Sri Lanka has strengthened its relationship with Palestine following a Sri Lankan delegation visit, led by Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday.

The Sri Lankan President met with Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the State of Palestine, at the Presidential Palace in Ramallah where he was awarded the ‘Star of Palestine’, the highest honour award by the Palestinian state.

A Sri Lankan press release described the meeting as “friendly and warm”, and went on to quote Abbas as telling Rajapaksa,

"I am honored to receive you… Our two countries maintain good relations and I wish it will improve more and more".

More and more rape victims are being murdered in Jaffna, reports Uthayan newspaper.

According to a legal official at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, rape and sexual abuse is increasingly being followed by murder.

The official expressed that he believed that victims, mostly women, were being killed to protect the perpetrators from implication.

India’s Union Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan has reiterated his call for India not to train Sri Lankan forces.

Talking to reporters in Chennai he said that India should never enter into an agreement with Sri Lanka for providing training to the country’s armed forces, said The Hindu.

The Sri Lankan Army’s commander for Jaffna, Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe, will take up a new post from Monday.

Delivering some departing remarks, Hathurusinghe claimed that the army did all they could to “meet the urgent needs and aid development” in Jaffna, despite the fact that the people saw the military as a “destructive” force.

"We cannot allow people to go about projecting false propaganda on human right violations against the country. These people don't even know the meaning of the term human rights."