Senior Deputy Inspector General Lalith Jayasinghe has been arrested for allegedly helping a suspect in the murder of schoolgirl Sivaloganathan Vithya evade arrest in Jaffna.

The incident sparked widespread condemnation in the North-East.

The trial is set to be in Jaffna, after a request by the defendants to be transferred to Colombo sparked strong opposition from the local community.

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Sri Lanka’s new defence secretary, Kapila Waidyaratne assured the protection of war heroes in a meeting with senior Buddhist prelates of the Asgiiriya, Malwathu and Ramanna chapters.

A Tamil journalist was summoned to Colombo by Sri Lankan intelligence last week and is facing ongoing investigation over the broadcast of a politician’s press conference.

Jaffna-based broadcast and print journalist T. Pratheepan was summoned to appear in Colombo by the Criminal Investigation Department last week to testify in relation to the broadcast of a press conference by Northern Province Councillor, M. K. Sivajilingam, in a ‘racial conflict-inciting manner’.

A Sri Lankan soldier who died in the 1991 Battle of Elephant Pass was honoured with an all-night Buddhist ceremony by the military in Jaffna this week.

The Sri Lankan navy and air force carried out a series of military exercises at Thiriyai beach in Trincomalee this week, mobilising troops, boats, helicopters and a fighter aircraft.

The Sri Lankan army organised a medical clinic at a Tamil school in Poonakari on Wednesday, with several senior military officers overseeing proceedings.

Moody's Investors Service urged the Sri Lankan government to improve its tax efficiency in order to increase the tax revenue/ GDP ratio, highlighting the country's ongong credit challenges of high general government debt, very low debt affordability and large borrowing requirements. 

In a statement published on Friday, Moody's said: 

Kuwait is to provide financial assistance to Sri Lanka for a number of projects, Colombo Page. 

The projects include a mushroom cultivation project, the government's Information Department was reported as saying. 

The World Health Organization is to grant US$ 34,589 to promote mushroom cultivation and to provide school bags and stationeries to children in the North, the paper added. 

The TNA's spokesperson, M A Sumanthiran told the Daily Mirror this week the party was "disappointed that many of the things that should have been done and completed are being dragged on."

"The Government does not seem to have political will to meet the promises it made in their entirety," he said. 

The US is considering adopting sanctions against Chinese firms for the nation’s failure to take a harder stance on North Korea, reports ABC news.

The timing and scope of the sanctions would depend on how China responds to calls for tougher steps against North Korea.

US officials are set to meet Chinese officials for a high-level economic dialogue in Washington on Wednesday according to US officials.