Over 700 activists attended Amnesty International's annual 'Get on the Bus for Human Rights' event in New York on Friday, calling for justice, accountability, and an end to human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, Burma, Indonesia and Tibet.

Activists called on the Sri Lankan government to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the Trinco-5 killings of Ragihar Manoharan and his fellow four students in Trincomalee on 2nd January 2006.

J.S. Tissainayagam, a former Sunday Times journalist imprisoned by the Sri Lankan government in 2008, spoke at this year's event, detailing the Sri Lankan government's failure to deliver justice and his own ordeal during detention.

The UK has no right to accuse Sri Lanka of not doing enough to address accountability of the war, said Sri lanka's deputy external affairs minister Neomal Perera on Tuesday after the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office released a report on Monday concluding that significant progress was still needed.

Perera said,

"I honestly can't see any rationality behind the behaviour of either in the exchange rate or interest rate."

"If the element of speculation goes beyond a tolerable level that is the time the market should intervene not by just simply releasing foreign exchange, (but) probably with the announcement of two rates. If that is what speculators are looking for, the government is quite competent in managing it."

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"There is no economic or fundamental reasons for the rupee to go beyond 125 a dollar. There is no reason why the rate goes beyond this because the policy actions are already in place."

President Mahinda Rajapakse has said that he will not allow international ‘conspiracies’ under the guise of human rights to break Sri Lanka.

Addressing a May Day rally Tuesday in Colombo, the Sri Lankan president said "the unity of working people is essential to rebuild this nation".

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has released its annual human rights report and has listed Sri Lanka as a country of concern, along with countries such as North Korea, Iran, Russia and Syria.

Foreign Secretary William Hague spoke at the launch of the report in London on Monday and welcomed the many positive moves towards democracy that had occurred around the world in the past year.

Sri Lanka imports 90% of its oil from Iran, and with US-EU sanctions on Iran looming, needs to source oil elsewhere.

But its sole refinery, at Sapugaskanda, needs upgrading if it is to refine oil from other countries.

Yet, Sri Lanka has rejected an offer by the state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to do this.