Sri Lanka's External Affairs Ministry expressed surprise at the delay in the country's new Deputy High Commissioner to India, A. Sabrullah Khan, obtaining a diplomatic visa to India.

An official within the Ministry told the SundayTimes.lk: 

“Surprisingly we have not been told yes or no. Never before has there been such a delay.”

The Palestinian Religious Affairs Minister, Dr Mahmoud al-Habbash, and his delegation will arrive on Monday for a three day visit in Sri Lanka, reports the SundayTimes.lk.

The Palestinian embassy said that Habbash is due to meet with Sri Lankan officials to discuss mutual interests and enhance bilateral relations between the two states.

The Sri Lankan Navy has arrested 30 more Indian fishermen, taking the total number of those arrested to 56 in the last two days, as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking for the release of those arrested.

A ferry carrying 100 Tamil asylum seekers from the North-East, en route to Australia ran into difficulty off the coast of Karaikal. The refugees had been staying in Tenkasi and Kadayam in Tamil Nadu.

The refugees were reportedly brought ashore by the Indian Coast Guard and informed that they would be arrested for illegally entering the country.

The Sri Lankan Cricket Board expects the government to assist with the financing of two new stadia that contributed greatly to the Board's financial debts last year.

The Board's treasurer, Nuski Mohamed said:

"We talked with the national treasury twice about the stadium debt, and we are discussing it with them now,"

"The ICC has also told us that because this debt has had such a major bearing on our balance sheet, we should somehow negotiate to get that money from the government. As far as I see it, the government has said it would look at things and take over that debt, but there has not been a concrete outcome there yet."

The Board owed almost $70 million after the building of Hambantota and Pallekele, and the renovation of the Premadasa stadium in Colombo.

"Today marks the fourth anniversary of the Tamil Occupation of Parliament Square in protest against the actions (or lack of any action) of the Sri Lankan government, the UK government and other key international actors at the time."

Check out full blog post by JP here. Extract reproduced below:

"Today for me is a day to be celebrated. It marks the coming of age for not only me but a whole generation of Tamil activists. It is a testament to the power of collective action, creating a voice in the public space for the previously voiceless, opening up dialogue and raising awareness.  For me, it honours the unity of a community that had previously stood isolated and what the force of that unity can achieve. It was the beginning of a new era, although we did not entirely know it then. It set in motion of wheels for a new political age for the liberation struggle for Tamils in Sri Lanka. Although many believe it was a wasted effort, and certainly what followed soon after was definitely not something to be celebrated- the death of at least 40,000 Tamils by conservative estimates, the protest in itself is.

The Tamil Nadu opposition political party, DMK, announced today , that its MPs would meet the london envoys of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) member nations, that are scheduled to meet in London at the end of April.

The DMK intend to explain, to the CMAG, why the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, due to be held in Sri Lanka, should be held in another country, and urge them to discuss the issue at the upcoming CMAG meeting.

The Sri Lankan Navy arrested twenty-five Indian fishermen on Friday night. The navy's spokesperson Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya said that the fishermen were arrested for violating the international maritime boundary and were caught off the coast of Karainagar.

The Navy also seized six trawlers during the arrest. See here for more.

Human Rights Watch has issued a statement calling upon the United Arab Emirates not to deport a group of 19 Tamil asylum seekers to Sri Lanka, stating that they would be at “serious risk of torture and persecution upon return”.

The Tamil refugees were part of a group of 46 who fled Sri Lanka by boat in October 2012, when their boat ran into trouble and a Singaporean ship took them to the UAE. All 19 due to be sent back are recognised as refugees by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Photograph Pathivu

Thousands of British Tamils marched through London on Friday afternoon calling for an UN referendum on an independent state of Tamil Eelam.

Rejecting Sri Lanka's LLRC, protesters called for an investigation into the genocide of Tamils by the Sri Lankan state and demanded "action, not words". Drawing attention to the Sri Lankan state's use of rape as a weapon of war, British Tamils condemned the Sri Lankan state's destruction of the Tamil nation.

Photograph Pathivu

Protesters also expressed solidarity with the protests of the Tamil Nadu students and welcomed the Tamil Nadu State Assembly's call for a referendum across the Eelam Tamil nation.