The visiting delegation from the UN Office of the Human Rights Commissioner today met with members of the TNA reports Uthayan.

Discussions were held with reference to high security zones in Valikamam and Sampur, where resettlement has been impeded, and Tamils are restricted from accessing their places of worship due to military land-grabs. Concern was expressed about state sponsored settlement of Sinhalese, under the guise of development schemes, which are in fact changing the demographics of the North-East.

Buddhist monks led 300 protesters from the office of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) or National Heritage Party to demonstrate opposite a local UN office, reports the Associated Press.

The demonstrators were protesting against a visit from a delegation of the UN Office of Human Rights, complaining of unfair criticism and allegations of abuse since the end of the war in 2009.

The editor of The Sunday Leader Frederica Jansz has been sacked after the new owner of the paper said articles in the paper were too critical of the president and his family.

The Sunday Leader is one of the few newspapers in Sri Lanka openly critical of the government and has previously been the target of violence, including the assassination of its previous editor, Lasantha Wikramatunge.

Jansz said that the new owner, Asanga Seneviratne, who is a friend of the Rajapakses, had asked her to stop carrying articles criticising the president.

At least 12 Tamil asylum seekers due to be deported from the UK on Wednesday were taken off a flight heading to Sri Lanka after a senior judge issued a last minute injunction, reported the Independent.

25 failed asylum seekers who were deported from Britain on Wednesday night, were questioned by Sri Lankan CID upon their arrival in Colombo

The BBC reported that the families of those being deported were anxiously waiting at the airport, whilst the failed asylum seekers were being questioned by CID.

According to the International Organisation of Migration 25 people were aboard the flight, after a last minute injunction granted some of the original 60 who were set to be deported a reprieve.

Speaking on his death bed, T.P. Vijayaraj, the twenty-six year old Indian Tamil auto driver who self-immolated on Monday in Salem in protest against Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse’s visit to India, urged Tamils to protest against the visit.

Vijayraj, who succumbed to his burns on Tuesday at 11:45 am at the Government Medical College Hospital, spoke to journalists before his death:

As Vijayaraj - the 26-year-old who self-immolated in protest against the visit by Rajapaksa to India - was dying from 95% burns, the Sri Lankan president's spokesperson, Bandula Jayasekara, exemplified Sri Lanka's response to the deaths of Tamils who protest.

A Twitter conversation that took place on Wednesday between Jayasekara and an opposition supporter who goes by the alias 'Fonseka2010' has been reproduced below:

The leader of the TMVP (Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal), Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, known as Pillayan, has been appointed as Presidential Advisor, reports the Daily Mirror.

The former SLFP organiser for the Trincomalee district, Najeeb A. Majeed, was sworn in as the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province on Tuesday, by President Rajapaksa.

The appointment is believed to confirm a UPFA (united Peoples Freedom Alliance) and SLMC (Sri Lankan Muslim Congress) coalition agreement.