The Sri Lankan government is looking to sign extradition treaties with several countries including those in Europe and Asia, the State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardena said, reported Colombo Gazette. 

Treaties have already been signed between Sri Lanka and Ukraine, China and Vietnam. 

"The extradition treaties will help Sri Lanka and foreign countries exchange wanted criminals," Mr Wijewardena was quoted as saying. 

Thirty-one Rohingya refugees who were inside a UN safe house run by the UNHCR near Sri Lanka's capital city were taken into police custody, after a mob led by Sinhala Buddhist monks stormed the building on Tuesday. 

According to AFP, the mob "broke down gates and entered the walled multi-storied compound as frightened refugees huddled together in upstairs rooms". 

"We have pushed back the mob and the refugees will be relocated in a safer place," a police official was quoted by the news wire as saying. 

The general secretary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), Vaiko said he was on Monday accosted by a Sri Lankan woman and former army personnel after concluding his address to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. 

“After I completed my speech, a woman approached me and questioned my right to speak against Sri Lanka when I was not a citizen of the country," he told The Hindu by telephone. 

Tamils gathered in Nallur today to remember the 30th anniversary of the final day of Thileepan's fast unto death. 

Lt. Col. Thileepan, a political wing leader of the LTTE fasted to death on hunger strike, appealing to the Indian government to honour pledges made to the Tamil people. He began his fast on 15th September 1987 and died on the 26th. 

UK Foreign Office policy “significantly” downplays the scale of human rights abuses and torture in Sri Lanka, said British parliamentarian Joan Ryan at the side-lines of the Labour party conference on Monday.

A new cohort of Sri Lankan marines participated in a passing out ceremony in Trincomalee earlier this month.

Members of Mannar civil society have written to the Sri Lankan president, criticising his planned participation in the opening ceremony of a Buddhist vihara constructed illegally in the environs of the historic Thiruketheeswaram Kovil.

President Sirisena is due to participate in the opening ceremony of the vihara, constructed illegally in around 10 acres of private Tamil-owned land on September 29.

A Buddhist shrine was initially built to serve the Sri Lankan army when it occupied the area in 1991. However since the end of the war, the main army camp has been removed but a smaller one was kept in place to guard the vihara and Buddhist monks.

Sri Lankans from across Europe and Australia gathered in Geneva on Sunday to protested against the UN's investigation into allegations of war crimes committed by the country's security forces against the Tamil people. 

See video of the protest here. 

Carrying the Sri Lankan flag, protesters from the group, Global Sri Lankan Forum, condemned the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein and accused him of acting beyond his scope, Adaderana reported. 

The Sri Lankan prime minister warned this week that the country's debt was still high and the highest debt repayments were in 2018 and 2019. 

Outlining his vision for a new tourism industry, Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe explained, "tourism brings in foreign exchange."

"We need the foreign exchange to correct the balance of payment and to repay national debts," he added. 

“When we took over in 2015 we did not have enough money to service debt. We needed money to pay debt and for recurrent expenditures. What we have done during the last two years is trying to manage the debt situation. Today our revenue exceeds debt services."

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) expressed concern about the postponement of the election in the Eastern Provincial Council and that the province would be brought under the purview of the governor after the current term expired. 

Criticising the prospect of governor run administation, the SLMC secretary Nizam Kariapper told the Daily Mirror that "his party was against such a move because it would lose political authority in the council in such an eventuality."