The Northern Provincial Council's Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran boycotted a meeting with Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is currently visiting Jaffna, Ceylon Today reported.

The chief minister snubbed the meeting due to comments made recently by the prime minister, who had described the NPC resolution on genocide as "racist", defended the military's presence in the North-East and accused Mr Wigneswaran of being uncooperative with Colombo in a recent TV interview in India, the paper reported sources close to the chief minister as saying.

Sri Lanka's new government has named new directors to six private banks in which the government has a stake, prompting concern in the banking sector, reports the SundayTimes.lk.

The six commercial banks consist Hatton National Bank (HNB), Commercial Bank, National Development Bank (NDB), Sampath Bank, DFCC and Seylan Bank.

According to the paper, Sampath Bank, and the Commercial Bank are likely to resist the government's measures.

Police in Colombo have arrested 8 people for producing a documentary 'defamatory' of the army, the Daily Mirror reported.

The individuals, five of whom hail from Jaffna in the Tamil North-East, were taken into custody at a house in Narahenpita, a suburb of the Sri Lankan capital.

Sri Lanka's finance minister, Ravi Karunanayake said Sri Lanka intends to revise investment rules to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) by easing barriers of entry, Lanka Business Online said.

Delivering the keynote address at the 18th Asian Investment Conference organised by Credit Suisse, the minister said the external account is a problem and as almost half a percent of the country’s public borrowing is denominated in foreign currencies, he said he favours a stronger rupee to reduce debt servicing costs.

“Little Sri Lanka needs help to meet its people’s expectations and become the pearl of the Indian Ocean,” Mr Karunanayake said.

Ships from the first training squadron of the Indian navy arrived at the Trincomalee port on Friday, where they were welcomed by Sri Lankan navy officers and officials from the High Commission of India.

The Bishop of Jaffna called on Sri Lanka's new government to take action on re-building homes for the displaced, rebuilding destroyed places of religious worship, resolving the issues of Tamil fisherman and an answer to the calls of families of the disappeared.

Responding to Bishop Thomas Sountharanayagam's, Sri Lanka's prime minister, asked the bishop to "be patient."

The Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister said  on Saturday  that the European Union had re-imposed the ban on the LTTE due to intervention by the Sri Lankan government.

Ajith Perera said that that prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had written to the EU to reconsider the ban on the LTTE.

The General Court of the European Union last year took the decision to repeal measures taken by the Council of the European Union to designate the LTTE as a terrorist organisation in the EU.