Ceylon Petroleum Corp, the Sri Lankan state-owned oil company, failed in its appeal to have a London court ruling over turned.

The ruling last year ordered the company to pay $162 million plus interest for non-payment of dues to Standard Chartered Bank.

The company appealed against the ruling; however government officials announced on Friday that this had failed.

The ever-growing Sri Lankan Defence Ministry may now also be taking over the Prisons Department, annulling the already existing Ministry according to reports.

According to ColomboPage, sources stated that the move is being considered “due to the deterioration of discipline in prisons”.

Just last week, a branch of the Ministry of Defence also announced their latest “commercial venture” – catering services.

Investigations into the Sri Lankan Army’s killing of Tamil civilians in the run up to and during May 2009 could take up to 5 years according to Sri Lanka.

The Associated Press reports that the government recommended for inquiries into alleged killings to be concluded within a year and for court proceedings to start up to four years after that.

The Jaffna University Academics (JUA) said at a press conference about their industrial action,

"Unbeknownst to the public, this government is going to change the face of free education. There will come a day when education in schools as well as at university will have to be paid for. It is with the purpose off deterring this that university lecturers continue to strike.

A failed Tamil asylum seeker, known as Mr X for safety reasons has been reported missing since he was deported from Australia.

Spokeswoman for Refugee Action Collective, Sue Bolton, said that Mr X’s family had waited outside the airport for more than 14 hours but received no news about his whereabouts.

Mr X’s claims to asylum that he had been arrested by the army and tortured due to alleged affiliation the LTTE were rejected and he was deported from Australia on Wednesday, despite a UN appeal against his return.

 The leading Tamil political party has called for international monitors to be deployed to monitor polls during the Eastern Provincial Council elections, after threats of violence and concerns over electoral fraud.

Australian officials have deported a Tamil refugee, suffering from mental illness.

Amidst outrage by human rights organisations, the man was the first of around 150 Tamils who are expected to be deported to Sri Lanka, where they are facing torture on their return.

Sri Lankan Army officers from the operational camp of the occupying military in Vanni, have been enforcing the acceptance of death certificates on to families of missing persons in the Mullaitheevu district.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, TNA MP Suresh Premachandran noted that some of the families say that they personally handed over their living family members at a military check post during the final hours of the 2009 war and are now being forced to sign death certificates.

The Sri Lankan electricity board has announced it will cut the electricity supply across the country for three hours a day, after the Chinese-built Norocholai coal power plant failed for the 5th time in 16 months.

"We are facing difficulties in balancing the supply and demand," the ministry said in a statement. "The only alternative is to carry out power cuts across the country until further notice."

The drought on the island has compunded the problem in electricity supply from hydro-power plants.

Last week was the gorvernment's much hyped about Social Integration Week. True to form, the event kicked off with an example of what integration is in Sri Lanka - the national anthem sung in Sinhala only.

The week was said to ensure a 'united nation' and 'reintegrate all ethnic groups as one nation, free of ‘petty’ social and cultural differences.'