Iran will look to re-visit a Preferential Trade Agreement which was agreed with Sri Lanka in 2005, said Iran’s Energmy Minister Hamid Chitchian during his visit to Sri Lanka.

Speaking in Colombo at the opening of the Joint Commission for Economic Co-operation (JCEC), Mr Chitchian said,

“Iran and its new international atmosphere with respect to resolving Iran’s sanctions is completely ready to boost bilateral commercial relations and would like to increase the level of cooperation with Sir Lanka more than ever.”

Sri Lanka's prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, came together with the former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday, to seek words of advice from Buddhist clergy.

Meeting with the Hunupitiya Ganagaramaya temple's chief monk, Galaboda Gnanissara Thera, the pair were told to work towards the betterment of the country, the Daily Mirror reported.

Highlighting criticism of the prime minister's aggression towards the media, the Buddhist monk advised him, “Don’t lose your cool as you can be aggressive. DO so only when the need arises."

“Prime Minister is accused of being aggressive towards mass media these days and one has to be aggressive towards the media. The rulers of the country have the right to be aggressive towards media,” he added.

An asylum boat which left Sri Lanka was turned back by Australian border control, the Australian immigration minister, Peter Dutton said on Tuesday.

"We determined that those people aren't refugees and then they go back to their country of origin. We have a good relationship with Sri Lanka as we do with Indonesia," Mr Dutton was quoted by AAP as saying in a radio interview to Brisbane radio 4BC.

Stating that the "threat" of asylum seekers boats remained, Mr Dutton said, "We are dealing with possible ventures regularly."

The President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Takehiko Nakao met with Sri Lanka’s President on a two day meeting to the island reports Colombo Page.

President Sirisena during his meeting with the ADB president, discussed development projects including a electrification project in the southern city of Galle and called for further cooperation with the bank.

A group of Tamil political prisoners have launched a hunger strike calling on the government to release them without further delay, reports Ceylonews.

In a letter to the Commissioner General of Prisons, they prisoners said that they had been held for several years without charge
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Two prisoners form the Colombo Magazine Prison and two from the Anuradhapura prison said they would continue the hunger strike until a solution was found.

Tamil civil society held protests in Kilinochchi and Vavuniya calling on the government to take action on the ongoing sexual violence that people in the North-East faced.
Hundreds of members of civil society including teachers, school children, businesses and professionals marched through Vavuniya demanding justice for a series of rapes that had occurred in the North-East over the past month.

Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has told the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leaders that there will be no drastic changes in the new constitution and the Northern and Eastern provinces will not be re-merged, reports Sudaytimes.lk.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, the prime minister said,

“We have said that the government is willing to accommodate request for possible ‘working arrangements’ for co-ordination between the two Provincial Councils.”

 A high level delegation from the German government will visit Sri Lanka in March to explore investment opportunities said Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake.

The finance minister said that the German delegation will assess and analyse the investment climate following an investor forum held in Germany during the Sri Lankan President’s visit to the capital, reports Colombo Page.