A large scale grant-based Sinhalese settlement will be built on public land in Naavatkuli, Jaffna, despite local opposition.

250 Sinhalese beneficiaries have been chosen to receive houses built on land owned by the National Housing Development Authority in Naavatkuli.

After the end of the war, Sinhalese people had settled with temporary buildings in Naavatkuli, and were later granted land permit documents by the Rajapaksa government.

The foundation stone for the scheme will be laid by housing minister Sajith Premadasa at the end of the month, and the project is expected to be completed within 6 months.

The Right to Information Act will be enacted on February 3rd, the Sri Lankan government said last week, issuing a gazette notification. 

"Information officers are currently being trained and after they are stationed in government institutions, the general public will be able to access important information that affects their daily lives," the minister of parliamentary reforms and mass media, Gayantha Karunatileka was quoted by Ceylon Today as saying. 

Indian officials have denied any interest in developing the Trincomalee port, reports the New Indian Express.

Refuting the regional development minister, Sarath Fonseka’s claims that talks were ongoing for India to develop the port as a counter-balance to Chinese interests in Hambantota, Indian officials said they have no interest in a development project that would not yield profit for a long time.

Reportedly India had rejected the chance to build the Hambantota for the same reason.

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Sri Lanka met with the Commander of Sri Lanka’s security forces in Jaffna last week.

A former LTTE cadre was arrested in Kilinochchi by the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) last week.

Karalasingam Kulenthiran, from Thiruvaiyaru, Kilinochchi was reported missing by his family members on the 13th January.

Relatives found out the following day that he had been arrested by the TID and was being held in Vavuniya.

Mr Kulenthiran was working in an insurance company, having been through the Sri Lankan government's rehabilitation programme.

His is the second reported arrest of a former cadre by the TID in 2017.

Sarath Fonseka, the former chief of the Sri Lankan army, has denied involvement in the murder of former Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, after facing five hours of questioning on the subject on Friday.

Mr Fonseka, who now was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal and appointed as Minister of Regional Development by the current Sri Lankan government, was questioned on the subject of operations carried out by the military on Friday by the  Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

The current and former Sri Lankan presidents, Sirisena and Rajapaksa, congratulated the newly inaugurated US president, Donald Trump. 

The former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa welcomed what he described as Trump's 'non-interventionist foreign policy'. 

Mr Sirisena expressed his hope for stronger Sri Lankan and US relations. 

"Looking forward to working with you to strengthen the US-Sri Lanka partnership," he said in a tweet. 

Jaffna citizens have demanded an end to illegal settlements of Sinhalese people in the district.

The illegal appropriation of lands to create Sinhala settlement villages and army camps must cease, concluded a meeting of the Jaffna co-ordinating committee on Thursday.

The meeting’s attendants particularly condemned the building of houses in Navatkuli for 53 Sinhalese people.

The committee warned that citizens would engage in disruptive action during presidential and government visits to Jaffna if Sinhala settlements and army landgrabs continued.

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) called on the Sri Lankan government to respond to the “clear demand for justice” laid out in the Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms (CTF) and fully implement its recommendations.

“The CTF report highlights a widespread lack of trust among Sri Lankans across the country, regardless of region, ethnicity, religion or language, in the ability of the criminal justice system in its current form to address serious human rights abuses stemming from the conflict,” said Nikhil Narayan, the ICJ’s South Asia senior legal adviser.

Parliamentarians from the United National Party dismissed claims there were conditions attached to Sri Lanka regaining GSP+ and asserted what they described as "Sri Lanka's 2500 year old Buddhist culture" was "non-negotiable for whatever reasons". 

"Legalising homosexuality or any other step which diluted Sri Lanka's rich culture would never happen," UNP MPs Harshana Rajakaruna and Wijepala Hettiarachchi were quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying at a media briefing on Friday.