An EPDP member of Jaffna Urban Council has been served an interim ban on sitting and voting in the council, pending a case filed against him at the Colombo Court of Appeals.

A petition was filed against K. V. Kugenthiran alleging that he holds dual citizenship and is therefore ineligible to hold elected office.

The petition also states that the Elections Commission and selection officers broke election rules by allowing his membership, which should be declared void.

With Sri Lankan police failing to tackle an increase in crimes in some parts of the North, a town in Jaffna has decided to take the matter in to its own hands by forming a resident’s night patrol.

Chavakachcheri Urban Council decided unanimously to form the patrol, stating that relying on the police to handle the situation was useless.

The patrols will be made up of council members and local youths.

Sri Lanka launched the development of Trincomalee port with the Singaporean infrastructure consultancy, Surbana Jurong on Wednesday. 

The programme, which was signed in June 2016, plans to develop 1363 sq km in Trincomalee into a centre for tourism, leisure and exports. 

Amnesty International on Wednesday called on Sri Lanka to withdraw its plans to implement the death penalty for drug trafficking offences. 

This week the country's ministry of Buddhasasana announced that the cabinet had decided to implement it, and to include 19 prisoners currently on death row. 

The body of a young woman was found in a home in Mayilaampaaveli village, Eravur.

The woman was identified as a 35 year old mother named Thayaanithi Vasanthakumar. 

Her body has been taken to Batticaloa Teaching Hospital for a post mortem examination. 

A member of the Nallur divisional council (prathesa sabai) has been threatened by army intelligence personnel for bringing resolutions against militarisation in the council.

Council member S. Sivaloganathan told the council yesterday that he had received phone calls from intelligence officers where he had been asked in a threatening tone why he was bringing resolutions against the Sri Lankan military forces, such as resolutions calling for the return of land occupied by the army.

A Tamil councillor with an independent political party has been gunned down in Colombo this week.

Colombo Municipal Councillor Krishnapillai Kirubanandan was killed in a shooting that took place on Sea Street, in the southern capital.

A Sri Lankan military regiment celebrated its anniversary by donating blood in Jaffna last month, despite previous controversial comments from military and government officials on how the blood of Sinhalese soldiers runs in Tamils that have received treatment.

A delegation from China’s People’s Liberation Army visited Sri Lanka In May to check up on another Chinese funded project on the island – the construction of an auditorium at the Sri Lanka Military Academy.

David McKinnon, the Canadian ambassador to Sri Lanka, met with Tamil residents of Iranaitivu this week to discuss the ongoing issues around resettlement in their military occupied land.

A Tamil disappearances activist was attacked yesterday, just days after she was harassed by Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department.

The activist, a families of the disappeared protester, returned last week after attending the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva.

CID officers visited her home on 6th July, the day after she returned and questioned her about why she went to Geneva and what she spoke about.

Sri Lanka's Minister of Buddhasasana announced on Tuesday that the cabinet had decided to implement the death penalty for those convicted of drug trafficking. 

Making the announcement, the Buddhasasana minister, Gamini Jayawickrama Perara said "as the Ministry of Buddhasasana, I never take decisions on my own. My Chief advisers are Mahanayakas, Anunayakas and Lekakadhikari Theras including the Maha Sangha"

A Buddhist monk was arrested today for allegedly strangling a police officer to death. 

The officer is understood to have been investigating the monk over an allegation of paedophilia when he entered the temple in Ratnapura the monk was believed to be, after the monk ignored the court summons. 

Local papers reported the monk pushed the officer, who had arrived alone, to the ground and strangled him with his bare hands. 

Sri Lanka's law and order minister, Ranjith Madduma Bandara is to visit the North-East on Thursday in order to "defuse the pro-LTTE mindset in the area", his deputy said at a news conference. 

The deputy minister of law and order, Nalin Bandara Jayamaha and the Inspector General of Police, Pujith Jayasundara are to accompany Mr Bandara on his visit to the Northern province.