Amnesty International has called on the Singaporean government to cease the planned execution of Tamil Malaysian national, Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam who has been charged with carrying drugs in 2009. 

The execution which is scheduled to take place on 10 November has drawn criticism from numerous human rights organisations. 

Rachel Chhoa-Howard, Amnesty International’s Singapore Researcher, said:

Responding to the trilateral security pact between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Qi Zhenhong, has slammed the agreement claiming that it was “opening the Pandora’s Box of the arms race, and undermining peace and stability in the Pacific and Indian Ocean”.

Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India, Milinda Moragoda, met with India's Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman in Delhi on Tuesday where they discussed strengthening economic cooperation.

The Sri Lankan army has reportedly set up a new camp without any prior in Batticaloa this week, as journalists were barred from entry and from asking questions from security officials.

The camp has been set up inside the Manthivu Bird Sanctuary in the centre of the Batticaloa district. A small islet that covers an area of about 100 acres, Manthivu is also home to a leprosy hospital and several religious sites including a Saivite Murugan Temple and catholic church.

This week however, an army camp also appeared at the site.

“In the early hours of Monday, under the cover of darkness, hundreds of Tamil activists marched on the DoubleTree Hilton Hydro hotel,” wrote the Times this morning, in a piece that looked at the protest in Dunblane earlier this week, where Sri Lanka’s war crimes accused president Gotabaya Rajapaksa was staying.

Politicians and civil society activists have been condemning the brutal caste-based violence that took place in Jaffna in late September. 

A gang of dominant-caste youth and men reportedly waylaid a pair of boys belonging to an oppressed community last month and assaulted them indiscriminately. The incident took place in Arasady, a village in Vaddukoddai. 

Inbanathan, 60, father of one of the boys, lost a finger in the ensuing skirmish in which the aggressors reportedly started to swing a sword against the youth.

Decades after the Sathurukondan massacre, justice remains elusive and whilst the perpetrators remain at large, Batticaloa Municipal Councillor Thuraisingam Mathan said that Sri Lankan police are instead carrying out an investigation against those who paid tribute at the Sathurukondan massacre memorial on its 31st anniversary. 

The Sri Lanka army’s war crimes accused chief reportedly handed over a military-built home to a former Tamil political prisoner who was released from prison earlier this year, in a lavish ceremony yesterday.

Shavendra Silva, a commander who is currently barred from travel to the US over his role in the execution of Tamils, arrived in Chunnakam in Jaffna dressed in full camouflage uniform and escorted by blacked-out and armed troops.

The Sri Lankan government has lashed out at credit rating agency Moody’s, after it hit Colombo with yet another downgrade of debt rating, stating that the island was at risk of default without a clear debt repayment plan and low foreign exchange reserves .

The war crimes accused head of the Sri Lankan army visited Jaffna this week, where he told occupying troops that local Tamils are “well aware of tireless services” of the military, despite “misleading utterances” by “elements in the North”.

Shavendra Silva, a commander who is currently barred from travel to the US over his role in war crimes, arrived at the Security Force Headquarters - Jaffna (SFHQ-J), with the military having occupied the peninsula since the invasion 26 years ago.