<p>The Sessions Court allowed a prosecution application to dismiss two charges of possessing items related to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) against Seremban Jaya assemblyman P. Gunasekaran.</p> <p>Judge Madihah Harullah accepted the request after deputy public prosecutor Aslina Ahad made the application.</p> <p>According to the charges, Gunasekaran allegedly had LTTE-related items in his office and house, Malay Mail reported.</p> <p>The assemblyman was represented by a panel of four lawyers, led by RSN Rayer.&nbsp;</p>

An Indian airline will commence commercial flights between Jaffna and Chennai from Monday it announced, with plans to step up connections between the two regions.

Flights are due to start on Monday 11th of November, with a one-way fare reportedly costing in the region of USD $45 plus taxes.

Sri Lanka’s health minister Rajitha Senaratne claimed that each Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian would receive “Rs. 300 mn each to spend on their electorates”, according to a report in The Island on Wednesday.

Senaratne reportedly held a series of meetings in Jaffna, where he canvassed support for Sajith Premadasa in this month’s Sri Lankan presidential elections.

The Island quotes a health ministry statement with Senaratne reportedly telling a rally in Jaffna that no other government had allocated such a large amount to parliamentarians from the North-East. 

Leaders of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) released a statement endorsing Sajith Premadasa in this month’s Sri Lankan presidential elections, despite his refusal to engage with demands put forward by the parties.

“Mr. Sajith Premadasa is a leader with clean hands,” claimed the TNA statement on Wednesday. “In whatever capacity he has functioned, it is accepted that he has done his best.”

<p>Sri Lankan parliamentarian SB Dissanayake’s security forces opened fire at a group of protesters blocking the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) MP’s car, leaving two people injured on Wednesday.</p> <p>Ruwan Gunasekara, police spokesman, said the injured were admitted to Teligama hospital and later taken to Karawanella hospital for treatment.</p> <p>The group of protesters are reported to be Sri Lanka Podujana Party (SLPP) supporters.</p>

<p>Former President and patron of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Chandrika Kumaratunga, faces expulsion for extending her support to the New Democratic Front (NDF).</p> <p>President Maithripala Sirisena has called a meeting of the party’s Central Committee, its policy making body, to recommend her expulsion from the SLFP alongside party members who are backing her.</p> <p>Api Sri Lanka, a component of the SLFP, backed Ms Kumaratunga, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last week to form the NDF and support presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Sri Lanka’s cabinet has approved the payment of compensation to 78 journalists who were subject to ‘harassment’ and ‘persecution’ between 2005 and 2015 during the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa. A committee will decide the compensation to be handed out.</p> <p>Several Tamil journalists reported receiving a form to apply for compensation in 2017 but refused to engage with the process, saying they wanted justice for the attacks against them as well as justice for over 40 of their colleagues who were assassinated and murdered during and after the armed conflict.</p>

<p>Sajith Premadasa has said if elected as Sri Lankan president he will develop the North-East, the Tamil homeland, by holding donor conferences to obtain foreign aid for each province, ten years after the end of the armed conflict.</p> <p>Premadasa, whose campaign refused to engage with demands including a federal solution and an end to the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) put forward jointly by several Tamil parties, made the conference pledge at an election rally in Mullaitivu this week.</p> <p>He said that there would be two conferences, one for the North and one for the East, despite the re-merger of the North-East being a key Tamil ask.</p>

Two administrators of a historic Tamil temple in a Vavuniya village who were arrested last week following a complaint by Sri Lanka’s archaeology department have had their detention extended by the Vavuniya court after the case was adjourned to November 16.

The detainees Subramaniam and Akilan were arrested on November 1 after the archaeology department lodged a complaint claiming they had dug up underground bricks while cleaning the temple in the village of Maligai in the Omanthai area of Vavuniya.

The Lotus Tower, the tallest tower in South Asia standing at 356-meter, remains closed to the public despite an official opening ceremony in September and will be run by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL), which is under the control of the Defence Ministry.

P R S P Jayatilake, Chairman of the TRCSL, has claimed that the use of the military will only be temporary but has not stated when it will be accessible to the public.