The Sri Lankan president's plans to build a rest house in Jaffna, through the Urban Development Authority, have been approved by the Cabinet, Colombo Page reported.

The UDA, which will be responsible for the land and construction of the rest house falls within the Ministry of Defence, led by President Rajapaksa in his capacity as Minister of Defence and Urban Development, and overseen by his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa as Defence Secretary.

The skeletons and human remains of over 80 people unearthed in a mass grave in Mannar have been transferred to Anuradhapura on Tuesday, Uthayan reported.

The remains had till now been stored at Mannar hospital.

The transfer was made at 10am, under the supervision of the Mannar judge, Aananthi Kanagaratnam. It is not known why the remains were moved.

The mass grave was first discovered in December last year, when construction workers found two human skeletons whilst digging in Thirukketheeswaram.

A senior minister has said that the recent resolution passed by the Northern Provincial Council, calling on the government to withdraw the ban on diaspora groups, is treason and proof that the TNA are terrorists, reported the Daily News.

Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister W. D. J. Seneviratna said that the Northern Provincial councillor’s actions clearly showed that they were promoting terrorism and the LTTE’s ‘separatist Eelam agenda’.

"They have rallied to promote terrorism in the Council. This is proof they are terrorists."

"The government took this decision to ban 16 Tamil Diaspora fronts, among them New York lawyer Visuvanathan Ruthirakumaran's Trans National Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), Fr. S. J. Emmanuel's Global Tamil Forum (GTF), Nadiyawan's Tiger group, Canadian Tamil Congress and the UK-based British Tamil Forum(BTF), because they pose a clear threat to the country for they are on a mission to promote activities that would destabilise the country's ongoing sensitive national reconciliation process,"

"These groups had direct connections with the LTTE in the past. They are now trying to promote the LTTE's separatist Eelam agenda to revive terrorism in Sri Lanka. They have launched massive disinformation campaigns against the government to achieve their sinister objectives,"

The Sri Lankan government is looking for ways to expand ties with Iran, especially cultural and touristic relations, said the country’s ambassador to Teheran, according to the Colombo Gazette.

Ambassador Mohammad Feisal Razin said he found Iranians “more receptive” than other Middle Easterners.

Police in Chennai arrested a Sri Lankan national on Tuesday, suspected of being an ISI agent in Pakistan's intelligence service, the Times of India reported.

The suspect, 37-year-old Sakir Hussain from Kandy in Sri Lanka's Central Province, has links to a Pakistani terrorist group and was operating on the instructions of the Pakistani High Commission in Sri Lanka, the paper said.

"In his confession, he admitted to the role of a Pakistani official. It was a shocking revelation. We got some explosive information. The operation is still on," the Times of India quoted a senior [Indian] official as saying.

Photograph JPC

Three Muslim councillors of the Western Province are to cross over to the ruling coalition, UPFA, the Island has reported.

The cross over of the councillors, two elected from the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and one from the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC), will increase the UPFA's numbers in the Western Provincial Assembly to 59, the assembly's secretary, Hemantha Samarakoon is reported as saying.

The Sri Lankan Ambassador to Italy has called on the Sri Lankan government to take steps to ‘ban’ a bar named after Buddha in the Italian city of Parma, reported Ceylon Today.

Sri Lankan residents in Italy recently protested against the ‘Buddha Bar’, calling on the ambassador to take action.

Ambassador Nawalage Bennett Cooray told Ceylon Today that he had written to Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry, adding that the Sri Lankan community in Italy was disturbed over the restaurant’s name.

"We have the right to look into it as it amounts to ridiculing a religion. I have informed the Ministry and wanted them to take immediate steps to ban the Buddha Bar," said Cooray.

Abuse in Sri Lanka’s military is on a "systematic level", Human Rights Watch's Asia advocacy advisor, John Sifton, said in an interview with Frances Alonzo of Voice of America regarding recent video evidence showing abuse of female military recruits by their seniors.

"If this is how they treat their own recruits, one can only imagine how bad the abuses are against ordinary Tamil civilians," Sifton said, stating that there was near complete impunity, with almost no interest in accountability.

See extracts of the interview below:

“This [abuse of recruits] is indicative of the fact that the Sri Lankan military has a terrible record of sexual violence against the general population. And if this is how they treat their own recruits, one can only imagine how bad the abuses are against ordinary Tamil civilians and Sri Lankan civilians. There was a very big report that came out recently about sexual violence by the military. Quite simply put, the Sri Lankan military has a terrible record,” Sifton said.

“Generally speaking, of course, the Sri Lankan military and the Sri Lankan government don’t have a great record of transparency or accountability for abuses. These allegations have not been made in a vacuum. Incredibly serious violations of sexual abuse have been made against the Sri Lankan military last month, last year, the year before, in context of the final conflict against the Tamil Tigers in 2009. And there is a whole slew of allegations against them that have yet to be investigated properly.”