Pope Francis will visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu in Mannar during his upcoming trip to the the island of Sri Lanka, the Vatican Insider reports.

Earlier this year, the Tamil civil society groups, called on the Pope to visit the Tamil areas in the North and East, in order to view the ongoing plight of the Tamil people.

“We are confident that Your Holiness will appreciate, following your visit to Sri Lanka, that Sri Lanka is not merely lacking in ‘reconciliation’ but that the problem is far worse than that - as we have tried to describe above, the problem is one of consolidating an ethnocratic state. Your Holiness will no doubt recall that it is this ethnocratic project that led the Tamil people to take up arms against the Sri Lankan state," the Tamil Civil Society Forum wrote in a letter to Pope Francis. See here.

Sri Lanka’s Finance Ministry announced that the special commodity levy on imported big onions and potatoes has been increased in order to safeguard local farmers reported the Daily Mirror.

The levy on imported big onions was increased from Rs25 to Rs35 a kilo while the levy on imported potatoes was increased from Rs15 to Rs25 a kilo.

(Pictures: defence.lk)

The Sri Lankan military distributed food parcels at the Nallur Kandaswamy temple festival in Jaffna for the third year running, from a special stall set up and manned by army personnel.

The army stall has become a set fixture of the annual festival, the largest gathering of Tamils on the island.

The Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (TESO) called on the United Nations to bar Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa from addressing the General Assembly, in a series of resolutions passed on Monday.

TESO, headed by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) President M Karunanidhi, held the meeting, passing a resolution that stated,

“Since he denied entry to the UN team, neither Mr Rajapaksa nor any representative from Sri Lanka be allowed to address the UN General Assembly.”

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) condemned the Tamil diaspora and international media for carrying out an alleged “extraordinary and vicious campaign” against the country, in a statement justifying the hiring of United States-based lobby firm.

The Central Bank reportedly signed a $760,000 agreement with Liberty International Group LLC “to provide an accurate account of the Sri Lankan political and economic environment to US leaders... to keep them abreast of the true situation in the country”.

The contract will run until July 2015.

In a statement released on Monday, CBSL stated that it “regularly faces many challenges due to various erroneous and mischievous statements that are also publicized by many persons, both local and international.”

The Japanese government is considering providing the Sri Lankan Navy with patrol boats later this year to strengthen Sri Lanka’s maritime surveillance capacity, according to reports.

Kyodo News International reported that a Japanese government source said the move was being considered ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s scheduled visit to Colombo in early September.

The proposal is expected to be discussed in September, with the Japanese government also considering extending a loan to Sri Lanka, enabling the Sri Lankan government to purchase the vessels. No decision has been made yet on the number of patrol boats to be provided, or on whether they will be new boats or Japanese patrol boats which are already in service.

Sri Lankan Minister S.B. Dissanayake warned that granting land and police powers to the North and East will result in the LTTE regrouping and rallied against the 13th Amendment, on Sunday.

Speaking at a public rally in Passara, Dissanayake spoke out against implementation of the 13th Amendment and slammed the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), saying,

“We cannot allow terrorism to raise its head again. We cannot give what the TNA wants. We cannot give what the Northern Provincial Council wants. We cannot give land and police powers.”

The body of a young male was found hanging in woods near Thalaimannar on Sunday.

The man, identified as 31 year old, Dharmaseelan Hariharan, is a father of a young child and is originally from Selvanagar in Mannar, the Uthayan reports.

His body was spotted by passersby, who reported the death to the police. The police are treating it as a possible murder inquiry, as his body was found hanging off a very small branch, with his knees touching the ground when it was found, leading police to believe he was murdered before being hung up.

The latest addition to the Presidential Commission’s panel of advisors says that India should respect Sri Lanka’s sovereignty in solving the Tamil question and not add fuel to the fire.

Avdash Kaushal, who heads an Indian NGO, also appealed to Tamils on the island to consider themselves as Sri Lankans now and abide by Sri Lanka’s laws and constitution.

“How will we in India feel if Sri Lanka calls and talks to Indian separatists?” he asked, referring to the recent meeting between the TNA and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“You can talk to the Sri Lankan government and give them advice, but you cannot ask them to behave. India and Sri Lanka must respect each other’s sovereignty,” he said in an interview with the New Indian Express.

China's People's Bank and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka signed a Bilateral Investment Agreement on Bond Investment Sunday, in order to allow Sri Lanka to increase its investment in China's bond market.

“As a result, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka could now access one of the largest and growing securities markets in the world, while also enhancing the cooperation between the two central banks, and the two countries,” the Central Bank of Sri Lanka said in a statement.