The US Ambassador on War Crimes and head of the Office of Global Criminal Justice at the US State Department, Stephen J Rapp, who is currently touring Sri Lanka, will visit the North-East on 8th January, to meet Northern Provincial Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran and other Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and civil society activists, reports the Daily Mail.

Another six human remains were found yesterday at the site of the mass grave at Thiruketheeswaram at the Mannar mass grave, reported the Uthayan newspaper.

The latest discovery brings the total count of bodies so far to 32.

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A member from the Sri Lankan National Freedom Front (NFF) party, a constituent of the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) coalition, today stated that heightening calls to remove army camps from the North-East were ‘redundant.’

Piyasiri Wijenyaka, a key figure in the NFF, further claimed that the Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister’s continuous attempts to highlight the need to demilitarise the North-East were  only fulfilling the needs of the diaspora.

Sri Lanka has strengthened its relationship with Palestine following a Sri Lankan delegation visit, led by Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday.

The Sri Lankan President met with Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the State of Palestine, at the Presidential Palace in Ramallah where he was awarded the ‘Star of Palestine’, the highest honour award by the Palestinian state.

A Sri Lankan press release described the meeting as “friendly and warm”, and went on to quote Abbas as telling Rajapaksa,

"I am honored to receive you… Our two countries maintain good relations and I wish it will improve more and more".

Photograph Tamilwin

More and more rape victims are being murdered in Jaffna, reports Uthayan newspaper.

According to a legal official at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, rape and sexual abuse is increasingly being followed by murder.

The official expressed that he believed that victims, mostly women, were being killed to protect the perpetrators from implication.

A tropical storm struck the North-East in the early hours of Sunday  morning, battering the area with sustained winds and causing evacuations from coastal areas.

Picture: Tropical Storm Risk

India’s Union Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan has reiterated his call for India not to train Sri Lankan forces.

Talking to reporters in Chennai he said that India should never enter into an agreement with Sri Lanka for providing training to the country’s armed forces, said The Hindu.

Addressing crowds on their world tour, at a concert in Melbourne, the world renowned  hip-hop rap duo Dead Prez, condemned the death of 'almost 100,000' Tamil civilians at the hands of the Sri Lankan government in 2009 and pledged solidarity with the Tamil struggle for liberation.

The Sri Lankan Army’s commander for Jaffna, Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe, will take up a new post from Monday.

Delivering some departing remarks, Hathurusinghe claimed that the army did all they could to “meet the urgent needs and aid development” in Jaffna, despite the fact that the people saw the military as a “destructive” force.