Today marks 10 years since the passing of Anton Balasingham, the chief negotiator and political strategist of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa has passed away on Monday evening, according to officially confirmed reports from both her AIADMK party and the hospital in Chennai where she has been receiving medical treatment.

Following a prolonged hospital admission, Ms Jayalalithaa eventually succumbed to complications after suffering a cardiac arrest on Sunday evening. The influential and popular figure in Tamil Nadu politics was 68 years old.

Thousands of supporters have gathered outside the Apollo Hospital in Chennai, whilst Tamil Nadu police have deployed extra security personnel across the state due to fears of unrest.

In the run up to Maaveerar Naal, young Tamil artists took to Instagram to commemorate the thousands who gave their lives fighting in the Tamil struggle.

The Tamil nation, in the homeland and in the diaspora, holds steadfastly to records of the liberation struggle. The well-known dates and the lesser known dates are tirelessly observed. Heroes are canonised in the Maaveerar Naal calendar.

But with the destruction of LTTE records and cemeteries, it becomes inevitable that some names are lost to us, at least momentarily.

The record of Muslim fighters remains incomplete. Their contribution to the Tamil struggle for liberation is often overlooked in the mainstream commemoration of Maaveerar Naal.

Students across the Tamil homeland held demonstrations on Monday, protesting against the deaths of Jaffna University students Nadarasa Kajan and Pavunraj Sulaxan and calling for justice.

Sri Lankan police are reported to have shot dead two Tamil students from Jaffna University on October 20th.

Both students have been identified as being from the university's arts faculty. One is political science student and other one a popular film maker studying media studies.

They have been identified as 23 year old Nadarasa Kajan and 24 year old Pavunraj Sulaxan.

Journalists, media workers and their supporters gathered in Jaffna today on the anniversary of the death of journalist Nimalarajan to demand investigations into murdered journalists in Sri Lanka, media freedom and immediate implementation of the Right to Information Act, as Sri lankan police officers watched on.

The Royal Borough of Kingston in the United Kingdom has officially twinned with Jaffna, after a signing ceremony in London on Tuesday.

Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran said the event was a "historic" occasion, as he addressed the ceremony attended by hundreds of locals.

His comments were echoed by Councillor Kevin Davis, who spoke of how Kingston has twinned with other cities around the world, such as in Korea and Germany, that have also suffered the "tragic loss" of war.

Marking the 50th year since the 21st October 1966 uprising against caste and untouchability in Sri Lanka, the Mass Movement for Social Justice held a conference today in Kokuvil, Jaffna. A series of academics and activists spoke about the history of the struggle against caste on the island and also about the ongoing perpetuation of caste-based discrimination and the disregard paid to it by Tamil political parties and leaders.