A group of Tamil schoolchildren were given a tour of KKS in Jaffna last week, a restricted area of land where the Sri Lankan security forces maintain a large military base and operates its own holiday resort.

India donated 16,000 books, mostly in the Tamil language, to the Jaffna library last week, during the Indian High Commissioner, Taranjit Singh Sandhu visit to the North-East.  

The collection includes photocopies of some of the original work of the Arumugam Navalar which was destroyed when the library was set alight by state security forces and Sinhala mobs in 1981. 

Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Ravi Karunanyake warned this week the country should not be complacent that its own economy would reap the rewards of improving economies of other countries in the region. 

"Sri Lanka has so far been largely reactive to the interest of its neighbours and potential partners. We cannot afford to remain complacent, believing that we will automatically reap the economic rewards of a global shift from West to East. We will not," he told a seminar in Colombo on Wednesday. 

A Fundamental Rights application on the right to build an Islamic religious school was dismissed by Sri Lanka's Supreme Court, the Sunday Times reported this week. 

Buddhist monks and locals had demonstrated against the building of the religious school. 

The FR application was made by a principal of a madrassa in Panadura and mosque president, who argued their right to build a religious school was being violated. 

The unity government has failed on one of its key election promises to end corruption and prosecute those previously responsible, this week's editorial in Sri Lanka's Sunday Times concluded. 

"One of the key promises of the electoral campaigns of the then Opposition in 2015 was that a new administration under Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe would, not only eliminate corruption, but hold those suspected of it in the past to account. On both counts, this Government has failed," the editorial, entitled 'Sri Lanka's going down, not up' noted. 

Pointing to ongoing lack of transparency in procurement, the paper concluded, "It is corruption, as usual."

The Sri Lankan Finance Ministry is being queried on how approval was granted to establish a controversial ethanol distillery in Kalkudah, Batticaloa.

Permission was granted for the distillery, under then Finance Minister and current Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake, in violation of the Sri Lankan government’s National Drug Prevention Policy, the Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) reports.

Sri Lanka's minister of ports and shipping, Mahinda Samarasinghe, said this week that an agreement was "virtually finalised" with China Merchants Port Holdings on the Hambantota port city deal. 

“I don’t see any major issues now on the table. We’re confident we can finish it soon,” Mr Samarasinghe was quoted by Economy Next as saying. 

“The Chinese side displayed a positive attitude and the agreement is virtually finalised. We can finish it fairly soon.” 

Sri Lanka's Joint Opposition are planning to stage a protest on Monday demonstrating against the government's plan to hand over the re-development of the oil tank facilities in Trincomalee to India. 

The Joint Opposition parliamentarian, Dullas Alahapperuma, was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying that "they would gather all the anti-government forces to compel the Government to revise its decision to sell country’s assets."

Sri Lanka's Joint Opposition are planning to stage a protest on Monday demonstrating against the government's plan to hand over the re-development of the oil tank facilities in Trincomalee to India. 

The Joint Opposition parliamentarian, Dullas Alahapperuma, was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying that "they would gather all the anti-government forces to compel the government to revise its decision to sell country’s assets."

A merger of the North-East is looking unlikely, the spokesperson for the Tamil National Alliance, suggested today at a press conference.

Speaking to journalists at his Jaffna office, TNA MP and spokesperson M. A. Sumanthiran, said that while the TNA's demand for a merger had not changed, he personally believed that if a merger were not to happen now, a possibility for it would be more likely to arise in the future.

"If we want the North-East to be merged, the cooperation of Muslims living in the East is important," Mr Sumanthiran said. "For this we are holding discussions with Muslim parties."