Sri Lanka’s tourism industry sees signs of a gradual recovery after the tragic Easter Sunday bombings, which killed over 250 people.

Tourism is one of Sri Lanka’s largest revenue streams, with tourists arriving from Europe and Asia-Pacific accounting for 90% of the total visitors. Sri Lanka’s Tourism Development Authority reports that after the attack on 21 April, the number of tourists halved in July from a year ago.

Sri Lankan soldiers stationed at the University of Jaffna stood by as Sinhalese students clashed outside the campus on Wednesday, instead harassing passers-by and onlookers.

The soldiers forced onlookers away from the incident and berated individuals who had filmed the clashes, forcing them to delete all photographs and videos.

A team of Sri Lankan Air Force personnel are to be deployed to Central Africa next month to undertake United Nations (UN) peacekeeping duties.

The Passing Out Parade of the No 5 contingent of the Aviation Unit under the UN helicopter deployment was held yesterday at the Sri Lankan Air Force Base in Katunayake.

The helicopter deployment includes 18 officers and 92 airmen and are scheduled to start in September 2019.

A Tamil think-tank based in Jaffna was visited and its staff questioned by Sri Lankan terrorism police.

Kumaravadivel Guruparan, executive director of Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research (ACPR) and senior law lecturer at Jaffna University, reported that the office of ACPR were visited by three TID (Terrorism Investigation Division) officials who claimed to have been sent by their superiors in Colombo to inquire into the human rights policy-think tank.

The massacre of 63 Tamils in cold-blood by Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) in Valvai on August 2, 1989 was remembered on Friday, 30 years on.

A prominent Tamil disappearances activist and her daughter were attacked and hospitalised in Batticaloa on Sunday evening.

Security booths have been installed in Jaffna ahead of the Nallur Kandasamy Kovil’s annual festival, with Jaffna police ordering that all devotees must be searched before entry.

The orders came following the Easter Sunday bombings in Colombo and Batticaloa earlier this year.

Displaced Muslims who were forced from their homes in the wake of anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka following the Easter Sunday attacks, are still to be resettled more than three months after the bombs, reports The New Humanitarian.

Some 228 people are still searching for safe shelter according to the UN’s refugee agency, which has been attempting to relocate the displaced.

The European Union (EU) expressed its willingness to support Sri Lanka in countering violent extremism and to support improvements in coordinating the country's counter terrorism efforts.  . 

Sahathevan Nilakshan, journalist and popular student leader, murdered aged 22 while still a media student, was remembered in Jaffna on the twelth anniversary of his death on Thursday.

On August 1 2007, Nilakshan, an up and coming Tamil journalist was shot and killed by suspected Sri Lankan military intelligence personnel.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Fiannce and Media Mangala Samaraweera admitted that the island “has been in crisis, remains in crisis and will continue to be in crisis until we can create a just and equal Sri Lanka,” in a speech to parliament last week, where he called for federalism.

Mullaitivu locals protested in front of the National Housing Development Authority this week, after a much touted housing scheme has left residents mired in debt.