A Sri Lankan international cricketer who sparked controversy over his links to the war crimes accused military, has been rewarded with an army promotion this week.

Army cricketer Maheesh Theekshana has now been promoted to the rank of Sergeant, and was photographed shaking hands with the Sri Lankan army commander as he received a cheque for Rs. 500,000.

Dozens of Tamils were joined by politicians as they demonstrated against the illegal construction of a Buddhist vihara in Kurunthurmalai, Mullaitivu earlier today.

Sri Lankan authorities have continued with the construction of the Buddhist shrine on Kurunthurmalai, a hill-top site of an ancient Tamil temple in the district’s Thannimurippu area, despite a Sri Lankan court order barring any new construction.

Sri Lankan police halted a travelling memorial dedicated to Lt Col Thileepan in Vavuniya on Monday, as the organisers of the remembrance convoy were subjected to further harrassment and intimidation.

A small group of British Sri Lankan protestors demonstrated outside a hotel in Central London this morning.

Approximately a dozen protestors gathered outside the InterContinental London Park Lane, where Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe is thought to be staying.

The protestors held Sri Lankan flags and placards denouncing him as a “fake president”.

With the release of the revised draft resolution, Tamil Guardian looks back at the proceedings of the 51^st UN Human Rights Council session.

A second draft resolution focusing on Sri Lanka has been released by the United Nations Human Rights Council today. The amended resolution does little to strengthen accountability measures and the change of wording reveals a fundamental failure to recognise the root causes of Sri Lanka’s woes.

Several armed Sri Lankan soldiers halted and questioned organisers of a travelling memorial dedicated to Lt Col Thileepan in Mannar earlier today.

The memorial, organised by the Tamil National People’s Front was halted by the military in Mannar, by the Madhu Road junction.

Amidst growing concerns over the worsening human rights situation in Sri Lanka, Britain’s new head of state, King Charles III, met with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, where the two were pictured in conversation.

The meeting follows growing criticism of the Britain’s new hereditary monarch who has held 95 meetings with 8 repressive monarchies in the Middle East since the ‘Arab Spring’ protests of 2011 and for his role in promoting 14.5-billion worth of UK arms exports to these regimes.

Responding to the news of seven Eelam Tamils being captured and tortured by Russian forces, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry slammed the asylum asserting that they are illegal migrants and refuse to return to Sri Lanka.

^{Photograph: Public Kharkiv}

Several Eelam Tamils were captured by Russian forces in Ukraine and tortured for months, before finally being released earlier this month.

The group, made up of 6 men and 1 woman, were held captive by the Russian forces in Vovchansk during the occupation of the city. It was recaptured by Ukraine earlier this month.