Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapakse has revealed the government approved the setting up of 25 five star hotels across the island.

Rajapakse told media on Sunday, the government is to invite international hotel chains to invest and build the hotels on designated sites.

The Sri Lankan Government has confirmed that internally displaced people from Sampur will not be allowed to return to their homes, BBC Sandeshaya reports.

Trincomalle Government Agent Major General TTR de Silva told journalists on Sunday, that the Tamil inhabitants of the town cannot go back to the city, which is the site of a planned thermal plant.

According to the UK newspaper, Independent, Bell Pottinger wrote Mahinda Rajapaksa's key address to the UN in 2010, after the original draft, written by Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry was ditched. 

Speaking to undercover reporters, chairman of Bell Pottinger Public Relations, David Wilson, said,

"We had a team working in the President's office."

"We wrote the President's speech to the UN last year which was very well received... it went a long way to taking the country where it needed to go."

The Independent reports that part of Bell Pottinger's remit was to specifically "influence the foreign media in favour of the Sri Lankan government".

During the speech to the UN, Rajapaksa described the military's treatment of the captured LTTE cadres as a "humanitarian" operation and promoted the LLRC as an enquiry where the "full expression to the principles of accountability" had been given.

Wilson however, allegedly criticised the LLRC when speaking to the undercover reporters, arguing that the LLRC had a "fundamental flaw in its remit in investigating what has gone on in the past, to try to bury the past".

The head of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka has said he will boycott all government functions over the Christmas period, in protest over the arrest of a nun over child trafficking allegations.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said last week’s police raid on a children’s home, founded by Mother Theresa, was carried out without proof.

Columnist, Emil Van Der Poorten writes in the Sunday Leader, Everything from Soup to Nuts: "Defenders of The Realm" in Sri Lanka (04 Dec 2012):

Sri Lanka's Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Media Ministry's plans to ensure all wesbites covering news and information on Sri Lanka register with the ministry, on Friday. 

The ruling came during a case filed by the website, www.srilankamirror.com, who had been blocked by the government since 5th November.

The Sri Lankan Government has banned all forms of commemorations of the Tamil National Remembrance Day.

Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said today, Sri Lanka will urge other countries to follow suit.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister, John Baird, asserted that Sri Lanka must take accountability for alleged war crimes seriously, and highlighted the "growing authoritarian trend".

Addressing the Commons foreign affairs committee on Thursday, Baird said,

Sri Lanka's armed forces announced the release of a new report, by the country's security forces, as a response to the report by the UN panel of experts.

Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya said.

Mahinda Rajapaksa granted presidential "permission" for displaced Tamils from Talaimannar to return to their lands, following a dispute over the lands.

Displaced Tamils from the Talaimannar area had been evicted from their homes by Sri Lankan security authorities who accused the 550 displaced families of "squatting on State land".

In an article, entitled "MR intervenes to resettle evicted IDPs", the pro-government newspaper, The Island, stated that the matter was only settled after the Industry and Commerce Minister, Rishard Bathiudeen, raised the issue with Rajapaksa.

According to The Island, "those evicted had been given permission to return to their land as President Rajapaksa had intervened."

Rajapakse hailed the construction a "revolution" and declared,