The Sri Lankan government says that President Mahinda Rajapaksa did not grant a pardon to the Indian fishermen sentenced to death last month, contrary to an announcement made by a deputy minister on Tuesday.

Speaking to The Hindu, presidential spokesperson Mohan Samaranayake said, “Until now, no decision has been taken to that effect.”

The UN has given Tamil refugees, who were languishing in a United Arab Emirates port for over two years, a permanent home in Brazil, The National reported.

The 7 refugees were the remainder of a larger group of 45 Tamils who were rescued when the ship they were fleeing Sri Lanka in ran into trouble on the way to Australia.

“I feel like I am being reborn,” said Ramanan Gunaseelan, 37, who will board a flight to Brazil, accompanied by his wife Meera and their daughter Tharanika, 5.

The refugees expressed their fear of life in Sri Lanka but said they will always long to return to their homeland.

“We fled Sri Lanka because we were scared for our lives and our safety. Now we can finally hope for peace.

The leader of the opposition United National Party (UNP), Ranil Wickremesinghe, revealed that he had called for the European Council to appeal against the European Court of Justice decision to lift sanctions against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Wickremesinghe further criticised the Sri Lankan government for failing to appear at the European Courts to argue a case for keepin sanctions on the LTTE, reports Colombo Page.

"The governments of Britain and the Netherlands appeared in court but the government of Sri Lanka did not," he said.

A delegation from India's Army War College called on the Commander of the Sri Lankan army Lieutenant General Daya Ratnayake this week, said the Sri Lankan military in order to learn from Sri Lanka's warfare experiences.

Ratnayake stated that the visiting delegation praised the Sri Lankan military, with India's Brigadier Sandhu reportedly saying India was “using Sri Lankan experiences in the warfare in their training modules and other programmes”.

The Sri Lankan Commander went on to thank India for the training opportunities that it has provided Sri Lankan troops.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has pardoned five fishermen from Tamil Nadu, who were convicted of drug trafficking offences in October.

The men will be released without conditions in the next few days, said Deputy Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology Prabha Ganesan, who conveyed the news to the Indian high commission in Colombo.

The move comes soon after the Indian government said it is filing an appeal against the sentencing.

India’s external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said to reporters earlier on Wednesday that the government “gives high priority to the issue of the five Indian fishermen” and “will pursue all avenues”.

“I can confirm to you today that on behalf of those five Indian fishermen an appeal in the Sri Lankan Supreme Court has been filed,” he said, adding that a top Colombo lawyer had been hired for the case.

The Sri Lankan military has completed the construction of a new Buddhist shrine in the headquarters of the 7 Sri Lanka Artillery division in Kilinochchi, the former de-facto Tamil capital.

The shrine was constructed using funds collected from members of the security forces and civil officials, the army's official website reported.