The US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Michele Sison, in a speech to the Sri Lankan Foreign Correspondents Association, Thursday evening, outlined that US concerns in Sri Lanka remain unchanged.

The Ambassador dismissed accusations that the US was targeting Sri Lanka. Outlining that its actions were echoing longstanding international concerns, including those of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,  she said,

The United States Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, announced this week that it would provide funding opportunities for non-governmental organisation programs aimed at benefiting refugees from Sri Lanka in India

The funding applications must focus on at least one of four sectors, which include, Protection, Livelihoods, Capacity Building and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).

Sri Lanka’s stock market index rose to a seven-week high Friday, even as foreign investors sold heavily, Reuters reported.

Foreign selling accounted for 88.7 percent of the day's 5.04 billion rupees ($38.58 million) turnover, well above this year's daily average of 1.01 billion rupees.

The bourse saw a net foreign outflow of 4.08 billion rupees worth of shares extending the net foreign selling so far this year to 9.6 billion rupees, Reuters reported.

Further details of an order, made earlier this week,  proscribing several diaspora entities have emerged placing over 400 Tamil individuals, mostly within the diaspora, under proscription.

See the full list of proscribed organisations and individuals here.

Sri Lanka’s blanket proscription of Tamil diaspora organisations and individuals has received wide-ranging criticism and condemnation.

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Flyers targetting the husband of the TNA Northern Provincial Councillor Ananthy Sasitharan, have appeared across the Jaffna district this week, reports Uthayan.

Carrying a list of war crimes, the flyer alleged that Ms. Sasitharan's husband, Ezhilan was responsible.

The flyers appear amidst a series of recent threats and accusations made by the Sri Lankan government at Ms. Sasitharan, who played a prominent role in calling for an international investigation at the UN Human Rights Council last month.

12:07 BST

Former Tamil female cadres were rounded up for a meeting in Vavuniya by Sri Lankan military personnel on Thursday morning and later released, local sources told Tamil Guardian within the last hour.

Armed military personnel arrived at their houses on Thursday morning and instructed them to come outside before taking them away without providing any explanation, said one of the woman, who was anxious to remain anonymous fearing reprisal. 

The group of former cadres were taken by the military to an unknown location where they were given food before being taken back to their homes.

“There is no safety for us here," she said.

16:40 BST

Pictures: Tamil Guardian

Dozens of leading Tamil business owners and their supporters protested this morning against the increasing number of illegal businesses, set up by people from southern Sri Lanka.

Demonstrators said that business people from the south are flooding the local market with cheap goods without the necessary legal permissions, putting Tamils at an economic disadvantage.

Sri Lanka’s president said earlier today that certain countries are not pleased with Sri Lanka’s independent rise.

Speaking at a Buddhist ceremony in Anuradhapura, Mahinda Rajapaksa said that Sri Lanka needs to accept the difficult challenge of protecting their heritage and culture.