As the tenure of the current Northern Provincial Council came to an end this week, two prominent members, including the Chief Minister inaugurated new political parties, breaking away from the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK)/Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

Tamils in the North-East have protested this week in solidarity with estate workers calling for a rise in their minimum wage.

Sri Lanka’s finance minister Mangala Samaraweera admitted that harsh times lay ahead for the island’s economic situation as the rupee continued its freefall this week.

Despite various measures taken, the rupee has lost more than 12 percent of its value this year alone, hitting a record-low 174.12 rupees to the dollar. With sanctions on Iran, one of Sri Lanka’s primary sources for crude oil, set to hit later this year, Samaraweera admitted the outlook was bleak.

"The rise of the dollar is having a serious impact on our currencies,” he added. “We are not the only one affected."

A Sri Lankan court has granted authorities permission to ask Chinese phone manufacturer Huawei to recover data from a mobile phone, allegedly used as part of a reported “assassination plot” against Sri Lanka’s current president Maithripala Sirisena and former defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department said that they needed the Chinese manufacturer’s assistance in recovering data that had been deleted from the mobile phone of a police informant.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on Sri Lankan authorities to end the harassment of Tamil Guardian’s Jaffna-based correspondent, Uthayarasa Shalin. The harassment of the journalist recalls the worst period of persecution of Tamil journalists in Sri Lanka, the press freedom organisation said.

The organisation issued a statement today in response to Sri Lankan authorities, primarily the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID), targeting the journalist for over two months over the “entirely spurious grounds” of a cut-out of the Tamil homeland being displayed at his local temple.

The incoming US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Alaina Teplitz was sworn in on Monday.

Earlier this year Teplitz told the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations that the Tamil community remained concerned about Sri Lanka's lack of progress towards reconciliation, accountability and justice.

Sisira Mendis, the former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) in Sri Lanka, and current director of the country’s intelligence services, appeared at the Galle Dialogue, an international maritime conference.

A Sinhalese man from Anuradhapura has been arrested in Kilinochchi on charges of drug smuggling this week.

The man was reportedly caught with at least 4kg of cannabis.

It is not yet known where the man was travelling to.

The latest arrest comes after Tamil UNP MP Vijayakala Maheswaran said politicians from the South of the island are responsible for supplying the drugs in the North, earlier this year. On previous occasions, Sri Lankan soldiers have been caught smuggling drugs in the North-East.

A delegation from the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) visited villagers in Vavuniya last week, where Tamils have been blocked from returning to their land by Sri Lanka’s forestry department.

Twelve members of the NPC met with residents from Navalarpannai and Kanchuramoddai, where they have been unable to resettle in their land.

Sri Lanka’s Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) called in the leader of the Hindu extremist organisation Siva Senai, M K Sachithananthan earlier this month.

Sachithananthan was summoned to the TID office in Colombo on October 5, but claimed he could not travel to the south due to ill health. He was subsequently questioned at the TID office on 4th Cross Road in Jaffna on October 11.

He told reporters that questioning revolved around the Siva Senai organisation and its work in the North-East, including reported funding from India.  The group, which has called for a beef ban in Jaffna, is reported to have links to fellow Hindu extremist organisations in India.