Commenting on the Queen's decision not to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka later this year, the UNP spokesperson Ravi Karunanayake said:

"The queen has sent a strong political message. The message is improve your [rights] record,"

Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe has accused the Tamil daily ‘Uthayan’ of stoking communal flames in its editorial and driving Tamils towards another war.

The United Kingdom went before the United Nations Committee Against Torture in Geneva earlier this week, as it faced criticism over its role in extraordinary rendition, torture and the removal of asylum seekers amongst other human rights issues.

Amongst the topics raised were the UK’s role in renditions to Libya, torture in Iraq and the deportation of asylum seekers to Sri Lanka, where they faced torture.

The office of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) in Amparai district was attacked last night.

According to reports, a group of unidentified people were threw stones at the office, smashing the glass in doors and windows.

The government of Sri Lanka told parliament on Tuesday that it cannot abolish the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and there would be no possibility of it in the future, due to "some dark shadows of the LTTE and terrorism."

The Dalai Lama has urged Buddhist monks in Myanmar and Sri Lanka to end the violence against Muslims in their countries.

Delivering a speech in the US on Tuesday regarding religious violence, the Tibetan Buddhist leader, said:

The Sri Lankan high commissioner to India Prasad Kariyawasam has called for the removal of bilateral trade barriers between Sri Lanka and India, reported the DailyMirror on Wednesday.

The leader of the JHU, a party in the ruling government collation, has stated that his organisation contains religious fanatics and racists at a media briefing at the JHU party headquarters in Battaramulla.

Updated 19:46 GMT

Queen Elizabeth II will not be going to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting due to take place in Sri Lanka later this year, reports The Telegraph. The Prince of Wales will be attending instead.

This will be the first time that the Queen, and head of the Commonwealth, will not be attending a CHOGM since 1973.

The US Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Robert Blake, has responded to concerns from India and Sri Lanka and denied that there are plans for a US military base on the archipelago in the Indian Ocean.

Blake said he could not authenticate an alleged leaked draft of a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the Maldives and the US, which seemed to suggest the establishment of US military bases on the islands, claiming that the agreement would provide a framework for existing joint military exercises.

Sri Lanka and India had expressed concern about the agreement, which was published on a Maldivian website, but Blake said that the agreement was nothing out of the ordinary, pointing out that the US has SOFAs with over 100 countries around the world.

"I want to reassure everybody that this SOFA does not imply some new uptick in military co-operation or certainly does not apply any new military presence. It would just be to support our ongoing activities," Blake said in an interview with PTI.

"I haven't seen the draft agreement. So I can't comment. But we are in the process of negotiating one now. These are standard text round the world, nothing very secret about them,

"I do not foresee that this (SOFA) is going to be difficult negotiations (with Maldives). These are the things we do with partners around the world,

"I would like to reassure all our friends in India, what it is and what it isn't. We have status of forces agreements with more than 100 nations around the world. And these are basically agreements we have with partners where we have significant military activities, typically exercises,

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has stated his country stands with Sri Lanka on international issues, after meeting with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris in Colombo on Monday.

After the meeting Mammadyarov stated,

Intelligence needs to be shared amongst nations to 'remain vigilant and proactive' against the 'threats' of terrorism, argued Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, whilst addressing the inauguration of BIMSTEC Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime.

The Jaffna Press Club expressed concern on Tuesday, regarding copycat social media accounts after it emerged a copycat Twitter account had been created asserting itself as the Jaffna Press Club.

In a statement the consortium of journalists said:

The London School of Economics screened the feature length documentary, ‘No Fire Zone- The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka’ , today.

The film screening was preceded by a series of panel presentations on options for accountability and victim support and followed by a Question and answer session. Members of the panel included No Fire Zone director Callum Macrae, Shivani Jegarajah of the Renaissance Chambers, Janani Jananayagam, founding director of Tamils against Genocide and Dr Devika Hovell a lecturer in law at the LSE.

“No-where in the world has there been such a thorough investigation as we have carried out in Sri Lanka”

“When I finished the country case, I realised that you cannot analyse a Tamil asylum case without considering at the forefront of your analysis that there was genocide.”

The director of the Non Governmental Organisation Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), Janani Jananayagam, outlined that the problem in Sri Lanka was more than an unruly regime, drawing upon several historic presidential statements that highlighted the inconsiderate nature of the Sri Lankan government towards the Tamils in the North-East.

“When you watch, think about why this is happening,” she told the audience.