A 16 year old girl died after being gang raped by at least 10 men in Vavuniya, reports the Uthayan.

Members of the Northern Provincial Council and the Tamil National Alliance visited the home of the teenager to pass on their condolences to her family.

The teenage girl was from the village of Kanagarayankulam, in the northern district of Vavuniya.

Sri Lanka will abolish the executive presidency only if unconditional support is extended by all parties, cabinet spokesperson and health minister, Rajitha Senaratne said.

Speaking to The Island, the minister said the government would submit its constitutional reform draft to parliament and intends to abolish the executive presidency by April.

Mr Senaratne said Sri Lanka was committed to the 100-day agenda but that it should not be forgotten that far-reaching constitutional changes cannot be made without the unconditional support of the opposition.

Sri Lanka's new President Maithripala Sirisena said some countries are attempting to "rule" the country, through attempts at signing various economic deals, Colombo Gazette reports.

Mr Sirisena noted that Sri Lanka has always played it safe since it gained independence in 1948 and will not allow itself to be ruled by a foreign country again, adding the country should be mindful of such attempts.

Photographs: Tamil Guardian

Protestors gathered for a fourth consecutive day in Trincomalee, rejecting the presidential commission probing disappearances.

The commission is currently sitting in the town on the eastern coast of the island, but has had very few people participate after the Tamil Civil Society Forum, who organised the protest, and the Welfare Organisation for the Forcibly Disappeared Persons said they would boycott the commission.