US President Barack Obama on Friday announced his intent to nominate Atul Keshap to the post of Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

Mr Keshap will take over the role previously held by Michelle Sison, who is now the deputy representative of the United States to the UN and the UN Security Council, and the representative of the US at the UN General Assembly.

The president’s nominee currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the Department of State, a position he has held since 2013, according to the White House.

 Sri Lanka’s new president’s recent release of military occupied land in Jaffna had already been signed off by the previous president Mahinda Rajapaksa, suggest reports.

The proposed 19th amendment to Sri Lanka’s constitution, aimed at reducing powers of the executive presidency, was met by opposition when table in parliament on Wednesday.

The leader of Sri Lanka’s opposition the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) said that some provisions in the amendment, tabled by prime minister Ranil Wickrememsinghe, needed approval of the people.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Global Tamil Forum (GTF) and Australian Tamil Congress (ATC) met with the Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop and department of foreign affairs and trade officials (DFAT) on Thursday, discussing ongoing Tamil concerns and the ground reality in the North-East.

“Good meeting with Tamil National Alliance MP Mr. Sumanthiran and Tamil Diaspora representatives on recent developments in Sri Lanka and support for reconciliation,” tweeted Ms Bishop following the meeting.

China on Thursday urged Sri Lanka to ensure the legitimate interests of its companies were protected during the Sri Lankan president’s official visit to Beijing.

"China's cooperation with Sri Lanka is based on mutual benefit and a win-win situation, without any political preconditions," China’s president, Xi Jinping was quoted by China’s state news agency, Xinhua, as saying.

He reportedly added that China wished to help Sri Lanka sustain its development.

His comments come amid ongoing uncertainty over Chinese projects in Sri Lanka, in particular, the Colombo Port City project, which the new Sri Lankan government said it would re-examine before allowing it to proceed.

The US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Biswal said whilst being encouraged by the new Sri Lankan government’s promises of reform, there remained tough challenges, including a difficult road ahead on accountability and reconciliation, as well as demilitarisation of the conflict affected areas.

Ms Biswal, who had visited Sri Lanka last month, made these comments before the US House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting on Tuesday, regarding the ‘US rebalance in South Asia: foreign aid and developmental priorities’.

The Federation of National Organisations (FNO), has warned against the 'separatist' agenda being pushed through the calls for the 13th Amendment.

Gunadasa Amarasekera, whose Patriotic National Movement - an ally of the National Freedom Front - is a member of the FNO, said the 13th Amendment must be "pruned".

Four Indian Navy ships will arrive in Trincomalee for a three-day visit, during which they will take part in training exercises and cultural events, the Indian High Commission in Colombo said.

The ships are part of the First Training Squadron, part of the Indian navy's Southern Naval Command.

The United Kingdom stated it remained committed to a Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) investigation into Sri Lanka’s (OISL), in an address to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday.

The chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils, Conservative MP Lee Scott, said he was "pleased", Redbridge Council has taken the lead on calling on the UK and the UN to deliver justice for Tamils in Sri Lanka, and encouraged other councils to follow suit.

Lee Scott said “it is important that the entire population of this country is informed of the positive contribution that the Tamil community makes to this country and of the issues faced by their kith and kin in Sri Lanka. I am pleased that Redbridge has taken the lead on this and I would like to see other Councils follow suit”.

“On the day Redbridge Council passed this motion, I was at the United Nations in Geneva working to bring about the changes required in order to deliver justice, peace and a permanent political solution to the Tamil nation in Sri Lanka,” he added.

The leader of the Conservative Group in Redbridge, Councillor Paul Canal, who proposed the motion, said he was "grateful to have received cross-party support", in the Labour-led council.

Sri Lanka’s elite police force, the Special Task Force, was formed after intensive advice from British security experts, according to a new report by the International Human Rights Association Bremen.

The report Exporting police death squads - From Armagh to Trincomalee, supplementary to an earlier document detailing Britain’s involvement in Sri Lanka’s war against Tamils, says British security officials, in the early 1980s, advised senior Sri Lankan policemen on the UK’s counter-terrorism experience in Northern Ireland, even arranging for them to visit Belfast.

British mercenaries are also thought to have trained the STF, which is implicated in several cases of human rights abuses, including abductions and killings, at its inception.

"The new evidence reveals that Sri Lanka's Special Task Force was created only after intensive advice from British diplomats about UK counter-insurgency policy in Northern Ireland, where a similar police commando unit had recently shot dead six people. This raises important questions about UK State complicity in designing Sri Lanka's death squad,” the report’s author Phil Miller told the Tamil Guardian.