Sri Lanka’s second International Defence Seminar will be held from August 8-10 in Colombo, Army Commander Brigadier Jagath Jayasuriya announced on Wednesday.

The conference has been themed ‘Towards Lasting Peace and Stability’ and will focus on ‘post-war 5Rs’ – rehabilitation, re-integration, re-construction, resettlement and reconciliation.

The keynote speaker will be none other than Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who has very recently been in the media spotlight for his rhetoric skills.

Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella has announced the imposition of registration fees for news websites in Sri Lanka.

News websites will now be charged Rs 100,000 ($750) for registering and an annual fee of Rs 50,000 ($ 375).

Rambukwella said the new measures are designed to control ‘filth’ that was being published by some websites.

"This is the first step in the process of regulating those who were engaged in publishing filth.

Extracts from a report by the Washington Post on Friday:

The Jaffna magistrate has banned a demonstration protesting against the military’s appropriation of Tamil residents' lands – even though he has no jurisdiction to do so.

According to the magistrate, the demonstration would threaten national security, create dissension among communities and would be risking the normalisation of armed culture.

The TNPF (Tamil National People’s Front) has applied to the Jaffna High Court to overturn the ban.

Journalists, activists and opposition lawmakers have staged a protest against media suppression and intimidation by the Sri Lankan state.

Dozens of protesters gathered in Colombo on Thursday to condemn the recent police raids of websites critical of the government, the alleged attempted abduction of a journalist and the alleged secret police gathering journalists’’ personal information.

Dozens of unemployed graduates protested in Jaffna today at the lack of opportunity for employment in the public sector due to the dominance of UPFA supporters, reported TamilNet on Thursday.

The Tamil National Alliance has laughed off President Rajapakse’s claim that he will hold provincial council elections in September 2013.

“We want to hold elections in September 2013,” President Mahinda Rajapaksa told The Hindu in an interview published on Wednesday.

“We are working towards it [the elections] in a systematic manner.”

Over 11% of the schools in the Northern provinces of Sri Lanka remain closed due to the continued occupation of the Sri Lankan military, said teachers in Jaffna, using statistics from the Northern provincial ministry of education, reported TamilNet.

Aid from foreign NGOs and the Tamil diaspora has been systematically blocked from reaching Tamil educational institutions.

Article 19, a media freedom organisation based in the UK, has expressed concern over threats to The Sunday Leader editor’s life by Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse.

"The threat against journalist Frederica Jansz is the latest demonstration of the Sri Lankan government’s systematic attacks against independent and opposition-supporting journalists and media houses.