Sri Lanka's defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa recently undertook a 'secret' official visit to South Africa, reports The Sri Lankan Guardian.

Referring to the parliamentary impeachment motion against the Chief Justice, President Mahinda Rajapaksa claimed that the government has no intention of interfering with the judiciary or its independence.

The US Department of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs have issued a press statement expressing concern about impeachment proceedings against the Sri Lankan Chief Justice.

The statement as reproduced in full:

Rebuking a statement by the US expressing concern at the impeachment of Sri Lanka's Chief Justice, the government's spokesperson Keheliya Rambukwella, said that he would understand the accusations if "jungle law" had been practised, "but that is not the case".

The case of five Tamil Nadu fishermen in Sri Lanka custody was pushed by India's newly appointed External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Friday.

Speaking to GL Peiris on the sidelines of the Indian Ocean Rim-Association for Regional Cooperation meeting, Khurshid is understood to have stressed that the issue be addressed "expeditiously" before it becomes an "irritant" in India-Sri Lanka relations.

The body of the brother-in-law of TNA MP for Vanni, Selvam Adaikalanathan, has been found dead reported the Daily Mirror.

Sri Lankan journalists received interest free vehicle loans, courtesy of President Mahinda Rajapakse, according to the Department of Government Information.

Tamil undergraduates at the Eastern University of Sri Lanka (EUSL) have faced physical attacks from Sinhalese students at the university, reports TamilNet.

As the torrential rains and gusts, caused by Cyclone Nilam, battered the North-East, the recently uprooted families have been hardest hit. The 178 families from Keppapulavu, who were forced to move in September from a camp to what was little more than a clearing in a forest, have had their makeshift shelters battered, reports Uthayan.

The President of the Organisation of Professional Associations (OPA), Benedict Ulluwishewa, has reiterated that they would support a repeal of the 13th Amendement.

Speaking to The Island, Ulluwishewa said that the body was to discuss and propose an 'alternative mechanism to the hotly disputed piece of legislature'.

To mark May 18th this year, the OPA passed a resolution that called for the repeal of the 13th Amendment.

Last week, the defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, defended his calls for the repeal and highlighted the widespread support he had, including within the OPA, which has over 50,000 professionals as members.

A group of 26 people who had arrived at Cocos and Christmas islands by boat have been deported, announced Australian Immigration Minister Chris Bowen.

Bowen said of the deportees:

Tamil diaspora organisations have condemned Sri Lanka’s “abysmal lack of progress” in implementing recommendations made by the UN’s Universal Periodic Review process in 2008, and demanded "decisive action".

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), a body of 60 eminent judges and lawyers across the world condemned the lack of justice for victims of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka and the "climate of impunity" in a report released on Thursday - 'Authority with Accountability: The Crisis of Impunity in Sri Lanka'.