Hundreds of residents of a coastal Mannar village gathered outside a Sri Lankan Navy camp to protest the arrest of 25 Tamil fishermen on Monday.

The Navy arrested 25 fishermen on 5 boats in the sea off Thalvupadu and detained them in the navy camp.

Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena refused the budgetary proposal to reduce the tax on beer, saying it was contrary to the policy of his government.

Speaking in parliament , Mr Sirisena said,

“No one can agree with the granting of tax concessions to any type of liquor because the policy of this government is to minimise the consumption of liquor and minimise the smoking habit.”

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Despite ongoing calls for the harassment of media workers to end and for those responsible to be brought to justice, Sri Lanka's prime minister claimed on Monday there were no crimes committed against journalists on the island under the current regime. 

Speaking at a UNESCO seminar on ‘Reinforcing Regional Cooperation to Promote Freedom of Expression and the Rule of Law in Asia through Ending Impunity for Crimes Against the Journalists’, Mr Wickremesinghe was quoted by Ada Derana as saying there had been no cases of intimidation, attacks, abductions or murders. 

The Asian Development Bank has approved a further $120 million  loan to develop drinking water within the Jaffna peninsula. 

In 2010, the bank approved $90 million of the first stage of assistance towards a water supply project in Jaffna and Kilinochchi. The full project is expected by be completed by 2025 and is expected to cost £266 million. 

Sri Lanka's prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe this weekend sought to assure voters that local government polls would be held by early February 2018 at the latest. 

The exact date is yet to be determined, with the election commission having the final say. However, local papers have cited February 10th as the confirmed date. 

"The next local government election will be actually a trial to test the effectiveness of the new mixed electoral system introduced recently and if it is a success it will be used for the Parliamentary polls as well," Mr Wickremesinghe was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying at an event on Saturday. 

A Tamil journalist was attacked in a suburb of Jaffna on Saturday evening.

44-year-old Shanmuganathan Manoharan, an anchor for the radio Yaarl FM, was driving home in Chavakachcheri on Saturday when his car was obstructed by a three-wheeler.

Mr Manoharan and another person were beaten by three men who alighted from the three-wheeler.

The attackers escaped as soon as onlookers began to gather.

A complaint was filed at Chavakachcheri police, following which the department said they had arrested the driver of the three-wheeler.

Unemployment continues to affects Jaffna residents, with over 33,000 residents filing a complaint with the District Employment Bureau. 

A total of 33204 residents with qualifications including Bachelor degrees, A levels and O levels, filed the complaint, Adaderana reported. 

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Recent years have seen a number of protests across the North-East by unemployed graduates, who have repeated called on local provincial councils and the government to take action. 

Sri Lanka's trade deficit continued to widen in the first nine months of the year, despite an increase in exports, the Sunday Times' economic column noted.

Last year the trade deficit over the first nine months was US$ 6.1 billion, rising to US$ 6.8 billion this year. 

The deficit was expected to fall this year as export figures increased by 8.2 percent. However, despite this increase imports increased further by 9.7% percent. 

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Former LTTE cadres have only received a "tiny fraction of money" pledged by the government last year in the form of self-employment loans, Ceylon Today reported. 

According to the paper, 7858 of the 12,185 cadres who underwent the government's 'rehabilitation' programme applied for the loan, however only 1799 were deemed eligble. 

Banks cited the frequent re-arrest of former cadres by the Terrorism of Investigation Division as adding to their concern about lending. 

"Some of them are in prisons, and we don't know how to recover the loans," a bank official told the paper. 

Sri Lanka’s prime minister Ranil Wickrememsinghe defended the China’s and India’s stake in the Hambantota Port Project and the running of Mattala airport during a public speech on Friday.

Opening a new bus stand and economic centre in Ampara, Mr Wickremesinghe said,