- Colombo Magistrate’s Court orders the release of former State Minister Vijayakala Maheswaran in the case where she made a comment that the LTTE must be revived.
- Speaker orders the suspension and removal of SJB MP Ajith Mannaperuma from Parliament for 4 weeks due to his unruly behaviour in Parliament.
- State Minister of Power and Energy D V Chanaka says SL’s fuel imports are unlikely to be disturbed by the escalating conflict in the Middle East as the country has already secured tenders for supply until June’24: warns however that there could be uncertainties.
- Study on cases of child sexual abuse presented to a Colombo-based hospital concludes that the rate of sexual abuse of females and those older than 12 years, was high: also finds that the majority of the perpetrators were known to the child, with delayed disclosure being significantly higher in cases of penetrative abuse, multiple incidents of abuse, and abuse being committed by a known person.
- IMF says its staff & SL authorities have reached a staff-level agreement on economic policies to conclude the 1st review of the 48-month EFF programme: once approved by the IMF Board, SL will have access to about USD 330 mn: in the 18 months since seeking IMF assistance, SL has so far received only USD 333mn from the IMF, while bilateral & commercial lenders have not granted any loans.
- Port City Colombo announces that a “USD 1.56 bn deal was ‘finalised’ in Beijing for the Port City’s Phase-2 development, encompassing the Marina Project, Marina Hotel & the Colombo International Financial Centre Project”.
- Colombo Stock Market suffers a massive loss of value of Rs.254 bn so far in October’23, due to negative investor sentiment over lack of credible progress in resolving major macro-economic issues: Market cap of the CSE was Rs.4,537 bn as at end September’23, and by 19th October’23, it had dipped to Rs.4’283 bn.
- Indian Navy Ship “Airavat”, a Shardul-class Landing Ship Tank (LST), arrives in Colombo: Commanding Officer of the vessel, Commander Rindu Babu calls on the Commander Western Naval Area, Rear Admiral T S K Perera during the visit.
- State Minister of Trade S Viyalanderan says Tamil political leaders should cooperate with President Ranil Wickremesinghe and take advantage of his flexible approach to achieve national unity and address the challenges faced by the Tamil population.
- Cricketers Angelo Mathews & Dushmantha Chameera to fly to India to join the SL squad for the ICC World Cup Tournament, as travelling reserves.
