Japan's Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso pledged Thursday that Tokyo will support Sri Lanka's efforts to improve its coast guard as the South Asian country sits in a geopolitically important area, Japanese officials said. During a meeting with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo, Aso, who doubles as finance minister, also called for promoting national reconciliation in the country, where a civil war had lasted for an extended period until 2009, the officials said.

The United States said Monday it was "extremely concerned" about media freedom in Sri Lanka after gunmen attacked and torched the office of an opposition newspaper of the Tamil minority. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell, pointing out that the attack was the latest against the island's media, said: "We remain extremely concerned about threats to freedom of expression in Sri Lanka." "We urge the Sri Lankan authorities to protect freedom of expression, to conduct a credible investigation and to hold perpetrators accountable," Ventrell told reporters.

Sri Lanka has expressed its interest to import medicine from Bangladesh under government to government arrangement, reports UNB.The interest was shown by visiting Health Minister of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena when he called on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office on Wednesday.

By Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka is setting up a presidential commission to investigate a mass grave with the remains of more than 150 people, an official spokesman said on Sunday. Two reports submitted to a court last week said that the human remains, in the town of Matale 142 km (88 miles) north of the capital, dated back to the period 1986-1989 when Sri Lanka faced a Marxist insurrection.