A United States-based company has been selected to build a $50 million project to lay a 5.8 km pipeline from the Colombo Port to the Kolonnawa fuel storage facility to expedite unloading of fuel from ships, the Sunday Times reports.

Significant that the Human Rights Council passed a resolution yesterday calling for a UN investigation into abuses in #SriLanka.

A group of Buddhist monks disrupted a seminar for journalists from the North-East, forcing it to be abandoned, reported The Sunday Times.

The seminar, organised by the US-based NGO “Search for Common Ground”, was held in Polonnaruwa for 30 journalists from Amparai, Batticaloa and Trincomalee, when it was disrupted by around 20 monks who said they would not allow US funded programmes in the district, after a resolution was passed on Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council.

British university students have called the passing of a resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council "another step in a long and arduous path towards justice", in a statement released this weekend.

The Tamil Students Initiative (TSI), an inter-university British organisation,stated that the authorisation of an international investigation was “a significant movement by the international community towards identifying and obtaining accountability for the past war crimes and ongoing genocide committed on the island”.

Indian fishermen, fishing in the Palk Strait, were given sweets and soft drinks by members of the Sri Lankan navy, a few days after India abstained from voting on the UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka.

Local fishermen association leader Emerit said the Sri Lankan navy treated the fishermen with kindness and was talking with hundreds of them, from various places including Ramanathapuram and Jagadapattinam, reported PTI.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa said in a statement on Sunday that the victory of his part at provincial council elections is a clear mandate by the Sri Lankan people against the resolution on Sri Lanka passed at the UN Human Rights Council.

Rajapaksa thanked voters in the Western and Southern Province for placing theuir trust in the government, adding that he would not let any force ruin the independence and the sovereignty of the country.

Labour party affiliate Tamils for Labour has commended the adoption of the resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council, calling it an “important step forward” in achieving truth, accountability and justice, and thanked the Labour Party for its commitment to work with the Tamil people.

The organisation called on the international community to act to stop ongoing abuses and said it would support a moratorium on deportations of vulnerable people back to Sri Lanka.

“We are very pleased that progress on accountability in Sri Lanka has been made at the UNHRC. However, it is imperative that the OHCHR is given full support to implement the resolution, especially given the Government of Sri Lanka’s vehement rejection of the outcome of the vote and the authority of the High Commissioner, as well as the manner in which it has consistently refused to co-operate with the Council,” a statement said.