The two sides of Sri Lanka's coalition government, the SLFP and UNP continued talks today over the looming parliamentary debate on a no-confidence motion against the prime minister and UNP leader, Ranil Wickremetunge. 

According to Sri Lankan press reports, the president urged Mr Wickremetunge not to take the motion lightly, stating that his chance of surviving it was only 50 percent. 

Today's talks follow several meetings yesterday including between the president and a high level UNP delegation, as well as the president and United National Front (UNF) ministers. 

The Asian Development Bank has approved a further $100 million loan towards develop skills on workers to meet labour market demand. 

The results based loan is aimed at developing the Skills Sector Development Program which received $100 million ADB loan in 2014. 

“Sri Lanka has achieved universal primary and high secondary enrollment rates, a high adult literacy rate, and gender parity in access to all levels of education. However, there remains a clear mismatch between skills among youth and labor market demand,” an ADB Principal Social Sector Specialist, Gi Soon Song said. 

A former LTTE cadre who was subjected to Sri Lanka's 'rehabilitation programme' was interrogated by Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) officers over an election speech he made ahead of the recent local elections. 

Kandasamy Imbarajah, 43, launched and heads the 'Rehabilitated Liberation Tigers Party', which contested elections in the Eastern Province. 

TID officers interrogated Mr Imbarajah over a speech he delivered during the election campaign season, where he urged former LTTE cadres to stop giving information to military intelligence out of fear. 

Class mates of the children of the political prisoner, Satchithanantham Anandasuthakaran joined calls for his release, launching a signature campaign at their school, Kilinochchi Maha Vidyalayam. 

A signature campaign calling for the pardon of Mr Anandasuthakaran has been underway across the North-East, after emotional photos of his wife's funeral, where their young son performed the last rites and their young daughter attempted to board a prison bus with her father who was given three hours to attend the funeral, went viral on social media.

Jaffna Magistrates Court last week ordered the telecommunication company, Dialog to hand over the call records of two men who were abducted in 2011 after organising a protest in Jaffna against disappearances.

Relatives of the two disappeared men, Lalithkumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganathan, filed a Habeus Corpus petition in 2012 at Colombo's Court of Appeal. 

A number of witnesses have submitted evidence to date, including the JVP MP, Ajith Kumara, Kuhan Murugananthan's wife, Lalithkumar Weeraraj's father, and the former minister Keheliya Rambukwella. 
 

A team from the European parliament is to visit Sri Lanka this week evaluate progress on made on GSP+ accession. 

The delegation, which includes members of the European Parliament Committee on International Trade, is expected to visit April 4 to 6. 

The delegation comprises the Standing Rapporteur for South Asia Sajjad Karim, European Conservatives and Reformists member Jan Zahradil, Socialists and Democrats member David Martin, Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) member Tiziana Beghin, European People's Party (EPP) member Paul Rubig and the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) member Franz Obermayr. 

Sri Lanka’s former president and current head of the ‘Office for National Unity and Reconciliation’ (ONUR) remained silent and offered no response as mental health professionals and civil society representatives detailed the ongoing sexual exploitation perpetrated by the armed forces, police and government officials against Tamil women in the North.

The Tamil National Alliance’s constituent parties will decide whether or not to oppose the no-confidence motion being brought against the Sri Lankan Prime Minister, independently of the TNA/ITAK leadership.

Suresh Premachandran of EPRLF, who have one MP, told the Daily Mirror that their support for the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, would be dependent on his response to the party’s demands for solutions around land grabs in the Tamil homeland and the ongoing plight of Tamil political prisoners.

Families of the disappeared who have been protesting for 390 days in Mullaitivu were paid a visit by Mangala Samaraweera, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Finance and Media, on Sunday. The minister informed the families that Office for Missing Persons officers would come to see them soon.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Finance and Mass Media Mangala Samaraweera met with the Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran to discuss possible ways to utilise RS 1 billion rupees allocated by Sri Lanka’s 2018 budget to the Northern Province.

Speaking at the council, Mr Samaraweera said the Budget had also made provisions to help resettle former LTTE cadres and provide them with soft loans.