UN Human Rights Commissioner, Navi Pillay, has said that she remains unfazed by derogatory remarks and accusations made against her by Sri Lankan officials.

Speaking to CNN just days before the end of her term, Ms Pillay said that she was not disturbed by criticism from Sri Lanka, calling her a "Tamil Tigress", nor from other countries such as Israel which has attacked her for her stance on Gaza.

"I am supremely confident that I speak with moral authority," the High Commissioner told CNN's Christiane Amanpour when asked about such remarks.

A class action case is being brought against the Australian government citing inadequate provision of healthcare for asylum seekers detained on Christmas Island.

The case has been filed with a six year old asylum seeker as the main plaintiff, at Victoria's Supreme Court.

"It seeks compensation for injuries as well as Court orders that the government and the Minister for Immigration provide the medical care that injured asylum seekers require," the law firm Maurice Blackburn, said in a statement.

Many Tamils from the North-East of Sri Lanka are being detained on Christmas Island, after fleeing the country by boat.

Pope Francis will visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu in Mannar during his upcoming trip to the the island of Sri Lanka, the Vatican Insider reports.

Earlier this year, the Tamil civil society groups, called on the Pope to visit the Tamil areas in the North and East, in order to view the ongoing plight of the Tamil people.

“We are confident that Your Holiness will appreciate, following your visit to Sri Lanka, that Sri Lanka is not merely lacking in ‘reconciliation’ but that the problem is far worse than that - as we have tried to describe above, the problem is one of consolidating an ethnocratic state. Your Holiness will no doubt recall that it is this ethnocratic project that led the Tamil people to take up arms against the Sri Lankan state," the Tamil Civil Society Forum wrote in a letter to Pope Francis. See here.

Sri Lanka’s Finance Ministry announced that the special commodity levy on imported big onions and potatoes has been increased in order to safeguard local farmers reported the Daily Mirror.

The levy on imported big onions was increased from Rs25 to Rs35 a kilo while the levy on imported potatoes was increased from Rs15 to Rs25 a kilo.

(Pictures: defence.lk)

The Sri Lankan military distributed food parcels at the Nallur Kandaswamy temple festival in Jaffna for the third year running, from a special stall set up and manned by army personnel.

The army stall has become a set fixture of the annual festival, the largest gathering of Tamils on the island.

The Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (TESO) called on the United Nations to bar Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa from addressing the General Assembly, in a series of resolutions passed on Monday.

TESO, headed by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) President M Karunanidhi, held the meeting, passing a resolution that stated,

“Since he denied entry to the UN team, neither Mr Rajapaksa nor any representative from Sri Lanka be allowed to address the UN General Assembly.”

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) condemned the Tamil diaspora and international media for carrying out an alleged “extraordinary and vicious campaign” against the country, in a statement justifying the hiring of United States-based lobby firm.

The Central Bank reportedly signed a $760,000 agreement with Liberty International Group LLC “to provide an accurate account of the Sri Lankan political and economic environment to US leaders... to keep them abreast of the true situation in the country”.

The contract will run until July 2015.

In a statement released on Monday, CBSL stated that it “regularly faces many challenges due to various erroneous and mischievous statements that are also publicized by many persons, both local and international.”

The Japanese government is considering providing the Sri Lankan Navy with patrol boats later this year to strengthen Sri Lanka’s maritime surveillance capacity, according to reports.

Kyodo News International reported that a Japanese government source said the move was being considered ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s scheduled visit to Colombo in early September.

The proposal is expected to be discussed in September, with the Japanese government also considering extending a loan to Sri Lanka, enabling the Sri Lankan government to purchase the vessels. No decision has been made yet on the number of patrol boats to be provided, or on whether they will be new boats or Japanese patrol boats which are already in service.