A Sri Lankan government minister met with a senior Buddhist monk today, to brief the clergy on the process to draft a new constitution for the island.

The newly appointed Defence Attaché at the US embassy in Sri Lanka met with commanders of the Sri Lankan security forces in Kilinochchi and Jaffna this weekend.

A Sinhala-language website has falsely used the photographs of three Tamil journalists in a story about a fraud incident in Dubai.

The website alleges that six Tamil youths working at a security firm in Dubai defrauded that firm of over a million Emirati dirhams.

In a collage of the supposed suspects, the website used the photographs of three prominent Tamil journalists based in Jaffna.

The journalists said they had brought the incident to the attention of the Inspector General of Police during his visit to Jaffna and were assured the IGP would be taking swift action against the website.

Britain’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka praised renewed defence links between the two governments and called on the military to release more land, which is currently being occupied by the armed forces in the North-East.

Three Northern Provincial Council members were questioned by the Sri Lankan Criminal Investigation Department in relation to a press conference on Mullivaikkaal remembrance.

M. K. Sivajilingam was last week summoned to Colombo by the CID for questioning although the councillor declined to travel, suggesting instead that questioning could take place in the Jaffna district.

CID personnel travelled to Jaffna on Monday and questioned the councillor about a press conference at Jaffna Press Club on May 8th.

The Sri Lankan army donated a batch of computers to a school in Jaffna earlier this month, in a town that has become the site of a controversial Sinhala settlement.

A 38 year old Tamil man identified as father of four, Rasaiya Ravichandran, was found dead in Vaalaichchenai, Batticaloa on Friday.

His body was found within bushes on abandoned land, reported Batti News. 

Mr Ravichandran left home around midday on Thursday before calling home around 5pm, his wife told the police. 

His body has been taken to Vaalaichchenai hospital by police for a post mortem examination. 

As the splits within Sri Lanka's national unity government continued to widen president Maithripala Sirisena warned on Monday that no one could form a government without his approval according to the constitution.  

"Everybody should keep in their minds that his blessing is essential to form a new government though some groups are dreaming of changing the numbers in Parliament and capture power to form a government," the Daily Mirror quoted him as saying. 

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundare, who visited Jaffna in response to an attack on two police constables in Kokuvil on Sunday, said Sri Lanka's Army will help patrols and searches in the North-East.

The IGP, who was in Jaffna on Monday to brief the police forces on a new strategy involving search and arrest on suspicion to deal with recent attacks against police constables, said,  

“We are going to have the assistance of the STF and Armed Forces. We are going to start combined patrols and searches to find those responsible for the attack." 

Dozens of Tamils remain in custody with trials pending under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), according to a list of cases published by Ceylon Today this weekend.

A report obtained by Ceylon Today lists the names of 84 persons, mostly Tamils from the North-East, as being held for a variety of terrorism related offences, as of 12 July 2017.

A further 12 persons are being held “pending advice of legal action by the Attorney General” as of 20 July 2017.