The Sri Lankan cricketer player, Dinesh Chandimal, has rejected two IPL offers from the Delhi Daredevils and the Pune Warriors, following the recent resolution passed in Tamil Nadu banning IPL matches involving Sri Lankan cricket players in Tamil Nadu.

The Sri Lankan cricket player, and skipper for the IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kumar Sangakkara, spoke out about the IPL controversy at the sidelines of an event in Hyderabad to NDTV.

400 soldiers from the Sri Lankan army's 'Sinha regiment' are set to leave for Haiti as part of a UN Peacekeeping mission later this week.

Travel between Colombo and Chennai has dropped by at least 30%, reported the Sunday Times, quoting travel trade sources.

The Minister for National Language and Social Integration, Vasudeva Nanayakara is to seek to ban Sinhala groups such as the Bodu Bala Sena, Ravana BAlaya and the Sinhala Ravaya.

A Cabinet paper will be submitted in two weeks time, reports Nanayakkara The Sunday Leader.

The opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, former president Chandrika Bandaranaike and United National Party MP Mangala Samaraweera reportedly held 'secret discussions' on 24th March - on Wickremesinghe's birthday - at the villa of the British expat Geoffrey Dobbs.

A spokesman for the Bodu Bala Sena Organisation (BBS) claimed today that the organisation aims to create a moral society in Sri Lanka.

Programme Coordinator, Dilantha Withanage, blamed ‘groups with ulterior motives' for misrepresenting their campaign as a fight against Muslims.

Updated: 11:30 GMT

The news website Colombo Telegraph reported on Friday that it has now been blocked in Sri Lanka, with users unable to reach the site from within the island.

The Colombo Telegraph editorial board released a message urging readers to use proxy services to reach the site.

The Indian Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office (PMO) V Narayanasamy has stated that "there is still time" to decide on India's attendance at the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, due to be held in Sri Lanka in November 2013.

The World Bank has provided Sri Lanka with a concessionary loan of $200 million to support the public health system on the island.

"Investing in further improvement of the health system will be a critical pre-requisite for Sri Lanka's vision as reflected in the Mahinda Chintana," Country Director of World Bank in Sri Lanka Diarietou Gaye said according to ColomboPage.

The Indian External Affairs Minister, Salman Khurshid, acknowledged the sentiments of those supportive of the resolution by the Tamil Nadu Assembly regarding the Eelam Tamil issue, however, rejected its demands outright.

Speaking in an interview with CNN-IBN, Khurshid said:

In an emergency vigil on Friday, Australians gathered outside the Broadmeadows Immigration Detention Centre in Melbourne and protested against the indefinite detention of the Tamil asylum seeker Selva.

Thirty-seven year old Selva, or Sivaloganathan Kulachelvan, has been in detention for 37 months. Selva who has sewn his lips together in act of desperation, wrote a heart-wrenching open letter, outlining his plea for release where he calls himself as a "a worthless human being" and describes his sorrow at being away from his wife and daughter.

Selva's letter:

DEAR CITIZENS OF AUSTRALIA,

THE STORY OF MY LIFE IN DETENTION - A WORTHLESS HUMAN BEING

Please let me relate my story in the hope that I could solicit your support to bring some meaning to my life. At present, after 37 months in detention, I feel that I am "a worthless human being", to my beloved wife and daugthter; a daughter, who I have not seen, except in photographs.

I was able to share my love and affection with my wife for eleven (11) months, who I left when she was two months pregnant. I was not there to give her hand through her pregnancy, nor did I have the opportunity to be at her side when giving birth, and the opportunity to hold my daughter when she was born.

My beloved daughter is now two and half (2 1/2) years old, and has not had the opportunity of a cuddle, nor the warm embrace of a father; all she only hears is my voice intertwined with emotional cries of my unfailing love for her. After my daily calls to my beloved wife and daughter, I stay awake in bed unable to sleep. There are days when my emotions become uncontrollable, and I cry fulfilled with the shame that I have become "a worthless human being", and not a husband to my wife and a father to my daughter. These days bring mixed messages to my mind, where I think; death would be better.

The 37 months in detention has physically and mentally affected me to function as a normal human being, as detailed in the report by my Counsellor at Foundation House. This is a true reflection of a humang being affected by 37 months in detention in combination with the effects of war in Sri Lanka.