<p>Sri Lankan President, Maithripala Sirisena, has vowed to hang at least one drug dealer before he leaves office; conditional on the Supreme Court ruling in his favour and repealing the 43-year-old hiatus on the use of the death penalty for drug offences.</p> <p>In July of this year, Sri Lanka's Supreme Court order temporarily postponed the trial and possible execution of four people until October 30. The court will hear their case the day prior.</p> <p>Over a hundred human rights organisations have spoken out against Sri Lanka’s return to the death penalty.</p> <p>Biraj Patnaik, South Asia Director at Amnesty International, stated;</p>

Two Sri Lankan police officers and a member of a paramilitary have been remanded for a further 14 days after being arrested in possession of cannabis in Mannar on October 19.

The arrested paramilitary member is reported to be K Pushpakumar alias Iniyaparathi of Karuna’s TMVP group and now Amparai organiser for Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s SLPP.

Over 164 kilograms of cannabis was discovered in the group’s luxury vehicle by the Sri Lankan Navy.

<p>The United Arab Emirates Embassy in Colombo has issued a warning encouraging travellers to avoid going to Sri Lanka.</p> <p>On their official twitter account they stated:&nbsp;</p> <blockquote><p> “UAE nationals should not travel to Sri Lanka except in extreme cases. In the event of an emergency, citizens should call the embassy on +94 112-301-601, or contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation's call center on +971 800-444-44.” </p></blockquote> <p>The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a travel advisory against Sri Lanka since April 21, 2019, due to the political turmoil.</p>

Former Northern Provincial Council member A Puvaneswaran was issued a summons for questioning by Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) on Tuesday.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politician was handed the summons at his home in Suthanthirapuram, Mullaitivu, telling him to appear in Colombo to provide a statement for an ongoing ‘terrorism’ investigation, and meet the official in charge of first division of the TID.

Australia’s Home Affairs Department stated that they have spent close to $27 million of taxpayers money on Christmas Island detention centre, on Monday.

The facility was initially opened on 16 February and till 31 August, administrative costs were estimated to be around $26.8 million.

This includes the paying for a staff of over 100 people for a detention centre which house the Biloela Tamil family.

<p>Former Chief Minister of the Northern Province, CV Wigneswaran, has written in response to the recent arrests of suspected LTTE sympathisers in Malaysia and Sri Lanka, concluding that he expects said arrests are but “political antics and/or electoral gimmicks!”</p>

Sri Lankan authorities blocked a meeting on land grabs in Amparai earlier this month, leading to commotion outside the venue as hundreds of people attempted to enter amidst police presence.

Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s former president and brother of current presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa, stated that his party would not concede to any demands made by the Tamil National Alliance, at a rally in Beliatta yesterday,

"There is no need to agree to any of the conditions,” Rajapaksa told the crowd. The country should come first. No one should be allowed to divide the country.”

Rajapaksa was eluding to a set of 13 demands put forward by five Tamil political parties to both leading candidates last week. Though Rajapaksa claimed his party did not receive any demands made by the Tamil parties, they would reject them regardless.

The Tamil Eelam football team managed to secure victory over Yorkshire last month, in a pulsating encounter at Ingfield Stadium in Ossett. 

The tight contest saw Tamil Eelam go ahead thanks to Thomas A, with a cross by Nirun from the left flank met by his surging run and finished off with a sliding right-footed shot. Tamil Eelam doubled their lead with a second half finish into the bottom left corner by Prashanth R, who was making his tenth appearance and scored his seventh goal for Tamil Eelam. Yorkshire scored a well worked goal in the latter stages of the game and pressed on as they searched for an equaliser. However, the Tamil Eelam defence held on and went on to take another win, as the team continues to grow.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) came out and declared it would not back the merging of the Northern and Eastern provinces, as demanded by Tamil parties, stating that it was the “ambition of separatists”.

JVP Propaganda Secretary Vijitha Herath said the National People's Power (NPP) coalition which is led by the party, would not back the proposal.