Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister told parliament that a resolution passed by the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) condemning the building of Buddhist places of worship in the North-East has “no legal standing”.

The Island reported Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe as telling parliamentarians that the Sri Lankan constitution did not provide any legal basis for the NPC to enforce the resolution, which called for an immediate cessation to the building of Buddhist viharas.

Russia’s ambassador to Sri Lanka urged Colombo to look to his country for the purchase of military equipment, at a press conference last week.

The Island quoted Ambassador Alexander Karchava as telling journalists that “Sri Lanka is searching for a number of products in the air, sea and land”.

“We can accommodate everything,” the ambassador said. “Russia has the originals and they are durable, unlike the duplicates."

Mr Karchava insisted that military co-operation between the two governments was continuing, pointing to the purchase of military helicopters by Sri Lanka in recent years.

The Constitutional Assembly Steering Committee has decided to obtain the views of parliamentarians on drafting the new constitution on January 9th 2017 reports Colombo Page.

The decision was made during a report submission to the Chairman of the Constitutional Assembly, Prime Minister Ranil Wickrememsinghe, by the Sub-Working Committee that looked into relations between the parliament and Provincial Councils.

The Sri Lankan government must end impunity for torture by holding those responsible accountable said Amnesty this week. 

The statement follows the report by the UN Committee Against Torture this month which called on the government to investigate ongoing reports of torture by its security services. 

Families of the missing demonstrated in Jaffna town on Saturday marking international Human Rights Day. 

The UNP announced Thursday that a new constitution would offer greater devolution of power however, would maintain a unitary state and the current executive presidential system, thereby rejecting Tamil demands for a federal structure. 

The UNP statement, made at its party headquarters did not however detail which powers would be further devolved. 

The statement to maintain a unitary state was endorsed by the SLFP as well. 

The World Bank board last week approved a $75 million credit to improve the selection, administration and payments within Sri Lanka's welfare programs. 

"The Social Safety Nets Project, to be implemented by the Ministry of Finance, will assist the government to develop a single registry of citizens containing information on family structure and economic characteristics. The Welfare Benefits Board, set up to manage the selection and payment of welfare beneficiaries, will develop and apply new selection criteria based on data in the registry," the World Bank said in a statement.