Five armed men held a Sunday Leader newspaper associate editor, Mandana Ismail Aveywickrema, at knife point as they searched her home today.

Upon arrival, Sri Lankan police officers shot one of the intruders dead, in what was described by the Police spokesman, Buddhika Siriwardena as an attempted armed robbery.

The High Court in Chennai stopped the deportation of a Tamil refugee on Thursday to Sri Lanka, reports the Times of India.

V.M.P Nehru, or 'Eela Nehra' as he is known, was given a reprieve on Thursday when the High Court preventing Tamil Nadu and Central government from deporting him.

The reprieve was by Justice V. Dhanapalan and Justice C.T Selvam, after Nehru's wife, Santhira Leela, filed a habeas corpus petition citing a threat to his life on return.

Mahinda Rajapakse has created a new ministry to take charge of police operations, reports the Island.

The Internal Law and Order Ministry is set to take over supervision of police from the Defence Ministry.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said that the creation of the ministry was in line with LLRC recommendations.

Speaking during a visit to the North-East, Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya, highlighted that there had been no complaints of the army interfering in election work ahead of the provincial council elections in the North-East.

Opposing the screening of the film ‘Madras Café’ for allegedly portraying the LTTE in bad light, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of India warned that activists would take to the streets if the film was screened.

British Tamils voiced discontent over the potential screening of the Bollywood film Madras Café, in British cinema’s today.

Staging a two hour demonstration outside the British film screening company, Cineworld’s, head office , protesters called for Cineworld to refrain from screening the film in the United Kingdom.