Writing in The Guardian's Comment is Free section, the newspaper's readers' editor, Chris Elliott, expressed regret over the paper's decision last week to include a 24-page promotional Sri Lanka supplement in the same issue as the newspaper's reporting of on-going torture of deportees.

Elliott wrote:

The Sri Lankan Sports Minister has announced that he is considering introducing a law that will ban sportsmen who refuse to represent the country in international sports.

Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage told reporters,

The US has granted seven further countries, including Sri Lanka, exemptions from sanctions for importing Iranian oil.

South Africa, India, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Turkey were given a waiver from meeting a US deadline, which is looming at the end of this month, to reduce imports from Iran.

Countries, which haven’t been granted an exemption and fail to reduce imports, will be cut off from the US financial system.

As international pressure continues to mount on the Sri Lankan government over allegations of war crimes, External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris has praised the recent trip to London by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, stating many useful meetings were held.

Speaking in an interview with the state-run Daily News, External Affairs Minister G. L. Peiris said,

“Sri Lanka could be pleased with the way things are turning out with regard to the conduct of its international relations.”

Students at the Eastern University boycotted lessons for the third day on Saturday, protesting against the appointment of a paramilitary backed appointment of Dr Jaffer to the university's governing council, reports TamilNet.

Dr Jaffer, the director of the Kalmunai Base hospital is reported to be backed by the paramilitary leader come Sri Lankan deputy minister, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (Karuna).

The Sri Lankan government cautioned the US ambassador designate, Michele Sison, over her recent statements on Sri Lanka's human rights record.

The Sri Lankan secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs, Karunatilaka Amunugama, said that although they were not currently taking any action...

A senior official of India's Intelligence Bureau has accused Tamil Nadu police officers of turning a blind eye to Tamil refugees leaving refugee camps and moving to Kerala.

The official is quoted as saying,

The ultra Sinhala nationalist party, JHU, are to take legal action over TNA leader, Sampanthan, for statements 'regarding formation of a Tamil Eelam state', reports Colombo Page.

The spokesperson for the JHU, Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe, asserted that Sampanthan's statements were in violation of the 157th article of the constitution of Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan Army is to import 10,000 cows from Australia, as they aim to produce enough milk to support the entire country.

Colonel A.V. Gunaratne, Director of Agriculture and Livestock at the army-run Kandakudah farm, was reported to have told journalists of the military project, as he took them on a tour of the area.

Tamil students in Jaffna marked the Queen’s diamond jubilee, where she dined with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa by symbolically burning the island’s constitutions from 1833 until the present day.

The students laid the 7 constitutions in the form of placards and wreath down in St John’s cemetery in Jaffna, before setting them all alight as a mark of protest and managed to evade the security forces in the heavily militarised North.