“We are disappointed that such issues which have no relevance to this issue have been dragged into this report, “ the Daily Mirror quoted the government as saying.

China will continue to support Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Security Council, said Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin during a meeting with President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday, reported the Daily Mirror.

Minister Zhenmin thanked the president for his personal interest in maintaining relations between the countries.

“We will continue to support Sri Lanka in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Sri Lanka will always find a friend in China.”

“You have established a close friendship with the Chinese leadership,” Mr. Liu said, adding that this personal relationship “will play a guiding role in China-Sri Lanka relations.”

A man was arrested by the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) in Jaffna on Thursday evening.

He is alleged to have been a “close associate of ‘Gopi’”, who was reported to have been killed by the Sri Lankan military earlier this month, reported Colombo Gazette.

The National Freedom Front (NFF), a partner of President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling coalition, accused the government of turning ‘a blind eye’ to the actions of the TNA, who have not given up on their separatist goal, reported Ceylon Today.

Spokesperson Mohammad Muzzamil said that the TNA and its MP MA Sumanthiran were instilling “sentiments of racial hatred” in Tamils and that they hoped to tie a cyanide capsule around the necks of every Tamil youth, with the help of the Tamil diaspora and “imperialistic” western powers.

"MP Sumanthiran has said that the government is falsely enacting the resurgence of the LTTE in the North. He has said that by doing this the aim of the government is to fortify its military presence in there. MP Sumanthiran has also said that subsequent to the defeat of the LTTE in 2009, there is no terrorism in the country. However, despite the end of the LTTE, the TNA has not given up on its attempts to form a separatist state in the country,

The British Ambassador to Colombo John Rankin told a business forum that sanctions on Sri Lanka are not currently an issue and that it was not “necessarily” in Britain’s interest to impose sanctions, reported LBO.

“Sanctions are not currently an issue. First, because the Human Rights Council does not have the power or mandate to impose sanctions. And to the best of my knowledge no government to date has proposed economic sanctions on Sri Lanka,” the ambassador told an ‘LBR-LBO CEO’ forum on meeting the challenges of a resolution on Sri Lanka by UN's Human Rights Council.

"Nor would sanctions necessarily be in the interests of a country like the UK. Policy is not uni-dimensional towards Sri Lanka. UN rights issues and Human Rights Resolutions are not the sole purpose of our policy."

Rankin pointed out that failure to comply with conditions on human rights issues had economic consequences in the past, as with the loss of GSP+ trade concessions.

"That was a matter of choice of Sri Lanka. But it demonstrates that those choices human rights issues can have an impact on economic relationships," he said.

A German tourist was the victim of an attempted rape in Hatton on Monday, police said according to Ceylon Today.

The 30 year old woman was on holiday with her husband and was staying in a guest house, when an employee attempted to rape her while she was sleeping, she told police.

The employee was arrested on Tuesday and charged with the attempted rape, according to police.

The Sri Lankan government has rejected a request by the British government to legalise gay marriage on the island, reported Colombo Gazette.

Speaking to newspaper editors in Colombo, Economic Affairs Minister Basil Rajapaksa said that Britain had put it forward in the form of a condition to receive British aid, but that the government was not prepared to agree to the request.

The president of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa has directed media organisations in the country to inform the population to desist from using images of the Buddha, printed on their media, for general purposes, reported the Daily Mirror.