Residents and volunteers yesterday cleared the ground at Kanchikudiyaru thuyilum illam in Amparai ahead of Maaveerar Naal (Tamil Remembrance Day) on November 27. 

Thuyilum illams across the North-East have been cleared over recent weeks in preparation of the commemorations. 

Final preparations are taking place at Mulankavil thuyilum illam ahead of Tamil remembrance day (Maaveerar Naal) on November 27. 

Volunteers and locals on Monday continued clearing the site and making the area ready for next Thursday's event. 

A Tamil asylum seeker who fled torture in Sri Lanka has been awarded almost £20,000 in damages from the UK Home Office for his unlawful detention.

Tamils are likely to become the worst victims in Sri Lanka’s political crisis, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R Sampanthan said today.

Speaking to media after a meeting with heads of diplomatic missions in Colombo, the party leader said “the country’s minorities, especially Tamils, may become the victims,” according to The Hindu.

The father of the LTTE's political head for the Trincomalee district, Sasitharan (alias Elilan), died yesterday yearning for his disappeared son. 

Elilan was handed over to the Sri Lankan army by members of his family during the end of the armed conflict in 2009. 

His father has been searching for his son since then along with Elilan's wife, Ananthy Sasitharan. 

Moody's Investors Service announced that it has downgraded Sri Lanka’s senior unsecured ratings to B2 from B1, amidst a deepening political and economic crisis on the island, despite calls from the government to block the move.

The move, which is a significant blow to the Sri Lankan government’s economic policy, comes as both former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe claim to be Sri Lanka’s prime minister in a political crisis that has endured for several weeks.

Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena met with extremist Sinhala Buddhist monks who had been calling for the release of the jailed Bodu Bala Sena leader on Monday, and pledged “immediate action to conduct an inquiry” after police launched tear gas at their demonstration.