The Australian government has come under fire for its controversial asylum policy once more, after a poster was spotted in Jaffna this month warning of death if Tamil refugees sought to flee the island for Australia.

Images posted on social media show a billboard warning against fleeing to Australia, stating “Don't be in a hurry for your funeral”.

“If you are caught, you will perish,” the poster adds, with amangala thoranam leaves in the backdrop. The leaves are traditionally displayed at Tamil funeral homes.

"Your type are the ones who force us to dust our weapons and carry them again!"

Gang of six brandishing automatic firearms threaten Tamil Civil Society Activist Wimalasena Lavakumar at his home for exposing details on Theevuchchenai - a secret torture site in eastern #SriLanka. pic.twitter.com/t7AiLdwYfA

Two Tamil journalists were questioned by Sri Lankan police for over two hours today over their coverage of a protest in Batticaloa earlier this month. 

On October 8, the two Batticaloa based journalists, Punniyamoorthy Sasikaran and V Krisnakumar, attended and covered a demonstration by Tamils who were protesting against the land grabs by Sinhala settlers in Madhavanai and Mayilathamadu. The protesters were marching towards Chenkaldy Central College, where Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremasinghe was attending an event, but were brutally assaulted by Sri Lankan police.  

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran revealed how he, and others in the party, had called on leader R Sampanthan to step down, but the 90-year old politician refused to do so.

Sampanthan has led the TNA since its formation in 2001, but in recent years has fought growing unpopularity, rifts within the coalition, and bouts of ill health.

"Every single Tamil person will be cut into pieces!" exclaims the monk. "They will all be killed! All the Tamils in the south will be cut into pieces and butchered! The Sinhalese will massacre them."

A parliamentarian with the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) claimed Sri Lanka’s defence secretary and army chief threatened him inside the parliament, after he proposed possible budget cuts to the military.

Chaminda Weerakkody claimed that the incident occurred as the Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Security discussed possible budget cuts to Sri Lanka’s military, given the ongoing economic difficulties the government faces.

A group of Eelam Tamil asylum seekers being held in the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) of Diego Garcia have been granted a small reprieve in their battle against being deported to Sri Lanka, as more details of bullying, sexual assault and suicide attempts continued to emerge.  

A total of 61 asylum seekers are being held on Diego Garcia and are waging a tedious legal battle to claim asylum.

Today marks 27 years since two Tamil activists were shot dead in a Parisian neighbourhood, a murder that shocked the Tamil diaspora worldwide and remains unsolved to this day.

Kandiah Gajendran, also known as Gajan, was the editor of Paris based Tamil weekly 'Eelamurasu' and Kandiah Perinpanathan, known as Nathan, was in-charge of LTTE's international finance. The two men aged 30 and 32-years old respectively, were strolling down Boulevard de La Chapelle on the 26th of October 1996 - a neighbourhood which had a long established and thriving Eelam Tamil community.

A Sri Lankan state minister boasted of paying off a long unpaid wedding bill for Namal Rajapaksa, son of accused war criminal Mahinda Rajapaksa, as a sign of respect and admiration for his father.

The bill in question was reportedly for the electricity used at Namala Rajapaksa’s extravagant wedding ceremony and had remained unpaid for four long years. The total came up to over 2.5 million rupees.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Aviation has reportedly approved a Rs. 200 million upgrade for the Jaffna International Airport, as it looks to operate an increasing number of flights to India and the south of the island.

Nimal Siripala de Silva visited the airport earlier this month, which remains within a Sri Lankan military-controlled ‘High Security Zone’.