Photo: @AiyoMalli

The paramilitary leader and Minister Douglas Devananda represented the Sri Lankan government at an event to celebrate the US independence day at an event in Colombo.

The UK continued its call on Sri Lanka to endorse the declaration to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, the British High Commission in Sri Lanka said in a statement on Thursday.

The South African Special Envoy to Sri Lanka, Cyril Ramaphosa, is due to visit the island next week for talks with the government and other groups, to discuss a political solution for the “Northeast problem” a senior government source told the Daily Mirror.

Several parties in the ruling coalition expressed their opposition to the visit.

“No positive results would be brought from a South African model peace initiative as the issues in Sri Lanka and South Africa are totally different. Besides, South Africa cannot win the confidence of the people in Sri Lanka as that country maintained a close link with the LTTE. Therefore, it concerns only on the grievances of minorities,” said spokesperson for the JHU Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe.

More skeletal remains have been found in Muhamaalai on Thursday, a day after remains and clothing of female LTTE fighters were unearthed by a demining team, reported the Uthayan.

Bones, grenades and bullet casings were found in the town on the Jaffna peninsula, which used to be a major checkpoint to enter territory under Tamil control before 2009.

10:17 BST

153 Tamil asylum seekers on a boat off Christmas island will be handed over to the Sri Lankan navy, a second senior navy official confirmed to The Australian on Wednesday.

Reports emerged on Tuesday that such a transfer in the mid-ocean was imminent, however, till now both the Australian government and the Sri Lankan navy have refused to acknowledge even the very presence of such a boat.

The transfer of the asylum seekers has been widely condemned with many rights organisations warning that Australia would be in breach of the UN Convention on Refugees if it were to proceed with such a move.

Four Tamil asylum seekers were arrested in India on Wednesday, after fleeing their homes in Vavuniya and Jaffna, reports PTI.

The refugees, Shanthi, Malar, Sabesh and Subbiah, said they were "forced to leave the island nation due to scarcity of food and high price of essential commodities there," when questioned by police.

They have been arrested on the ground of arriving in India without proper documents and on an illegal ferry, a senior police official told PTI. They have been detained in a refugee camp at Mandapam.