A man employed by a newly constructed Buddhist vihara in Trincomalee has been arrested over a case of possible arson, after a neighbouring Hindu temple was set alight this week.

The man, Saman Nanayakkara from Kandy, is accused of setting fire to the Malai Neeli Ammam temple.

Tensions escalated in the region after the temple, which had been standing in the East for some 300 years, was destroyed during the armed conflict. Though attempts by Tamils to reconstruct the temple on its original site were made, Buddhist monks blocked the move and constructed a vihara close to the original site in June 2009.

Sri Lanka's deputy minister of public enterprise developement, Eran Wickramaratne on Monday rejected media reports which said the finance minister was being harrassed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

Local media had quoted the finance minister, Ravi Karunanayake as saying, "we have another 55 days for the budget, and as the finance minister, I get harassed, by nobody else than the IMF." 

Five Sri Lankan army soldiers have been remanded over the murder of two Tamil youth in Jaffna, 18 years after their deaths.

Jaffna District Court Judge S Satheeskaran ordered the troops to be remanded until October 10, and also called on Achchuveli Police to produce 11 other soldiers in court suspected to have had involvement in the murders.

The two Tamil civilians were shot dead by soldiers from the Achchuveli camp in 1998. No one has yet been held responsible for the killings.

Rejecting the statement made by the chief minister of the Northern province at the mass Tamil rally on Saturday, the Jathika Hela Urumaya on Tuesday called on the government to make a counter statement against what it described as "baseless allegations". 

"The government must make a statement with facts and figures as the international community may be misled by these baseless allegations," the JHU national organiser was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying. 

Students at the Jaffna Hindu College this weekend marked the 29th anniversary of the death of Lt Col Thileepan. 

Recent days have seen a number of remembrance events take place across the North-East remembering his hunger strike and fast unto death. 

India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reiterated India’s commitment to the proposed Economic and Technology Co-operation Agreement (ETCA)  between the two countries, reports Colombo Page.

Ms Sitharaman was speaking at the end of a two day visit to Sri Lanka, where she discussed bilateral trade and investment issues with Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) lowered the economic growth forecast for Sri Lanka  due to weak industrial performance and fiscal consolidation.

In a summary of growth in South Asia, the Asian Development Outlook 2016 Update said,

“While Bangladesh and Pakistan now see slightly faster expansion in 2016 than anticipated, growth prospects for Sri Lanka edge lower on weak industrial performance and fiscal consolidation.”
 

Noting Sri Lanka’s high external debt, the report added,

Kandyan dancers inaugurated the opening of a basketball court at a Sri Lankan army camp in Vanni last week, as the military continues to construct new buildings within its bases in the Tamil North-East.

The leader of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya party and Member of Parliament for Sri Lanka’s Colombo District, Udaya Gammanpila called for the arrest of the Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran for his involvement in a mass Tamil demonstration that occurred on Saturday 24 September.

Speaking to press in Colombo on Monday, Mr Gammanpila said that CV WIgneswaran was one od the chief organisers of the Tamil rally last week and should be arrested for spreading racism, reports adaderana.lk.

The United States, encouraged Sri Lanka to institutionalise the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for investment in development projects, reprots Colombo Page.

Speaking at Sri Lanka’s National Conference on Public Private Partnerships, US Ambassador Keshap said governments across the world are emphasising the use of PPP’s to help deliver public services, adding,