Discontent over the possibility over India's attendance of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting intensified today as 150 activists of the Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam movement were arrested in Tamil Nadu, for staging a rail roko in demand of an Indian boycott of CHOGM in Sri Lanka next month.

Sri Lanka's Sunday Times has reported that the government may be getting around US sanctions placed on Iran by purchasing crude oil from ships in international waters.

The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation is reported to have contracted a company called Mercol General Trading LLC to supply the shipment for its oil refineries.

“The Archaeological Department is not capable of protecting our heritage. There are some corrupt officers in the department. They are giving away clues to treasure hunters. The Defence Ministry should take over the Department”.

"Sometimes I think to myself, 'perhaps if they had killed my son, that may be better than me sitting here and wondering where he is'"

"If they had killed him, at least we could have done a religious ceremony and prayer and I would have thought to myself 'it's another death'. The pain of a missing child is not something that anyone can really understand."

“He was a strong boy and because he was my only son, I loved him beyond words... He would vomit every time and he would cry to just stay on my lap”.

A report on marginalisation and sexual violence against women in the Northeast by NGO ‘Minority Rights Group’ (MRG) has found that the Sri Lankan government actively contributes to rights violations and insecurity among Tamil women in the Northeast and also said that the situation for many Tamil women has only got worse since the end of the war.

In the report’s key findings, MRG explains that many Tamil women in the Northeast are required to be breadwinners, but have not seen an improvement in their rights or status, instead being left out of official development programmes. The report also says that the government’s ‘pervasive’ militarisation had ‘negative consequences for the safety and freedom’ of Tamil women, and actively led to rights violations and insecurity. MRG also noted that female household leaders were especially vulnerable to land grabs and other violations.

The Sri Lankan Army responded, denying allegations that military presence is responsible for sexual violence and insecurity in the Northeast, writing them off as a “myth” and presenting statistics claiming that "in a majority of cases, the perpetrators had been close relatives or neighbours of the victim and had been of Tamil ethnicity".

See full MRG report: ‘Living with insecurity: Marginalization and sexual violence against women in north and east Sri Lanka’ (PDF)

Extracts from the reports executive summary below:

“In the latter stages of the conflict and its aftermath, military forces were responsible for a variety of human rights abuses against the civilian population, including extrajudicial killings, disappearance, rape, sexual harassment and other violations. In the current climate of impunity, sustained by insecurity and the lack of military accountability, these abuses continue.”

The New York Times, in an interview with the editor of state sponsored Sri Lankan newspaper, The Daily News, looked into why the editor felt state sponsored media was vital in Sri Lanka.

A newly constructed Buddhist temple was ceremoniously opened in the Northern provincial area of Kilinochchi, today.

The temple, which was constructed by the military security forces, was opened by the Secretery of Defence and Urban Development, Gotobaya Rajapaksa and the Commander of the Army, Daya Ratnayake.