Speaking in the Lok Sabha, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, said, “We are not in favour of carving out a separate nation out of Sri Lanka but are totally against the butchering of the Tamils.”

Sri Lanka does not recognise resolution 19/2 adopted by the UNHRC in March 2012 said the country's ambassador to Geneva during an informal meeting on Friday regarding the resolution tabled by the US.

Ravinatha Aryasinha, the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva said:

"The Government of Sri Lanka does not recognise resolution 19/2 and maintains its consistent position that, through resolutions of this nature, what is being perpetuated is a politicized process in a manner which is unfair, biased, unjust, and contrary to the principles of cooperation, genuine dialogue and the founding principles of universality, impartiality non selectivity, that should guide all member states in facilitating the method of engagement and the mandate of the Council."

The full text of his quotes, as outlined in the Asian Tribune, are reproduced below:

1. I am here today, as I do not wish to dismiss the interest taken in Sri Lanka by member and observer states, representatives of international organizations and civil society, irrespective of whether such interest is justified or not. GOSL always has, and continues to remain engaged with all parties seeking a respectful and constructive dialogue on how to move the process of reconciliation in Sri Lanka forward. We hope this spirit of engagement will be reciprocated, and that member and observer states of the HRC will view developments in Sri Lanka with an open mind.

Eight students of Loyola College in Tamil Nadu began a 'fast unto death' on Friday, making key demands including an independent, international inquiry into allegations of war crimes, and a referendum on Tamil Eelam for Tamils in the North-East.

Editorial - 'Sri Lanka lets itself down' - published in the australian newspaper, The Age on Saturday:

Tamil MPs and activists from the North-East who are in Geneva attending the UN Human Rights Council session currently underway, will be questioned and arrested on return if 'they have made statements detrimental to the unitary character of the state', said a prominent government minister to a Sinhala newspaper - Lakbima.

The Ministry of Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities of Sri Lanka announced that 20000 new houses were under construction to aid low income families.

The new construction phase is part of the 'Colombo city revival programme' which looks to construct 40,117 houses by the end of this year.

Bangladesh is now India’s largest trade partner in South Asia, replacing Sri Lanka at the top spot, reported The Island on Saturday.

A human rights group in Malaysia has called upon the country to vote against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, as the vote on the US-sponsored resolution at the council draws closer.

The Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice has demonstrated the growing militarisation in the North-East of the island, by releasing a set of info graphics earlier this week.

The graphics, released on the group's Facebook page, have been shared hundreds of times in the past few days alone.

See their Facebook page here.

A petition by Amnesty International in India, signed by over 1.4 million Indians, has been handed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office on Friday.

In its editorial on Thursday, The Guardian newspaper, called a row "over the unwisdom of choosing Sri Lanka as host of the next heads of government meeting".

See here. Reproduced in full below:

The Commonwealth is an organisation which normally bumps along well under the radar. What bounces it into prominence is a row. And the Commonwealth has a history of good rows, over issues that matter, like apartheid in South Africa, judicial murder in Nigeria or dictatorship in Zimbabwe, and on which it has been able to make a difference. Such moments make everyone pay attention to a body that many rather lazily think is not that relevant any longer. Few will remember, for instance, that this Monday is Commonwealth Day.

The Commonwealth is about due for another row, and indeed it desperately needs to have one on the unwisdom, weekly becoming more obvious, of choosing Sri Lanka as host for the next heads of government meeting in November this year. Otherwise we may find ourselves in the ludicrous situation of sending the Queen or Prince Charles off to a country which has very serious unresolved human rights charges hanging over it, which has yet to justify executive interference in the judiciary, or has failed to adequately investigate the killing of journalists. When our royals arrive they could therefore be in the unhappy position of giving credit to a gathering from which important countries and close allies, like Canada, may well have chosen to absent themselves. That would be a disaster for them, for Britain, and for the Commonwealth.

Simon Danczuk, MP for Rochdale in the UK, has pledged to urge the Queen to boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting later this year, in protest at the lack of justice for a British man murdered in Sri Lanka in 2011, reports AFP.