The head of Sri Lanka’s air force was invited to attend a military conference in Hawaii earlier this month, as Sri Lankan increases its military relations despite concerns regarding human rights abuses committed by troops.

Kapila Jayampathy attended the conference of Chiefs of Defence in Honolulu, Hawaii earlier this month, meeting with other senior military officials from across the Asia-Pacific region.

The Sri Lankan military has been assisting Sinhala Buddhists monks in Punanai who are attempting to expand a vihara that has been illegally constructed on a Hindu temple’s land, according to the local temple administration.

Three Tamil youths were arrested in Jaffna on Wednesday night.

The three were arrested after a reported police chase with Jaffna police who went to Tirunelveli following reports that two groups of Tamil youths were gathered in the area and preparing for a fight.

Sri Lanka’s Special Task Force will take over security and investigations at three major Colombo prisons, Colombo Page reports.

The security and investigations at Welikada, Colombo Remand and Magazine prison have been handed over to the STF effective from next month.

An Indian national was arrested on Tuesday over an alleged plot to kill the Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena. 

Marsili Thomas was arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), whilst visiting the residence of the Anti-Corruption Movement Operations Director, Namal Kumara. 

According to local reports the former director of the Terrorism Investigation Division, Nalaka Silva had discussed a plan to assassinate Sirisena. 

Students at the Eastern University in Batticaloa yesterday evening marked the 31st anniversary of Lt Col Thileepan's fast unto death. 

Remembering the sacrifice he made, students lit lamps and paid tribute to Thileepan and his hunger strike. 

A court in Kilinochchi on Tuesday ordered huts built by fishermen from the South who had been fishing illegally to be removed and for the fishermen to leave from Vadamaradchchi East.

The court issued the order to eight organisations who had failed to seek permission from the divisional secretariat at Maruthenkeni and had staying on government land illegally. 

Thirty-two huts are to be removed and 850 Southern fishermen have been ordered to vacate the area. 

An organisation of Sinhala Buddhist monks have spoken out against Sri Lanka’s president, stating that despite his call at the United Nations against ‘foreign influence’ they remain wary of an international accountability mechanism for war crimes.

The Sri Lankan government’s continued denial over the military’s use of cluster munitions is an “ever increasing affront to victims” said the International Truth and Justice Project, after Sri Lanka was chosen to head the Convention on Cluster munitions earlier this month.

The Sri Lankan navy yesterday arrested two Tamil youths who were fishing in Kankesanthurai, Jaffna. 

The navy has claimed 28kg cannabis was found during the arrest, which took place in the early morning. 

The two youths have been handed over the police.  

Tamils across the North-East held local events to remember the death of Lt Col Thileepan on September 26, 1987, after he fasted unto death in protest at the Indian government's failure to fulfil its pledges to the Tamil people.

Students and faculty members at the University Jaffna gathered at the campus grounds this morning, to mark the passing of Lt Col Thileepan, a senior political LTTE leader who fasted to death 31 years ago.

As crowds gathered Thileepan's famous 1987 speech, where he laid out his demands to the Indian government, was also played on a screen to the audience, as well as a speech by LTTE leader V Prabhakaran.

Hundreds gathered in Nallur this morning to mark 31 years since the death of Lt Col Thileepan, a political wing leader of the LTTE who fasted to death.

Senior Tamil politicians including the leader of the ITAK, TNA MP Mavai Senathirajah, the mayor of Jaffna Emmanuel Arnold and leaders of the TNPF were present at the commemoration, held at the now destroyed Thileepan memorial in Jaffna.

Starvation occurs in three phases. First, the body halts consumption of glucose, its primary energy source. Then, it scrapes away at fat deposits. Once those are depleted, it finally cannibalizes muscle mass to feed the brain. The body enters a delicate balancing act, substituting glucose for fat and eventually protein, until organ function is affected and results in death. The ultimate cause of death, in general, is cardiac arrest or the stopping of the heart. At its core, starvation is a process of desperate sacrifice.