Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka has been arrested by Australian police on four counts of sexual assault following Sri Lanka’s final match at the T20 World Cup.

Gunathilaka reportedly met the Australian woman, aged 29, for a date on Wednesday following communication on an online dating application. In the evening they went to the woman’s home in Rose Bay where he assaulted her multiple times within a period of several hours.

In the city of Mannar, in Sri Lanka’s Northern province, Tamil Families of the Disappeared stage a protest outside the Office of Missing Persons holding placards that ask why the office exists.

Demonstrators hold up placards calling for the removal of the offices and demanding an international investigation. Speaking to journalists the relatives of the disappeared rejected the 2 lakh rupees offered by the government and insisted that if the government could give back their children, they would sell their homes and give them 4 lakhs, if not ten.

A suspect implicated in the murder of Jaffna journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan has been released but remains under suspicion, revealed Jack Griffith, a communication officer for Britain’s Metropolitan police.

In February, the British police arrested a suspect the 48-year old man in Northamptonshire, under Section 51 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001, which relates to war crimes and genocide. The UK police force have encouraged those with knowledge of the murder of Nimalarajan “to come forwards and help achieve justice for Mr Nimalarajan’s family”.

Illustration by Keera Ratnam/ waves of colour

Yesterday in Nedungeni, Vavuniya, in the northern province, Tamils gathered for the 96th day of a 100-day protest to call for a dignified political solution.

"We are not asking for partition or independence; we are calling for a political solution with dignified rights within Sri Lanka", protesters told journalists.

Cleaning was underway at Uduthurai Thuyilum Illam this morning as the Tamil nation prepare to mark Maaveerar Naal later this month. 

Women and children will be the worst hit by Sri Lanka’s economic crisis warns the head of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Subregional Office for South and South-West Asia, Mikiko Tanaka.

She made these remarks during a special discussion held at the Ministry of Industries with Minister Ramesh Pathirana.

The Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) commemorated S. P. Thamilselvan, the head of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who was assassinated by the Sri Lankan air force (SLAF) 15 years ago. 

Despite the alarming human rights record of Sri Lanka’s navy, the US has donated a colossal naval vessel, the second 'Hamilton Class- High Endurance Cutter'.

On Twitter, US Ambassador for Sri Lanka Julie Chung, affirmed US support for “Sri Lanka’s maritime sovereignty stating”.

Today marks fifteen years since S. P. Thamilselvan, the head of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was assassinated by the Sri Lankan air force (SLAF).