Almost half of the 2014 budget expenditure has been allocated to ministries under the President and his brothers, outlined Sri Lanka’s opposition, the United National Party (UNP) today.

Speaking at press briefing, the General Secretary of the UNP, Tissa Attanayake, reiterated,

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA), announced today that it would carry out an island wide strike during the month of CHOGM.

Highlighting the government’s failure to implement an agreement made over 2 years ago, the GMOA said that the only option left was to go on strike.

British Tamils gathered outside 10 Downing Street today, to further calls for the Prime Minister to boycott he upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo.

Braving the aftermath of the Storm St Jude, which hit the south of England earlier today, the demonstrators called for David Cameron to boycott CHOGM, Sri Lanka to be expelled from the Commonwealth, and an international independent investigation into war crimes and genocide committed in Sri Lanka.

"Mahinda Rajapaksa: Sri Lanka's saviour or war criminal?"

"The summit is controversial. Rajapaksa, now in his eighth year of power, is much reviled – at least in the west. The chief charges against him are serious: that he ignored, condoned or even encouraged war crimes committed by Sri Lankan troops in the final bloody phases of the campaign to crush the brutal Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (popularly known as the Tamil Tigers); that he has again ignored, condoned or possibly even ordered a wave of repression directed at those who contest his or his government's authority; that he has made no serious effort to reach out politically to Sri Lanka's Tamil minority; that he aims to ensure that his family's grip on the island nation is without challenge for decades to come."

"One problem for his critics is that, though elections are marred by intimidation, violence and the misuse of state resources, few deny that Rajapaksa's successive poll victories reflect a genuine mandate. Even his opponents in Colombo admit that he remains without a serious local political challenger. His heartland is rural, conservative, Buddhist and dominated by the Sinhalese majority."

Research undertaken by Melbourne's Human Rights Law Centre found that immigration authorities were grossly  underestimating the ongoing danger in Sri Lanka.

 Responding to the Indian External Affairs Minister, Salman Khurshid's, assurance of his participation in the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the DMK party urged Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to announce India's boycott of the summit.

After reports that the TNA had decided to boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the new chief minister of the Northern Provincial Council, CV Wigneswaran is said to have rejected the decision.

According to the Sunday Times, “hardline Northern Provincial Councillors failed in their attempt to persuade Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran for a TNA boycott”.