Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, GL Peiris, stressed today that his government has no obligation to answer for the reported deaths of thousands of Tamil civilians at the end of the 2009 conflict.

The Madras High Court has called upon the Indian Government’s Cabinet Secretary to answer three queries, regarding the sale of two war ships to Sri Lanka.

The Madurai bench of the High Court wanted further details on the "mechanism and arrangement" of the sale, and also questioned as to why the deal was being made at a time when there were strained relations between the two governments.

The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a member of the ruling coalition in Sri Lanka, accused demands of the TNA as a violation of the Sri Lankan constitution.

Commenting on recent calls by the TNA to change the governor of the northern province, the legal advisor to the JHU and Western Provincial Council Minister, Udaya Gammanpila, said,

The Sri Lankan government has reiterated their rejection of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay’s March 2014 deadline for the government to credibly investigate and prosecute those guilty of human rights abuses.

Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry Secretary Karunatilaka Amunugama however stated,

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Kurshid met at the UN in New York and discussed developments in several countries in India’s periphery, including Sri Lanka and Burma.

Ban Ki-moon is reported to have stressed India’s regional role and the importance of dialogue, inclusiveness and reconciliation, reported the Colombo Gazette.

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The Sri Lankan Army has announced that it will send a high-profile team to Haiti to investigate allegations of rape committed by a Sri Lankan peacekeeping soldier.

Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister J Jayalalitha has urged India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take firm action against Sri Lanka and force it to stop attacks on Tamil fishermen.

"The government of India has virtually abandoned its poor and defenceless fishermen to face an uncertain future caused by the risk of daily attacks and abduction at the hands of the Sri Lankan Navy,” she said in a letter to Singh.

Commenting on the recent judgment that outlined that land powers would remain with the central government the leader of the TNA reiterated that land powers, which were meant to be with the provinces under the 13 amendment,  had been a key cause for ethnic conflict.

"This is what I can't understand. For last five years we've had about 19 elections. Provincial council election, then the parliamentary election. Every four years - my term is 6 years - but last year I went for election at 4 years. And it is up to the people to decide on governments."

"No I reject all that. I mean this is what I can't understand when a person come here. We have an opposition. You must remember in a democratic country - it's not like, a dictatorial country, where a dictator is there - so there are other views. So the opposition is always trying to defeat the government, whether it is with the international community, or inside the country."

"No. I asked, she never told us this. Otherwise I would have enquired into it. She never mentioned that to me, 'til she came out in public. When she met me she could have told me. If that happened, I don't know why she said this, because we will never do that. We would have stopped her coming, but we allowed her to go anywhere, allowed her to meet anybody she wants."

"We knew, it will happen, I knew, I told this... I told even the TNA leader that we are going to give you the election. You will win. We know our results, but we want to have it. we want you to take on the responsibility. Anybody can criticise, let them deliver now."