The United States and Sri Lanka are to renew a defence agreement which was signed in 2007, according to reports in the Sri Lankan press.

Microfinance loans with soaring interest rates have left the community in Batticaloa trapped in a cycle of debt, reports The Hindu.

In a piece entitled “Getting sucked into a quicksand of debt”, villagers in the Eastern town described how microfinance loans have left many trapped.

“First, it was the tsunami that destroyed our community,” said one villager. “Then came the war. Now, it’s microfinance.”

The Sri Lankan government had advised its ambassadors to lobby the UK, Canada and Australia over travel advisories that it feels "placed the country in poor light and threatnes to scare off foreign visitors", the Sunday Times reported. 

The Sri Lankan government has introduced screening for tourists from Syria, Pakistan, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon prior to the issuing of visas. 

The minister of internal affairs, S B Navinna was quoted by the Sunday Leader as saying, "the screening will be carried out in light of national security concerns."

The leader of the National Freedom Front and MP Wimal Weerawansa condemned the arrest of the former Sri Lankan navy spokesperson saying that he was a talented officer who had been arrested over the disappearance of "terrorists". 

Commodore D K P Dassanayake was arrested this month of the disappearance of 11 Tamil youths in 2008. 

Rejecting the conclusions of the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson following an official visit to Sri Lanka, the country's justice minister, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe described Mr Emmerson as someone who "lacked cailbre and diplomacy" and accused him of using "false facts" about the Prevention of Terrorism Act. 

Senior Deputy Inspector General Lalith Jayasinghe has been arrested for allegedly helping a suspect in the murder of schoolgirl Sivaloganathan Vithya evade arrest in Jaffna.

The incident sparked widespread condemnation in the North-East.

The trial is set to be in Jaffna, after a request by the defendants to be transferred to Colombo sparked strong opposition from the local community.

Sri Lanka’s new defence secretary, Kapila Waidyaratne assured the protection of war heroes in a meeting with senior Buddhist prelates of the Asgiiriya, Malwathu and Ramanna chapters.

A Tamil journalist was summoned to Colombo by Sri Lankan intelligence last week and is facing ongoing investigation over the broadcast of a politician’s press conference.

Jaffna-based broadcast and print journalist T. Pratheepan was summoned to appear in Colombo by the Criminal Investigation Department last week to testify in relation to the broadcast of a press conference by Northern Province Councillor, M. K. Sivajilingam, in a ‘racial conflict-inciting manner’.

A Sri Lankan soldier who died in the 1991 Battle of Elephant Pass was honoured with an all-night Buddhist ceremony by the military in Jaffna this week.

The Sri Lankan navy and air force carried out a series of military exercises at Thiriyai beach in Trincomalee this week, mobilising troops, boats, helicopters and a fighter aircraft.

The Sri Lankan army organised a medical clinic at a Tamil school in Poonakari on Wednesday, with several senior military officers overseeing proceedings.

Moody's Investors Service urged the Sri Lankan government to improve its tax efficiency in order to increase the tax revenue/ GDP ratio, highlighting the country's ongong credit challenges of high general government debt, very low debt affordability and large borrowing requirements. 

Kuwait is to provide financial assistance to Sri Lanka for a number of projects, Colombo Page. 

The projects include a mushroom cultivation project, the government's Information Department was reported as saying. 

The World Health Organization is to grant US$ 34,589 to promote mushroom cultivation and to provide school bags and stationeries to children in the North, the paper added.