Sri Lankan police have continued to block access to a site in Trincomalee where skeletal remains were found last week, sources have told the Tamil Guardian. 

Workers, who were digging a well, uncovered skeletons at the playground in Trincomalee last Thursday and police have since blocked all access to the site.

UN Human Rights chief Navaneetham Pillay’s forthcoming report to the Human Rights Council, extracts of which appeared this weekend in a Sri Lankan newspaper, makes a clear and unambiguous call: for an international investigation into the mass atrocities of the final months of the island’s civil war. The High Commissioner’s call will be welcomed by the diverse array of actors, both ‘local’ and international, who have been steadfastly campaigning for five years for accountability for the war crimes and crimes against humanity in which at least 70,000 people were systematically slaughtered in 2009. In particular, it will be enthusiastically welcomed by the Tamil people, for whom the mass killings – described by an earlier report by a UN panel of experts as amounting to ‘systematic targetting' and 'persecution’ of them – constituted genocide by the Sri Lankan state.

Three men who were sentenced to death for their alleged involvement in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, have had their sentences commuted by India’s Supreme Court.

Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan have been imprisoned for more than 20 years and were sentenced to death by hanging in 1998. After submitting mercy pleas, they were kept in a state of limbo, until in 2011 when their pleas were rejected. Intervention by the Madras High Court saw their executions delayed, until today, when the decision was finally taken to remove the men from death row.

Media minister Keheliya Rambukwella has said that countries friendly to Sri Lanka are planning to submit a resolution supportive of the country.

Rambukwella told the Daily Mirror that the move was not initiated by the government.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has had its budget increased by 20% from Rs117.39bn (£ 537.5mn) last year to Rs141.3bn (£646.9mn) in 2014-15, by Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

According to the figures in the Economic Times of India, Sri Lanka is the third highest recipient of Indian developmental funds, and saw an increase from Rs4.1bn (£18.8mn) to Rs5bn (£22.9mn).

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Management, Nimal Siripala de Silva has stated the government is not afraid of being subjected to economic sanctions over human rights abuses.

De Silva said the government had taken measures after the war to ensure economic stability, saying this will be continued, despite international pressure.

“We have brought peace to this country and we will not allow terrorism to raise its head again,” he said.

A total of 67 bodies have now been unearthed at the Mannar mass grave, with the number set to rise as more excavations being planned.

Tuesday saw the 25th excavation take place, since the site was discovered on the 20th of December 2013.

See the report from the Uthayan here.

The National Freedom Front, a party in the ruling government coalition has accused the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress of handing over a 'spy report' to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, warning them not to 'betray this country'.

Speaking at a press conference in Colombo,Media Spokesperson of the NFF, Mohammed Muzammil said,