The Sri Lankan military “organised and facilitated” a Hindu temple ceremony at a temple inside a High Security Zone (HSZ) in Jaffna on Tuesday, reports an official military website.

The annual festival of the Veeramanikkathevanthurai Sri Kanngathevi temple, which is situated inside the Myliddy HSZ, took place on June 30 with the Sri Lankan military overseeing festivities.

A senior Buddhist monk says President Maithiripala Sirisena told him he did not know about the nomination of Mahinda Rajapaksa to contest the forthcoming general elections.

Maduluwawe Sobitha, a key figure responsible for Sirisena's victory at January 8 vote, told reporters that he spoke with the president who claimed he was unaware of Rajapaksa getting a UPFA ticket.

The Jathika Hela Urumaya, one of the main coalition partners of the current government led by President Sirisena, says it will leave the UPFA.

The Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister, stressed that the “end of the war did not signify end of conflict,” whilst calling on Tamils in the US to assist in the creation of an environment that allowed Tamils in the North-East to thrive.

The former army commander and suspected war criminal Lt Gen Jagath Jayasuriya is thought to have been denied a visa to enter the United States for a private trip, the Daily Mirror reports.

The visa application is said to have been submitted in May for the trip at the end of June, but while Mr Jayasuriya's wife's passport was returned by the embassy, the former Chief of Defence Staff's passport had still not been returned.

When contacted by the Daily Mirror, a spokesperson for the US embassy in Colombo said that as a matter of policy, they cannot comment on individual cases. “That’s all we have to say at this moment,” he said.

The US has renewed its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) benefits programme with Sri Lanka.

In a statement the Department of Commerce said “The US President signed into law HR 1295 on June 29, 2015 re-authorizing the US GSP Program until 31 December 2017 providing preferential duty free entry into US market for nearly 5000 products from 122 designated beneficiary countries and territories, including Sri Lanka.”

“The Embassy of Sri Lanka in Washington DC was an active member of the Alliance of GSP countries which joined other US stakeholders in advocating early renewal of the US GSP Program. In 2014, the United States has imported US $ 178 million worth of goods under the GSP program from Sri Lanka demonstrating 12.5 percent increase compared to 2013,” the statement further said.

A review on Sri Lanka's eligibility for the programme was initially carried out after a petition was filed in 2008, outlining shortcomings in Sri Lanka’s recognition of worker rights.

Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena said he would not allow the "silent revolution" of the January 8 win over Mahinda Rajapaksa to be overturned.

Speaking at an event in Matara, the president said he would protect the change which came to the country.

"I did not enter politics randomly or abruptly – my experiences in politics spans close to 49 years. . . I will not let any party decision tarnish or harm the transformations that occurred in this country after January 8 – I will protect it,” he has said according to the DailyMirror.

Meanwhile former minister and Rajapaksa-confidante T.B. Eknanayake told the paper the former president would contest from the Kurunegala district.

The UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils has voted in a new chair and agreed on new objectives for the new Parliament.

Conservative MP for Kingston and Surbiton, James Berry, was elected as the new chair of the group.

Creating a new set of objectives at the group’s AGM, several MPs, including Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers, agreed to work to ensure that the OHCHR Investigation and the UN international and independent investigation are completed; and to assess their conclusions and ensure that appropriate international action is taken in the light of those conclusions.

Speaking to Tamil Guardian after the AGM, James Berry MP said that although the group did not wish to prejudge the contents of the UN report, they would not rule out encouraging the British government to employ soft powers, to further the objective of promoting reconciliation and human rights in Sri Lanka, including through supporting the UN investigation into war crimes.

Mr Berry also said that he would prioritise the objective to get the Sri Lankan government’s ban on legitimate diaspora organisations withdrawn, commenting that the proscription of certain Tamil organisations was “absolutely absurd”.

Several prominent Tamil civil society groups from across the North-East have urged the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussain to “act swiftly” to prevent the “undermining” of the inquiry into Sri Lanka’s mass atrocities conducted by his office.

In a letter to the high commissioner, the 15 organisations, led by the Tamil Civil Society Forum, said the government has not consulted with victims in initiating a process to design a domestic justice mechanism, noting that Mr Hussain urged Sri Lanka to do this.

“We write to state with regret that we are unaware of any such process of consultation that the Government of Sri Lanka has initiated with the victims. A huge majority of these victims as you are aware are from the Tamil community and the government has not had any consultation at all with the Tamil community in the design of a mechanism,” it said.

Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa will contest in the upcoming general elections under the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), reports Ceylon Today.

Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) vowed to focus on safeguarding the Sinhalese people and Buddhism, in a press conference held by the organisation’s general secretary on Friday.

Announcing the political agenda of the Bodu Jana Peramuna (BJP), the political wing of the BBS, Galagodaatte Gnanasara said the party’s “objective and the ideology would focus on safeguarding Buddhism, the Sinhalese community and the country from the threats they were facing”.

“There is political instability in the country at present,” said the monk, stating that the BJP, which will be contesting in the upcoming elections would “put the country first”.

Furthermore, it would attempt to field a Buddhist monk in every one of the districts it is contesting in, announced Gnanasara.