Tamil asylum seekers have been protesting for 87 days in Melbourne, Australia, as they continue to demand permanent visa protection. 

Protests began outside the Department of Home Affairs in Melbourne on July 15 2024 as thousands of asylum seekers are living on temporary visas which are required to be renewed regularly. 

Yet another elephant was found dead in Amparai on Saturday, after it consumed plastic waste in an open landfill site that conservationists have been warning about for years.

Around 20 elephants have died over the last ten years in the region alone after they consumed plastic waste left at the site.

The University of Jaffna Students' Union has called for a “new political culture” for Eelam Tamils, as they outlined a range of demands to Tamil political parties including “moulding Tamil nationalism into a progressive force”.

"The recent Presidential election result has shown different dimensions and political thoughts of the Tamil people,” said a statement from the student union.

The Sri Lankan navy announced it held yet another large scale military exercise, this time in ‘Counter Revolutionary Warfare’, in the occupied city of Trincomalee this month, with the participation of the Pakistan, Maldives, and Bangladesh navies.

The Sri Lanka Navy announced it had commenced the training involving foreign naval forces running until October 15. 

Sri Lanka has permitted the Chinese Navy training ship, Po Lang, to dock at its port for "naval exchanges and capacity building" activities, despite a 12-month moratorium introduced this year barring foreign research vessels, after security concerns raised by India and the US.

The Sri Lankan government headed by Anura Kumara Dissanayake has reached a decision to dismantle an “Office for the Affairs of Sri Lankans Abroad” which was specifically instituted by former president Ranil Wickremesinghe to bring in investments from the diaspora and assist with ‘philanthropy’ and ‘reconciliation’ efforts. 

Sri Lanka's new government headed by president Anura Kumara Dissanayake has taken an executive decision to reject the resolution tabled at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) which looks set to extend the mandate of a war crimes evidence gathering mechanism for a further year.

Following the election of Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Sri Lanka has secured a $200 million loan from the World Bank as part of the second instalment of the World Bank’s Resilience, Stability, and Economic Turnaround (RESET) Development Policy Operation (DPO).

Excavations at Colombo Port have uncovered eight human skeletons, at a former High Security Zone (HSZ) in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo, in yet another mass grave on the island.

Speaking to News First, Professor Raj Somadeva confirmed that two of the skeletons have already been excavated and are currently under police protection.

Sri Lanka's head of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), Kanishka D. Wijeratne, has agreed to step down after Sri Lanka's Supreme Court accepted a case challenging his appointment.