Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said his government was on track to regaining the European Union’s GSP+ trade concessions by March 2017, if it continues with its current economic plan.

The body of a Sri Lankan soldier who allegedly committed suicide after claiming responsibility for the murder of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge, was exhumed this week, after it emerged that the police buried him without taking any fingerprints.

According to reports, the body of former military intelligence officer Ilandarige Edirisinghe Jayamanne was hastily buried in Colombo with Sri Lankan police failing to collect any forensic evidence.

India’s Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is set to visit Sri Lanka this weekend, in a trip aimed at promoting Indian business in the region.

Mr Jaishankar will be accompanied by a business delegation for the three-day trip, where he will meet with Sri Lankan businessmen and government officials.

The UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Rita Izsák-Ndiaye highlighted the ongoing concerns facing the Tamil people in Sri Lanka in her statement concluding her visit to the island. 

Clashes between Tamil civilians and Navy personnel took place after a member of Sri Lanka’s Navy was caught trespassing a home in Mannar.

The European Union will double its development aid to Sri Lanka over the next four years "in support of the government's reconciliation priorities" said a press release this week.

The first phase of a Chinese project to build a ‘Central Expressway’ in Sri Lanka has sharply increased by 12 million rupees, after the government failed to make savings on other projects reports the Sunday Times.

The Royal Borough of Kingston in the United Kingdom has officially twinned with Jaffna, after a signing ceremony in London on Tuesday.

Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran said the event was a "historic" occasion, as he addressed the ceremony attended by hundreds of locals.

A Sri Lankan army major who was convicted of shooting dead a handcuffed LTTE cadre in 1998, was ordered to pay Rs 2 million in compensation to the family after a High Court ruling, the Colombo Page reported. 

The UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues Rita Izsák-Ndiaye met with the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), R Sampanthan on Wednesday in the parliament complex in Colombo. 

The President of the European Council has backed the return of the GSP+ trade concessions for Sri Lanka, said Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Following a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels, Mr Wickremesinghe tweeted that Mr Tusk “greatly admired the sacrifices made by the government of Sri Lanka… to make Sri Lanka a democratic state, despite undergoing dictatorships, corruption and terror in the past”.

Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has praised the current Sri Lankan president for speaking out against corrupt investigations into former military personnel.

“I am happy that the truth has finally dawned on the President about these things,” said Mr Rajapaksa in an interview to BBC Sinhala last week.

The Director General of Sri Lanka’s Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption  has told Sri Lanka’s president that she intends to resign reports the New Indian Express.

Sri Lankan authorities ruled that the use of ‘Sinhale’ flags was not illegal and have returned all seized items to their owners, reports The Island.

The Sri Lankan police had initially seized ‘Sinhale’ flags from an event in Colombo earlier this year. After ruling that the use of these flags, which depict a lion holding a sword, was not illegal, the flags have since been returned to the Swarnahansa Foundation, which organised the event.