Students at the Eastern University boycotted lessons for the third day on Saturday, protesting against the appointment of a paramilitary backed appointment of Dr Jaffer to the university's governing council, reports TamilNet.

Dr Jaffer, the director of the Kalmunai Base hospital is reported to be backed by the paramilitary leader come Sri Lankan deputy minister, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (Karuna).

The Sri Lankan government cautioned the US ambassador designate, Michele Sison, over her recent statements on Sri Lanka's human rights record.

The Sri Lankan secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs, Karunatilaka Amunugama, said that although they were not currently taking any action...

A senior official of India's Intelligence Bureau has accused Tamil Nadu police officers of turning a blind eye to Tamil refugees leaving refugee camps and moving to Kerala.

The official is quoted as saying,

The ultra Sinhala nationalist party, JHU, are to take legal action over TNA leader, Sampanthan, for statements 'regarding formation of a Tamil Eelam state', reports Colombo Page.

The spokesperson for the JHU, Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe, asserted that Sampanthan's statements were in violation of the 157th article of the constitution of Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan Army is to import 10,000 cows from Australia, as they aim to produce enough milk to support the entire country.

Colonel A.V. Gunaratne, Director of Agriculture and Livestock at the army-run Kandakudah farm, was reported to have told journalists of the military project, as he took them on a tour of the area.

Tamil students in Jaffna marked the Queen’s diamond jubilee, where she dined with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa by symbolically burning the island’s constitutions from 1833 until the present day.

The students laid the 7 constitutions in the form of placards and wreath down in St John’s cemetery in Jaffna, before setting them all alight as a mark of protest and managed to evade the security forces in the heavily militarised North.

Sri Lankan Minister Reginald Cooray was forced to leave Coimbatore abruptly on Thursday as activists from Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (PDK) and Tamil Desa Poduvudamai Katchi (TDPK) flocked to his hotel to stage a protest.

The incident has angered the Chief Opposition Whip of Sri Lanka John Amaratunga, who slammed India's "step-motherly treatement" and called for an official protest against the Indian High Commissioner of Sri Lanka, reported ColomboPage.

The current US Ambassador-designate has stated that she will prioritise human rights, if confirmed as the next Ambassador to Sri Lanka.

Speaking at her Senate confirmation hearing, Michele Sison said that the US was looking for “near term progress” and stating,

"serious allegations of violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law, committed by both sides at the end of the war remain to be investigated and have slowed reconciliation."

The former Ambassador to  Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates went on to say,

Sri Lanka's parting representative to the UN in Geneva, Tamara Kunanayakam, sent a letter to the UN High Commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, questioning the impartiality of the UNHRC resolution passed earlier this year, the Daily Mirror reports.

In a letter, published by the newspaper, Sri Lanka ambassador, asserts that Pillay's office, "instead of implementing the resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council at its Special Session on Sri Lanka in 2009, was playing the political agenda of the USA and other Western powers."

Citing an email communication by the head of the Asia-Pacific division of the OHCHR, Rory Mungoven, to Pillay's office, 'triumpantly announcing the adoption' of the UNHRC resolution, Tamara writes,

"The communication raises serious doubts about the impartiality, objectivity, and non-selectivity of the work conducted by the staff of OHCHR and their respect for decisions of the Human Rights Council."

Tamara's full letter, as published in The Daily Mirror, is reproduced below:

"I am writing to you in connection with an email communication dated 22 March 2012 addressed to the staff of your Office by Mr. Rory Mungoven, Head of the Asia-Pacific Division of OHCHR, triumphantly announcing the adoption that morning of the resolution on Sri Lanka by the Human Rights Council, describing it as “the culmination of the sustained and determined work by many in the team and other parts of the house over the past few years.”

Amid strong calls for reconciliation and rehabilitation in the North, the Sri Lankan government, who are currently accused of war crimes and human rights abuses, are looking to raise $5 billion dollars, to invest into Hambantota, President Rajapaksa’s home constituency, and in the southern capital city, Colombo.

See here.