The British government is concerned at the recent proscription of Tamil diaspora groups by Sri Lanka, the Foreign and Commonwealth Minister Hugo Swire said in parliament on Monday.

Swire said that the British High Commissioner in Colombo has made clear to the government that “proscription should not be used to prevent or stifle the right to freedom of speech, particularly at a time when Sri Lanka’s human rights record is under international scrutiny.”

The minister also said that the High Commission has raised concerns regarding the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the continued detention of Mrs Jeyakumari Balendran and other rights activists with the Sri Lankan government.

A notice was put up in Vavuniya last month, announcing the acquisition of 20 acres for “public use”, reported The Social Architects.

The notice, printed in Tamil and Sinhala, inaccurately states that the owners of the land cannot be identified, although the original inhabitants of the area are officially recognised as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and have consistently requested resettlement.

The arrest of 10 Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka has sparked outrage from human rights groups and Tamil activists in India, reported The New Indian Express.

The refugees, including 5 children, were arrested under the Foreigners Act and sent to Puzhal Prison in Chennai on May 5. India stopped admitting Tamil refugees after 2011 as it deemed that peace had returned to Sri Lanka.

P Nedumaran, head of the World Tamil Confederation, told the paper that the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and former Chief Minister M G Ramachandran had accepted Tamils as refugees and made all arrangements for them. Nedumaran alleged that the Indian government is taking action against Tamil refugees due to pressure from Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Photographs have emerged of Sri Lankan military banners calling for unmarried Tamil women to join the army.

The banners, thought to have been photographed earlier this year, ask for Tamil women, aged between 18 and 24, with a height of at 5 ft 3 inches and offer a monthly salary of Rs 30,000.

The women would be joining nine brigades in the Mullaitivu district.

The two Indian Premier League matches that were due to be played on the 18th and 22nd of May have been moved out of Chennai, The New Indian Express reported.

Four Palestinians, who were detained at Katunayaka Airport, face being deported to a Syria refugee camp, reported Al Jazeera.

The men, who fled refugee camps in Syria, have been in detention in a military prison for the past four weeks and were treated inhumanely according to a Palestinian rights organisation.

"They were directly taken to the military prison, where they described the treatment as inhuman," spokesman for the Palestinian League for Human Rights – Syria, Salim Salamah, told Al Jazeera.