India has urged Colombo to discuss and finalise a credible road map for the devolution of power with the TNA, during the Sri Lankan President's visit to the country.

Asserting that such a move would send a 'positive signal' ahead of the UN Human Rights Council in March, the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stressed the importance of converting past discussions into firm action.

Amidst protests against President’s Mahinda Rajapasa’s visit to Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, said it was expected that Sri Lanka treated Tamils equally to clear doubts in the minds of people in both nations.

The visiting delegation from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was told of continuing discrimination at the hand of Sri Lankan authorities during a meeting with the TNA on Friday.

In a statement the TNA said they discussed disappearances, accountability and resettlement issues with Hanny Megally, the head of the Asia, Pacific, Middle East and Africa branch of the OHCHR.

Photograph posted on Twitter by @rkguruparan

Hundreds of Tamil protestors who had gathered outside the district secretariat in Mullaitheevu, demanding resettlement in their village of Keappa-pulavu on Thursday, were faced with intimidation by the Sri Lankan military.

Protesting for over one and a half hours the demonstrators demanded for the occupying military to leave their homeland.

Shouting, “We want our homeland, let the military quit our homeland”, the demonstrators held banners reading, "Keappa-pulavu is our village, SL army quite today! Let us go back and resettle."

As the protest got underway, the civil society activist, Guruparan Kumaravidvel, reported via Twitter, that there was a heavy Sri Lankan Army intelligence presence. Shortly afterwards, he reported that the TNPF's General Secretary's car had been attacked whilst returning from the protest on Ottuchuttan Road, and the vehicle carrying the TNPF leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam was also attacked near Theravil on the way back from Mullaitheevu.

Photograph posted on Twitter by @rkguruparan

The visiting delegation from the UN Office of the Human Rights Commissioner today met with members of the TNA reports Uthayan.

Buddhist monks led 300 protesters from the office of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) or National Heritage Party to demonstrate opposite a local UN office, reports the Associated Press.

The editor of The Sunday Leader Frederica Jansz has been sacked after the new owner of the paper said articles in the paper were too critical of the president and his family.

The Sunday Leader is one of the few newspapers in Sri Lanka openly critical of the government and has previously been the target of violence, including the assassination of its previous editor, Lasantha Wikramatunge.

Sixteen out of 19 army divisions are deployed within the North-East, reports The Hindu. Quoting the retired Colonel R. Hariharan, the newspaper stated the deployment was more suggestive of "operational readiness" than a post-conflict scenario.

Speaking on his death bed, T.P. Vijayaraj, the twenty-six year old Indian Tamil auto driver who self-immolated on Monday in Salem in protest against Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse’s visit to India, urged Tamils to protest against the visit.

As Vijayaraj - the 26-year-old who self-immolated in protest against the visit by Rajapaksa to India - was dying from 95% burns, the Sri Lankan president's spokesperson, Bandula Jayasekara, exemplified Sri Lanka's response to the deaths of Tamils who protest.

The leader of the TMVP (Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal), Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, known as Pillayan, has been appointed as Presidential Advisor, reports the Daily Mirror.

The former SLFP organiser for the Trincomalee district, Najeeb A. Majeed, was sworn in as the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province on Tuesday, by President Rajapaksa.

The appointment is believed to confirm a UPFA (united Peoples Freedom Alliance) and SLMC (Sri Lankan Muslim Congress) coalition agreement.