Australia’s Immigration Minister has refused to comment on the fate of a boat carrying 153 asylum seekers towards Christmas Island, as it nears 2 days since last contact was made with the vessel.

Reports have speculated that the boat may have been intercepted by Australian Navy as part of “Operation Sovereign Borders”, but with no reports of arrivals at Christmas Island detention centre, there are fears the asylum seekers are being forcibly held on the vessel.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young slammed the government’s approach, noting that with more than 30 children thought to be on board.

''It is more like operation prison ships than it is Operation Sovereign Borders,'' said the senator. ''I'm extremely concerned that the government is holding these asylum seekers on board customs vessels. We know they've been doing that in the past with other boats for a number of days, weeks. A prison ship is no place for children.''

Her comments come as Immigration Minister Scott Morrison held what was described by the Guardian as a “near farcical” press conference, refusing to comment on any events involving boats.

Writing to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa has called for an “immediate and emphatic response” to the repeated arrests of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy.

Her letter comes after yet another incident where 17 Tamil Nadu fishermen were detained by Sri Lankan security forces over the weekend.

In her letter to Modi, Jayalalithaa, who commands the third biggest party in India, said,

“My government looks to your immediate and emphatic response to this issue and to ensure that it is taken up at the highest levels of the Sri Lankan Government, so that our fishermen are not repeatedly arrested and abducted in the high seas of the Palk Bay.”

Slamming the “hostile actions of the Lankan Navy”, the Chief Minister went on to add,

“These continued and repeated instances of apprehension and abduction of our fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy are adding to the very heightened sense of unrest and resentment among the Tamil Nadu fishermen”.

The probe by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is “utterly uncalled for”, says Sri Lanka.

“We have taken the view that this investigation is utterly uncalled for,” UN Ambassador Palitha Kohona, said according to the Associated Press.

“It’s like this poor third-world country is being punished in an unforgiving manner for having defeated a terrorist group” he said.

Kohona has previously said that surrendering LTTE members, who are thought to have been shot by the military, were actually shot in the back by Tamil fighters.

But Kohona now distanced himself from those comments, saying that he doesn't personally know what happened.

The Bodu Bala Sena said today that the US has revoked the visa of Galagoda Gnanasara, the leader of the organisation.

BBS Coordinator Dilantha Withanage told the Daily Mirror that an official form the US embassy in Colombo called Gnanasara on Friday and informed him of the State Department’s decision to revoke his 5-year multiple entry visa.

The Tamil National Alliance has received confirmation for a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the Indian government, reported the Daily Mirror.

Spokesperson Suresh Premachandran told the Daily Mirror on Sunday that Modi had agreed to the TNA’s request for a meeting, issued by party leader R Sampanthan soon after the prime minister was sworn in.

The Tamil people are in doubt over the Sri Lankan justice system said the Chief Minister of the Northern Province C.V. Wigneswaran, because pro-government cases are resolved, whereas those against government policies are delayed, reports Uthayan.

The Sri Lankan government ordered the military to take "stern action" over social media users seen to be inciting feelings of "communal and religious hatred" in the country, reports DailyMirror.lk.

The order had been issued by the Secretary of Defence, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, said the military's spokesperson Ruwan Wanigasuyira.

'This Land Belongs to the Army’ is a strong documentary about the manner in which the lands in the traditional Tamil homelands of the North-East of the island of Sri Lanka have been appropriated by the government and the military.

Made by Indian journalist and filmmaker Maga Tamizh Prabhagaran, the documentary features first-hand testimony from victims and an exclusive discussion with a Sri Lankan Army soldier about the use of chemical and other bombs to support the logic that the land belongs to the Army and that the Tamils can “live in [the] country” only provided they do not “demand undue things”, to use the words of former military commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka,.

Launched in January this year at the UK Houses of Parliament, the documentary has gone on to be broadcast around the world, as well as being selected for the 7th International Documentaries and Short Film Festival of Kerala taking place next month and the Mediteran Film Festival in Bosnia in August. It was also entered into the International Festival of Local Televisions in Slovakia earlier this month.

The Sri Lankan Army has been carrying out rebuilding work on the island’s south coast, following violence by Sinhala Buddhist mobs which left at least 4 people dead.

Troops preparing to undertake rebuilding work

Rajitha Senaratne, the Sri Lankan government Minister of Fisheries, justified the decision to hand the work over to the security forces by saying,

“Why we have given it to military is because no one else would be able to finish rebuilding by meeting the month’s deadline to finish the work.”

Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has donated Rs 5 million rupees towards the construction of new living quarters for monks at the Bellana Sri Dharmapala Pirivena in Agalawaththa, which the Sri Lankan Air Force will help to construct.