Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister said the newly announced Office of Missing Persons will have a “humanitarian mandate”, following controversy over the lack of prosecutorial power the office will hold.

Sri Lanka deserves “special attention” as the island continues to work towards democracy and reconciliation, said the United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, at an international media conference currently underway in India.

The United National Party (UNP) on Saturday passed a resolution pledging "not to allow any foreign force to threaten the country’s independence or undermine, ridicule or exert pressure on the people’s sovereignty", the Sunday Times reported. 

The Sri Lankan army has pledged to release 700 acres of land in Valikaamam North in Jaffna, the Sunday Times reported.  

Jaffna's district secretary, N Vedhanayagan, reportedly said the pledge came following his request to the military to release 1500 acres. 

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A Tamil man from Jaffna has been deported from India to Sri Lanka over alleged links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). 

Thirty-seven year old Suthan Subbiah was detained when he tried to fly to Germany on September 1, reportedly on a fake passport. 

A 6 year old girl has been found murdered in Sampur on Friday, after being reported missing earlier this week.

The girl, reportedly from the Vedda community, had gone missing after last being seen with a 17 year old boy from the region. He led police to the area in the Neelankeni jungle in Sampur, where the girl's body was found.

However, they failed to apprehend him and the boy is currently being sought after by Sri Lanka authorities. 

The International Institute for Middle East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES) presented Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera with an award for “Special contribution to reconciliation and coexisting of different groups in Sri Lanka.”

The government is recruiting more Tamils to the police, armed forces and prisons department said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe yesterday in parliament. 

Responding to a question raised by leader of the EPDP, Douglas Devananda, Mr Wickremasinghe noted that Tamils had historically been in the police force but issues arose after 1978. He blamed the reduction of Tamils in the police force and armed forces on the 1983 riots and the LTTE.

Two men were charged on Friday over attacking the Sri Lankan High Commissioner, Ibrahim Sahib Ansar in Malaysia last Sunday, the Malay Mail reported. 

A Kalaimughilan and V Balamurugan, 25 and 34 respectively, face up to two years in prison and a fine if found guilty. 

Sri Lankan soldiers oversaw the distribution of food at the famous chariot festival of the Nallur temple in Jaffna last month, as criticism of the military’s involvement in civil life in the North-East continues.

A court in Sri Lanka on Thursday ordered the exhumation of the body of the former Sunday Leader editor, Lasantha Wickremetunge, as part of a police inquiry, the Associated Press reported.

Mr Wickremetunge, who was critical of the then Rajapaksa led government, was assassinated in January 2009. 

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Sri Lanka in May 2017, claimed Sri Lankan Health Minister and Cabinet spokesperson Rajitha Senaratne.

The trip to the island will be Mr Modi’s second visit, since he arrived in March 2015, where he also toured the Tamil North-East and met with Northern Province Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran.

The commander of the Sri Lankan Army’s 53 Division, which is accused of committing war crimes during the final stages of the armed conflict, denied all reports of human rights violations, in an interview with Daily FT.

A group of high ranking Sri Lankan military officials are in London to take part in a UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial summit to be held on Thursday.

Ministers from 80 countries, including Sri Lanka, are scheduled to take part in the event, which will discuss plans to improve the planning of peacekeeping operations by the United Nations.