The end of a gruelling two-and-half-decade long phase of the separatist war is now nearer than ever before - and just as the Security Forces are inching towards a finality, the international pressure to stop the fighting has also reached a peak.
There is considerable concern as to whether the country is heading towards a debt trap. This is a situation where the debt service payments are of such a magnitude that servicing of the debt requires further borrowing and then a country moves into a situation of defaulting on its debt servicing and repayment obligations.
An upbeat government side, buoyed by the military successes in the north, fended off opposition criticism for imposing new taxes on the people as Parliament approved last week, several new tax laws and regulations and also enacted legalisation to hold elections to local bodies in the northern province.
The release this week of Sudar Oli editor, N. Vithyatharan after the court was informed by the Colombo Crimes Division that there was no incriminatory evidence against him begs a fundamental question.
When politically-sensitive issues such as racism and human rights are discussed at the United Nations, all hell breaks loose. The usually unflappable diplomats-- minus the traditional striped pants-- go virtually berserk.
