Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Sri Lanka has fallen in 2011, with approximately US$ 300 million invested into the country, according to a report by UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development).

Sri Lanka has decided to amend a decades old media law, resulting in the regulation of all news websites and electronic media.

The government made the announcement a week after it raided and temporarily shut down two anti-government websites.

Sri Lanka has earned a considerable income from United Nations peacekeeping operations in other countries, Army Media Spokesman Brigadier Wanigasekara has said.

According to the Brigadier Wanigasekara, Sri Lanka has earned in excess of 18.4 billion rupees from its ‘peacekeeping’ operations around the world since 2004.

In an incredible outburst against The Sunday Leader’s editor, Frederica Jansz, Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse verbally abused her and said she will be killed, after she questioned him after Sri Lanka airlines swapped an aircraft so that a friend of his could fly it to collect a puppy from Switzerland.

Former chief of the Sri Lankan Army, General Sarath Fonseka has declared that he will lead an uprising to oust the government from power.

“I’m definitely asking people to rise up... and overthrow the government by democratic methods,” he said.

Human rights lawyers have lodged a petition at the Supreme Court over the death of political prisoner Ganesan Nimalaruban.

The chairman of the Jaffna doctor’s union has told Uthayan that they are determined to appeal against the ban placed on their protest at Jaffna Teaching Hospital.

The Tamil National Alliance has told The Island it has no faith in the proposed Parliamentary Select Committee and has not yet decided whether it will participate.

A court injunction has been placed on a strike which was due to take place today at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital.

Veteran Tamil playback singer Hariharan has cancelled his concert tour to Colombo which was set to begin on Saturday, reportedly yielding to anti-Lankan sentiments in Tamil Nadu.

"My music has spread peace, happiness and love throughout the world for at least three decades.

Photographs Uthayan

Hundreds of Tamil men and women gathered in Mannar, holding a satyagraha in protest on Saturday, at the government and military's ongoing illegal expropriation of land in Tamil areas, reported Uthayan.

The military has seized over 5,200 acres of land in Mannar alone, TamilNet said in its report on the protest, citing Tamil activists in the northern region.

The protest was organised by youth activists of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), a constituent of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

It was supported by the other parties in the TNA and Tamil parties outside the alliance, including the Tamil National People’s Alliance (TNPF), as well as the Democratic People’s Front from South.

Mannaar Bishop Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, together with Catholic priests, elected representatives of the civic bodies and other civil activists from Mannaar also took part.

Several TNA parliamentarians attended - Mavai Senathiraja, M.A. Sumanthiran, M. Saravanapavan, Selvam Adaikalanathan, Sivasakthi Ananthan, Vino Nokarathalingam, Appathurai Vinayamoorthy and M.A. Sivajalingam - as well as V. Anandasangaree of the TULF and Bhaskara of the DPF (Democratic Peoples Front).

Extracts from a report by The Washington Post on Friday: