Sri Lankan Police have rejected charges of torture raised in the US State Department’s 2012 Human Rights report, slamming the allegations as “baseless”.

The report, released earlier this week stated that there were still credible reports of torture of civilians carried out by security forces, noting “"a disproportionate number of victims of human rights violations were Tamils".

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has repeated its calls for a change of venue for the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) due to be held in Sri Lanka.

HRW Asia director, Brad Adams said:

“The Commonwealth will rightly face international ridicule if it goes ahead with its summit in Sri Lanka,”

Hundreds of Tamils protested in Jaffna today against the continued seizure of land by the Sri Lankan government, as the government deployed hundreds of security forces personnel.

The Law Society of South Africa (LSSA), called for the suspension of Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth, citing Sri Lanka's "breaches of the rule of law and of the independence of the judiciary, as well as the gross harassment of members of the legal profession."

Supporting the resolution passed by the Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA) which called on the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) to please Sri Lanka on the agenda of the group's upcoming meeting on Friday and suspend Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth for "serious and persistent violations of the Commonwealth fundamental values".

The UK Bar Council, a representation of barristers across England and Wales, condemned the impeachment of the Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, in a statement released on Tuesday.

Maura McGowan QC, Chairman of the Bar, said:

The Sri Lankan President's son and MP, Namal Rajapaksa, shares his thoughts on the island's ethnic conflict:

@loveshan76 - In SL it was never Majority vs the Minority. It was always Terrorists vs Sri Lankan's

— Namal Rajapaksa (@RajapaksaNamal) April 23, 2013

The Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, distributed 3000 land deeds to Mahaweli farming families from the Mahaweli L zone, as part of a ceremony at Weli Oya on Saturday entitled - "Farmland Rights for You that Give Golden Harvest to the Nation".

Addressing those present, Rajapaksa stressed that they must "steer the country towards prosperity" and "use the land productively and not become a servant in their own land".

A Russian woman who was the victim of a vicious rape attack led by a Sri Lankan politician in a holiday resort on the south of the island  on Christmas Day 2011, has vowed to carry on until justice has been served for the assault, which left her British boyfriend murdered.

In a report published in the Sunday Times, the victim, 24-year-old Victoria Tkacheva feared that the men responsible would never be held accountable, commenting,

“I know if Khuram was in my place he would go on to the end... That’s what I must do too”.

She went on to state that she was ready to give evidence at trial, but was doubtful of accountability, given that the suspects, including Sampath Chandra Pushpa Vidanapathirana, head of the local council in Tangalle and close associate of the ruling Rajapaksa family, were freed on bail and the politician reinstated to his post last year.

Tkacheva was distraught, adding,

” I was devastated when the men were freed on bail”.

She went on to recount the horrific attack, which saw her raped and left with a fractured skull and her boyfriend, Red Cross worker Khuram Shaikh shot dead.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has said that the date for the Northern Provincial Council elections will be set in consultation with his astrologer, during a ceremony where he handed previously Tamil land over to Sinhalese settlers.

“My astrologer gives me a winning time and I will decide on the basis on what he says,” the President said at an event in Manal Aru, Mullaitheevu.