Krishantha Pushpakumara, the United National Party (UNP) Southern Provincial Councillor, announced that he was to leave the party to join Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), with reports that more are set to join him.

Pushpakumara told reporters that at the forthcoming Southern Provincial Council election, he would now be contesting as an SLFP candidate, complaining of “unfair treatment” by his current party.

A senior Buddhist monk has been released on bail after his arrest for sexually abusing children.

Kalyanathissa runs a children’s home in Vavuniya, in the Northern Province, which has now been closed due to a court order.

Parents and relatives of the victims have expressed concern that his release on bail could give him the opportunity to get rid of incriminating evidence, the Uthayan reported.

Supporting the Bishop of Mannar’s call for an international investigation into the mass grave found at Mannar, TNA MPs Suresh Premachandran, Sivasakthy Ananthan, Pon Selvarajah, and P. Ariyenthiran called for international experts to investigate the grave.

56 Tamil organisations from across the world have rejected a domestic Sri Lankan inquiry into human rights abuses and called for an international investigation into genocide, in a joint New Year message.

The signatories to the statement, which span across 10 different countries, jointly noted there was an overwhelming mandate for an international investigation expressed in the recent Northern Provincial Council elections, and fully committed themselves to working towards an independent investigation into the crime of genocide.

The statement, signed by many youth organisations and political parties, is released as talk of a South African style ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ have emerged from the island. Notably, organisations from South Africa, Malaysia, Australia, UK, India, Canada, USA, Mauritius, New Zealand, Sweden all jointly signed the statement.

"This year will be of special significance in economic and national development as well as in the field of politics. We shall continue to move towards this while ensuring national unity, peace and satisfaction. We have identified this as the correct path for true prosperity of the nation and building of the country.

The government is planning a proposal to oust Tamil National Alliance MP S Sritharan from parliament, according to Sinhala newspaper Divaina.

The report accused Sritharan of being involved in anti-government activities and is supposedly attempting to rouse communal unrest, including for praising LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in parliament.

“We suspended our strike action for one month after Ven. Murethtuve Ananda mediated on our behalf with President Mahinda Rajapaksa who promised to resolve our concerns very soon. Our three demands have been directed to an arbitration board and would be settled within a month during which all strike action is prohibited.”

The leader of the Tamil Nadu opposition M Karunanidhi has slammed the latest arrests of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy.

Speaking to media in Chennai, the DMK chief expressed concerns that no proactive steps were being taken to put an end to the issue.

"The arrest of 22 fishermen from Pudukottai is atrocious," he said, adding that 227 fishermen had been apprehended by the Sri Lankan navy in the past three months.