Sri Lanka's deputy minister for foreign affairs, Harsha De Silva, on Thursday praised the government for saving the country from pressure exerted by the international community.

Defending the 4 percent increase in VAT, which was criticised by opposition MPs, Mr Silva “the government admits that the VAT increase has affected the people. Before the increase, the government reduced the price of essential items and salaries were increased."

The Sri Lankan cabinet has decided to appoint a committee to looking into a method for settling Sinhalese and Muslim people into the North, Colombo Page reports.

The government estimates that 5543 houses are needed to settle Sinhalese families, which it states moved to the South during the armed conflict, and over 16,000 houses are needed to resettle Muslim families.

The committee is to be chaired by the president and will include the prime minister, as well as other relevant ministers.

See more here.

The final report of the Public Representations Committee On Constitutional Reform was published on Tuesday.

The over 300-page long report made recommendations on the proposed constitutional reforms, after island-wide consultations. Issues including the nature of the state, devolution, the Sri Lankan flag, language rights and the role of religion were discussed.

Several Tamil civil society and political groups took part in the consultations, alongside civilians in the North-East.

The 18 member committee examined the over 4,000 submissions to compile the report and suggested recommendations to the constitutional assembly.

Notably, the committee members were often unable to agree on recommendations regarding specific topics, in which case they made different, sometimes opposing recommendations. For instance, on the issue of the Sri Lankan flag, a few committee members suggested changing the design of the flag, while the vast majority recommended to keep the flag as it is.

A new report by US think tank, the Oakland Institute, into internally displaced people in Sri Lanka has revealed how “insufficient the new administration’s actions have been to address these injustices.”

The report, ‘Waiting to Return Home,’ released on Tuesday, examines various pledges made by new President Sirisena to return land to reveal ‘vast inadequacies including resettlement on lands that are not fertile.”

The Batticaloa District Tamil Journalists Association staged a protest on Wednesday demanding justice for the demanded justice for the murder of journalist Ayuthurai Nadesan who was killed in Batticaloa twelve years ago.

The chief minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalitha has written to the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi requesting his intervention in securing the release of seven Tamil Nadu fishermen who were arrested by the Sri Lankan navy on Tuesday.

"Sri Lankan Navy has escalated the frequency and magnitude of instances of abduction of our fishermen and the seizure of their boats and fishing equipment over the last two years," Ms Jayalalitha said in a letter. See more here.

The Working Group on Co-operation under the framework of the European Union –Sri Lanka Joint Commission is to set priorities to assist Sri Lanka in the areas of accountability, transitional justice, resettlement and durable solutions reports Xinhua news.