Sri Lanka’s national carrier, SriLankan Airlines, is holding discussions with German aviation giant Lufthansa, over the planned Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility planned in the Mattale Rajapakse International Airport.

The firms are in talks to set up a joint venture, which is expected to earn annual revenue of US $ 100 million by carrying out over 110 repairs, according to Cheif Executive Kapila Chandrasena.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister of the UK has expressed “serious concern” about the violence committed by Sri Lankan security forces at a peaceful protest in Weliweriya.

Statement in full:

"Tutsi women were often raped with objects such as sharpened sticks, destroying their internal organs so they couldn’t bear any more children. This assault on bodily and reproductive functions, on a group’s life force, reveals the perpetrators’ aim of destroying the group as a whole."

"Looking through this lens, we may recognize genocide, or the risk of it, in a number of conflicts around the world that most observers have yet to consider “genocidal.”

"Sri Lanka: Although armed conflict between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended in 2009—a conflict that saw many instances of state security forces raping Tamil women in reprisal for rebel attacks—Human Rights Watch has reported that “politically motivated sexual violence by the military and police continues to the present.” Here, too, in addition to systematic rape of Tamil men and women in custody by members of the army, police, and pro-government paramilitary groups, life force atrocities have occurred.

The Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India Prasad Kariyawasam, to receive a formal demarche made against the large number of fishermen held in Sri Lankan custody, reported the Hindu.

Sri Lanka's main opposition, the United National Party,  has called for an "independent international inquiry" into the killings of unarmed protestors by the army in Weliwariya last week.

The Sri Lankan Air Force and the United States Pacific Air Force are currently holding joint exercise codenamed “Exercise Pacific Angel” in the Jaffna peninsula.

The program is aimed at enhancing disaster responses, according to ColomboPage.

Both militaries will also host a Health Services Outreach and Engineering Civil Programme on the peninsula.

Amnesty International criticised the decision to allow the army to police the demonstrations at Weliweriya and has said hat the army should  not be allowed to investigate itself.

Amnesty International’s Asia Director, Polly Truscott said: