Sri Lanka acknowledged on Wednesday for the first time that some 65,000 people were missing from its 26-year-long war with Tamil Tiger rebels and a separate Marxist insurrection.

President’s House in Colombo and the Gordon Park will be opened for the public and the school children from today (8th June) to 14th June according to a decision made by the President Maithripala Sirisena.

Sunday’s disaster at the Salawa Army Camp at Kosgama had occurred while a special event was going on within the camp premises, Defence Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi said yesterday.

Sri Lanka’s government says that it has approved a process to issue certificates of absence to the families of tens of thousands of people who were reported missing, largely during major armed uprisings.

Sri Lanka, which last month announced plans to raise $1.5 billion from the sale of a 10-year sovereign bond, has mandated four foreign banks as lead managers, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said on Tuesday.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s chief of security, Major Neville Wanniarachchi, arrived at the Criminal Investigation Department today to give a statement.

China wants its projects in Sri Lanka to be Joint Ventures either with local Lankan companies and state organizations or with foreign companies, including Indian companies, says the Chinese Ambassador in Lanka, Yi Xianliang.

Government will set up a university for the Police and Criminal Justice similar to that of the Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said recently.

A series of explosions rocked a military ammunition depot on the edge of Sri Lanka’s capital into Monday, sparking huge fires and forcing thousands to flee as debris fell into populated neighbourhoods.

A fire has erupted at the Salawa Army base in Kosgama.

For seven years, the ethnic Tamil housewife has waited for news of a son who vanished near the frenzied end of Sri Lanka’s quarter-century-long civil war.

The Finance Ministry has ruled out the provision of concessions to vehicle importers who have protested against the imposition of a heavy tax from last week.

The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) executive board has approved a three-year $1.5 billion loan to support Sri Lanka’s economic reform agenda, the global lender said on Saturday.

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake yesterday outlined the importance of having a strong National Government with a consistent set of policies towards building a more resilient national economy.

Refugee activists have called on the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu to ease restrictions on Sri Lankan refugees living in guarded camps after police intercepted a group who had escaped and were attempting to migrate to Australia.