Over thirty hospitals in the Northern Province are operating without permanent doctors, the Northern Provincial Council's health minister has said.

Health minister P. Sathiyalingam said that 32 out of 102 hospitals in the Northern Province had no permanent doctors and were functioning with trainee doctors and recalled retired doctors.

The central government has promised a solution to the shortage by December, Mr Sathiyalingam said.

Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena assured Thailand’s Prime Minister that a government of good governance which gives priority to democracy has now been established in Sri Lanka, reports Colombo Page.

The Sri Lankan government has announced it will carry out an extensive investigation into police attacks on students protesting in Colombo.

Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed a special committee to probe the attack on students, during a demonstration on Thursday calling for the Higher National Diploma in Accountancy to be given degree status.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mangala Samaraweera in a media release suggested the attacks may have been part of a conspiracy to discredit the government by likening it to 'inhumane' previous regime.

The Northern Province today said the month of November will be dedicated to planting trees.

The project, which will see 500,000 trees planted, was inaugurated by Chief Minister Wigneswaran. TNA MPs Sritharan, Saravanapavan and Siddharthan, the NPC's agricultural minister Aiyngaranesan and education minister Gurukularajah, NPC Councillor Ananthy Sasitharan and several other officials attended the event in Semmani, alongside pupils from local schools.

Statistics produced by the Jaffna District Secretariat found that at least 7393 acres of land Tamil in Jaffna was under occupation of Sri Lanka’s military forces.

Following a survey conducted in September, the Jaffna District Secretariat found that Sri Lanka’s army occupied the land of 10,359 civilians, whilst the navy and police occupied the land of 136 civilians.

The parents and relatives of Tamil political prisoners have written to the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and opposition R. Sampanthan, demanding that the party clarify their stance on Tamil political prisoners before the end of the week.

The families of hundreds of Tamil political prisoners said that they had been left confused and distressed by the conflicting stances expressed by different party members.

The TNA has offered different explanations to the issue, with some calling for a general amnesty and others saying an amnesty would benefit those accused of war crimes.

A Sri Lankan minister said 'LTTE suspects' held on remand should be released, while speaking at the opening of a prison in Jaffna.

Law and Order and Prison Reforms Minister Tilak Marapana said he hoped that the LTTE detainees could be released before the Deepavali festival on November 10, 2015.

“The LTTE suspects on remand without charges being filed against them should be released. If they are considered a threat to law and order, they should be ordered to report to the police in the respective areas at regular intervals,

"The suspects in cases that have been pending for years could be released on bail. President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have instructed the Attorney General’s Department to take a decision in this regard soon,"