The Sri Lankan High Commission in London has written to the Confederation of Independent Football Associations (CONIFA), objecting to the inclusion of Tamil Eelam in its World Football Cup tournament.

CONIFA is the football federation for all associations outside FIFA and describes itself as a global non-profit organization that supports representatives of international football teams from nations, de-facto nations, regions, minority peoples and sports isolated territories.

On June 3rd 2007, two Tamil Red Cross volunteers who were abducted whilst they were in Colombo for a tsunami relief program were found shot dead.

The two Tamils, 38 year old Sinnarajah Shanmuganathan and 28 year old Karthigesu Chandramohan, were both from Batticaloa.

The Sri Lankan navy will join the US-led Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) navy exercise for the first time later this month – the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise.

“Twenty-six nations, 47 surface ships, five submarines, 18 national land forces, and more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel will participate,” said an official US navy website.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena warned that he may unilaterally block social media access across the island if it were to be ‘misused’ citing “national security” and “ethnic harmony”.

The Daily Mirror quoted Mr Sirisena as stating that he had “summoned a team of experts who work in a global institution in the US that attend to issues pertaining to social media”. He added,

“I discussed with them the influence of the social media has on social and national security, ethnic harmony, integrity of a family and so on because social media has influenced them badly. I also told the US experts that if they could not control what was going on in Sri Lanka,

The Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena told the SLFP's Central Committee that the party's alignment with the UNP was the cause of its election failings at the local government elections. 

All parties had been affected by internal divisions and factions, he was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying. 

"Nobody can single out a party unaffected by internal squabbles," he added. 

Tensions between the ruling coalition partners have increased since the polls delivered a win to the former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa. 

Tamils protesting in Jaffna against the killing of Thoothukodi protesters in Tamil Nadu faced police intimidation as officers and security personnel photographed participants. 

Residents of a Kilinochchi village have said that the Sri Lankan Army and Archaeology Department are destroying signs of ancient Tamil civilisation in the area.

Families of the disappeared from Mullaitivu boycotted a meeting with the Office for Missing Persons (OMP) on Saturday, and instead staged a protest outside the meeting which was held at the Mullaitivu District Secretariat.

Three Sri Lankan soldiers based in Poonakary were arrested on Thursday for possession of cannabis.

The arrested were members of the 5th Division of the General Service Corps based in Nachikuda - Ponnaveli.

They were released on bail by the Kilinochchi Magistrate Court, with the case set to be heard on June 5th.

The three soldiers have also been temporarily suspended from duty.

The leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) told a visiting U.S. House of Representatives delegation that “our people will be forced to rethink our position” if Sinhala leaders continue to ignore the Tamil political question.