An affidavit by Sri Lankan Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, requesting the dismissal of a petition filed against him on the issue of resettlement of Muslims in the Wilpattu Forest Reserve, was dismissed by Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal on Friday.

A group filed a petition claiming that Mr Bathiudeen, who was also a minister in the previous regime under former President Mahinda Rajapaksa abused his power to encroach over 700 acres of the Villattikulam Forest Reserve in the Mannar district to resettle displaced Muslims under the pretext that they were reclaimed areas previously occupied by the Muslims before they were evicted by LTTE in 1990.

A Sri Lankan minister has said that talks between Sri Lanka and India for the latter to acquire a controlling stake in the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport are “progressing”, contrary to comments made by Indian Minister of State for Civil Aviation who had said there was no such proposal last week.

According to The Hindu, the two governments have agreed that India will contribute $225 million to revamp and run the airport, for a 70% stake, while Sri Lanka will invest the balance.

The draft agreement states that India will operate the airport on a 40-year lease The Hindu quotes a Transport and Civil Aviation Ministry official as saying.

The Sri Lankan military decided to take part in renovating a church in Kilinochchi earlier this year, as criticism over the armed forces’ involvement in civil activities continues.

Sri Lanka’s Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy predicted that economic growth on the island would be just 4 percent for 2018, lower than previous estimates.

“This is not a formal estimate that I am giving you,” he told reporters, but if one is realistic, it is unlikely that growth will be more than 4 percent this year”.

“Our potential growth rate, we see as being 5.75 percent. So, there is a significant output gap,” he added. 

There has been a reported increased security presence in Tirumala, an Indian town in Andhra Pradesh, as Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe visited a Hindu temple on Friday.

“Tight security was in place in the entire temple and its precincts,” reports The Hindu as Mr Wickremesinghe visited as part of a reported “20-hour spiritual visit”. He was flown in from Chennai by an Indian Air Force helicopter.

Survivors of the 1995 Navaly church bombing, where the Sri Lankan air force killed over 140 Tamil civilians in an attack on The Church of St Peter, have continued to call for justice 23 years after the massacre reports the Union of Catholic Asian News.

The parish president of the church, Father Roy Fernandez, told ucanews.com that "Hindus and Catholics come here every year with photographs of the ones they lost.”

Father S.V.B. Mangalaraja, director of the Commission for Justice and Peace in Jaffna Diocese stated that "the government has denied responsibility for the bombing".

The Sri Lankan president reiterated that he would not let "betray" the country or let anyone "divide it", speaking today at an event in Manampitiya. 

Criticising a Joint Opposition rally held yesterday, Mr Sirisena was quoted by Adaderana as saying that "the slogans used at the rally, which demanded not to betray the country and war heroes, divide and subjugate the country through foreign trade agreements, were outdated". 

The Sri Lankan Central Bank said today that it had secured a US$ 1 billion loan from China, with the first half of the loan to be released this month and the remainder to be transferred in October. 

The loan is over an 8 year period at an interest of 5.25 percent following a three year grace period. 

"During consultations it was clear that they [Chinese government] see us as a key strategic partner as far as the [Belt and Road] initiative is concerned, given our location," the Central Bank governor, Indrajit Coomaraswamy told reporters in Colombo. 

The Commonwealth Secretary General, Patricia Scotland who is currently on a four day official visit of the island, met with the TNA leader R Sampanthan today. 

Highlighting the ongoing situation of the Tamil people, a TNA press statement said that Mr Sampanthan had told her that although the armed conflict had ended the Tamil people did not have true peace. 

Mr Sampanthan also drew attention to the families of the disappeared demonstrating for the whereabouts of their missing loved ones and the military's ongoing occupation of private lands in the North-East. 

Presenting the UK's 2017 FCO human rights report to parliament last week the UK's minister of state for the Commonwealth and the UN at the FCO, Lord Ahmad, reiterated the need to ensure justice and accountability for human rights violations committed globally and announced the UK would be hosting a follow-up summit on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict next year. 

The report, which noted that "limited progress" had been made on human rights in Sri Lanka and that reports of torture and surveillance by security forces persisted, looked at the human rights situation in countries in 2017.