his assurance that whilst all religions will be treated equally in Sri Lanka, Buddhism would continue to hold the foremost place on the island.

There is an “obvious gap” between the Tamil National Alliance’s (TNA) manifesto promises to the Tamil people in 2015 and the Steering Committee proposals it has accepted in 2017, said journalist J S Tissainayagam, in a piece for Asian Correspondent on Wednesday .

The TNA has “asked voters to support its demand for a constitution based on shared sovereignty” said Mr Tissainayagam, whilst “the UNP and UPFA manifestoes unequivocally rejected a federal constitution”.

Families of Tamil political prisoners have called for the TNA to pressure the Sri Lankan government and secure the rapid release of the political prisoners.

Hundreds of Jaffna University students staged a protest outside the university campus today, calling for the release of Tamil political prisoners.

Tamil farmers in Trincomalee have threatened legal action against Sinhala Home Guard members for the continued encroachment of their cultivation lands.

The lawyers of five Tamil farmers from the Thennamaravady village on the Trinco-Mullaitivu border in the Kuchchaveli division have written to five Sinhala Home Guard members as a first step to initiating court action against the encroachment.

The people of Thennamaravady were resettled after the end of the war following over two decades of displacement. The villagers fled to Mullaitivu and other places following an outbreak of violence and killings unleashed by Sinhala Home Guards in 1985.

The Australian government is demanding thousands of dollars to return the body of a dead Tamil asylum seeker to his family in Sri Lanka.

The cousin of 32-year-old Rajeev Rajendran, who took his own life on Manus Island after four years in detention, said he was told by the Australian High Commission in Colombo that the family would have to pay 9 lakh rupees, around 6000 USD to repatriate the body to Sri Lanka.

The body of a Sri Lankan soldier was recovered at an army camp in Mullaitivu on Monday morning.

The body was discovered in the infantry camp on the Mullaitivu-Manalaru highway and was taken for post-mortem at the Mullaitivu District Hospital.

Mullaitivu police have said they are investigating the incident.

Former Sri Lankan minister Basil Rajapaksa denied reports that Sri Lankan troops committed war crimes, whilst speaking in Jaffna on Sunday.

Mr Rajapaksa, the former Economic Development Minister, was speaking at a public meeting of the Jaffna branch of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna.

"Our troops did not do war crimes,” said the former minister. “There may have been individuals who did the crime."

He went on to slam the current Sri Lankan government and the Tamil National Alliance, accusing them of not acting on Tamil grievances.