Sri Lanka’s ‘Lanka Premier League’ cricket tournament will take place this month said authorities on the island, after receiving the go-ahead from the military-led COVID task force and president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, amidst delays and controversy during the pandemic.

The tournament, which is due to start later this month, is reportedly set to be played in Hambantota – the Rajapaksa’s hometown where a stadium is named after prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa – after talks that the location may have to be shifted abroad.

The Supreme Court of India has expressed unhappiness with the Tamil Nadu Government for failing to make a timely decision over the pardon plea by AG Perarivalan, a Tamil man who has been spent decades imprisoned over the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. 

The remarks from the supreme court were made during A.G. Perarivalan's hearing, asking for the suspension of his life sentence until the investigation by CBI-led Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) is completed. However, the matter has been pending before the governor for the last two years.

Sri Lankan police and STF (Special Task Force) officers recovered weapons and grenades in areas across Vavuniya, alleging that they were buried by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). 

Can sports be separate from politics? Does someone’s politics shape the way you see them, no matter their performances on the cricket pitch?

This was a question asked in the context of the controversy around the Muttiah Muralitharan biopic, and tackled by Tamil Guardian co-editor Abinaya Nathan on BBC Asia Network’s ‘Big Debate’ on Tuesday.

Joined by Tamil Nadu journalist Kavitha Muralidharan as well as a Sri Lankan sports journalist representing the ‘pro-Muralitharan’ angle, Ms Nathan sets out why the cricketer’s politics cannot be separated from his sporting achievements.

As US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left Colombo last week, Sri Lanka’s leaders will have breathed a sigh of relief. The much-anticipated tough talk on human rights and accountability did not materialise. Instead, the US diplomat spoke on the two government’s “friendship” and how to drive American investment to the island, with only a cursory mention of justice for mass atrocities. That this was done whilst posing for photographs with Sri Lanka’s war crimes accused president sends worrying signals - for the future of the island and for the direction of US foreign policy.

Sri Lanka has slipped from being the best performer in Asia’s dollar bond market to the worst, as Colombo struggles with an economic crisis that has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, reports Bloomberg. 

At first Sri Lanka’s securities fell by 15.5% in September and then 20% in October, marking two consecutive months of great losses in the region, according to Bloomberg Barclays indexes. This comes after placing as one of Asia’s top performers in each of the three months through August. 

Tamil Nadu 'Q branch' police confiscated 75 bags containing 2,000 kilograms of turmeric which were being smuggled to Sri Lanka by boat from Danushkodi.

In the past few weeks, fishermen from the island have not been allowed to fish in the sea as curfew has been in place on weekends due to the increase in the spread of COVID-19 virus. As a result, the smugglers could not reach the Sri Lankan territory in the guise of fishermen.

Tamils in Switzerland payed tributed to the head of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Brigadier S.P. Thamilselvan, and six other LTTE officials who were assassinated by Sri Lankan state forces during the ceasefire. 

Investigative journalist Phil Miller has launched a fundraising campaign to help fund legal costs as he challenges the UK Foreign Office at an Information Tribunal over the release of secret files related to the work of British mercenaries in Sri Lanka.

Despite an ongoing Metropolitan Police probe into the activity of Keenie Meenie Services in Sri Lanka and the company’s involvement in potential war crimes, the Foreign Office has refused to release the contents of a 1985 file.

_{File photo: R. Thurairatnam - Tharakai/Wordpress}

Eastern Provincial Councillor (EPC) and Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front member, R. Thurairatnam made a public appeal to the Government of Sri Lanka to take immediate action to stop the unopposed “premeditated Sinhala occupation” and warned that failure to do so risks ethnic tensions arising in the area.