• TNA's Emmanuel Arnold elected as Jaffna Mayor

    The Jaffna Muncipal Council has elected Tamil National Alliance candidate Emmanuel Arnold as its Mayor, reports asiantribune.com

    Beating candidates from the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) and the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) Mr Arnold received 18 votes with the other two candidates receiving 13 votes each.

  • Stay order preventing legal action against Gotabhaya Rajapaksa further extended 

    The stay order preventing legal against Sri Lanka's former defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was further extended today until March 28. 

    The decision marks the fourth time the order has been kept in place, preventing the Financial Crime Investigations Division (FCID) from taking any legal action against accusations of misappropriating public funds in constructing the DA Rajapaksa Museum and Memorial in Medamulana.

  • TNA to decide on no-confidence motion against Ranil next week

    The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is to decide next week on whether or not to support a no-confidence motion against the current Sri Lankan prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe. 

    Mr Sumanthiran was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying the party's parliamentary group would meet on April 2 to discuss the issue and decide its position. 

  • Sri Lankan navy denies harassing Tamil Nadu fishermen

    The Sri Lankan navy has denied harassing Tamil Nadu fishermen, as reported by Indian media outlets on Sunday, describing the report as "baseless". 

  • Australians march to demand end to offshore asylum detention centres

    Thousands marched in cities across Australia to demand an end to its asylum processing policy and close its camps in Manus Island and Nauru.

  • Tamil representatives meet US officials

    A delegation of Tamil representatives from the TNA and diaspora organisations met with US officials this month. 

    The group met with Deputy US Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Kelley E Currie, and Ambassador Alice J Wells, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia.

  • Gotabhaya claims disarming Tamil paramilitaries allowed TNA to gain power

    The Tamil National Alliance would not have won elections if the Rajapaksas had not disarmed government-backed Tamil paramilitary groups, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has said.

    In a thinly veiled admission of the intimidation and violence meted out by paramilitary groups to suppress Tamil nationalist politics and dissent, Gotabhaya said that by disarming the paramilitaries before the 2013 Northern Provincial Council elections, “we gave them a chance to select their own people.”

  • Sri Lanka congratulates itself on 'emerging proud' at UNHRC

    The Sri Lankan government said the country had emerged "proud" at the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this month. 

  • Monitoring social media necessary says Ranil

    The Sri Lankan prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe this week stressed that monitoring of social media was a necessity in order to tackle hate speech. 

    The government was criticised earlier this month after it prohibited access to social media sites in the aftermath of anti-Muslim attacks by Sinhala mobs in Kandy. 

  • Batticaloa airport opens for civilian travel after almost 30 years of military flights

    Batticaloa Domestic Aiport is to commence service this week, after running only military flights for nearly thirty years. 

    The beginning of service comes almost two years after the airport was opened to the public by the president in July 2016 following renovation. 

    Service was delayed as the airport did not meet international civil aviation requirements. 

  • Sri Lankan politicians, police joined mobs attacking Muslims - Reuters

    CCTV of anti-Muslim violence in Kandy this month reveal Sri Lankan politicians and police officers joined mobs launching the attacks, Reuters reported after reviewing the images and speaking to witnesses. 

    "Victims and witnesses, whose accounts were partly backed by CCTV footage seen by Reuters, described members of an elite paramilitary police unit, the Special Task Force (STF), assaulting Muslim cleric and leaders," the news wire said. 

  • Signature campaign across North-East calling for pardon of widowed Tamil political prisoner, father of two young children

    Tamils across the North-East have been campaigning for the pardon of a Tamil political prisoner, after his wife’s death left their two young children without support.

  • Military vehicle crash kills another Tamil motorist

    A Tamil motorist was killed on the spot when a military vehicle crashed into him on the main road in Chavakachcheri on Saturday.

    The crash occurred when the victim attempted to pass a car that had been stopped by traffic police.

    There were tensions in the area as angry locals and witnesses blamed traffic police for unnecessarily stopping the car and causing the crash.

  • Another preschool taken on tour of Palali high security zone airbase

    The Sri Lankan Army continues its involvement in Tamil schools as children from a Koppay preschool were taken on a tour of the Palali air base.

    The air base falls within occupied land which the Sri Lankan Army maintains as a “high security zone”, nine years after the end of the war.

  • No-Confidence motion to be debated in parliament

    The No-Confidence motion against the Sri Lankan prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe is to be debated in parliament on April 4. 

    The motion, reportedly signed by 55 MPs, was handed over to the Speaker of the House, Karu Jayasuriya on Wednesday. 

    A state minister and two deputy ministers have signed the motion, the Sunday Times reported. 

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