_{Ambassador Qi Zhenhong}

New Chinese ambassador, Qi Zhenhong, for Sri Lanka arrives in Colombo on 30 October 2020, and will take office after 2 weeks of quarantine. Ambassador Qi is a senior diplomat and former President of China Institute of International Studies.

The locals of Neduntheevu, Jaffna have complained about the heightened illegal occupation efforts by Buddhist monks and the archaeology department - in particular the encroachment of the Vedi Arasan fortress in the Neduntheevu area.

The Buddhist monks claimed the Vedi Arasan fortress belonging historically to a Tamil Buddhist King and then went on to assess the archaeological details of the area with the archaeology department

Sri Lanka’s president Gotabaya Rajapaksa “has made explicit the link he sees between an all-powerful state and the centrality of Buddhism, whose more chauvinist priests he courts,” writes the Economist this week, as it warned that Rajapaksa is “amassing personal power”.

A local United Nations official in Sri Lanka reportedly “laughed at” concerns expressed by Human Rights Watch over the invitation of Sri Lankan prime minister and accused war criminal as the ‘Chief Guest’ for an event last week, a move the group had called a "slap in the face for victims of human rights abuses and war crimes”.

Sri Lanka will continue to benefit from the GSP+ trade preferences from the European Union (EU) despite being in breach of many conventions. 

"The EU GSP+ scheme will be available for a period ahead until there is reclassification," Thorsten Bargfrede, the Deputy Head of the EU Delegation, reportedly said at a webinar titled 'GSP+ for Enhanced Market Access'. 

Sri Lankan MPs have signed a petition urging the President to pardon former MP, Duminda Silva, who is currently serving a sentence for murder. 

Sri Lankan police arrested 15 Tamil devotees last week, including a priest, who were worshipping at a temple in Puliyankulam, Vavuniya.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called featuring Sri

The Sri Lankan prime minister’s office has denied a meeting was scheduled to take place with visiting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, contradicting a US State Department official’s comments just days earlier.

A large-scale excavation to recover weapons belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Vavuniya turned up only a crowbar, used to crack coconuts, and an empty beer can.

21 containers filled with up to 260 tonnes of waste, initially shipped to Sri Lanka, were returned to England on last month after Sri Lankan officials claimed they were brought onto the island in violation of international laws governing the shipping of hazardous material.

Commenting on the passage of Sri Lanka’s 20^th Amendment (20A) to the constitution, the Deccan Herald writes that Sri Lanka has “taken a decisive step towards becoming a constitutional autocracy”.

As we mark 25 years since the Jaffna exodus, which led to over half a million Tamil men, women and children fleeing their homes, we look back at press coverage from the time.