The American reggae band ‘Big Mountain’ have refused an invitation to perform at a reggae festival in Sri Lanka, citing concerns over “systemic violence” towards “indigenous populations” in the country.

The band stated that whilst they were keen to spread their message of peace, a performance in the country at such a time would serve to “gloss over or legitimate” their concerns of violence that transpired during the war in the country.

In a statement published on their Facebook site yesterday, the group said:

The home of Dr Jeyakumar, a cancer specialist at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, was attacked a masked gang on Wednesday night, reports TamilNet.

See here for article on TamilNet and photographs of the crime scene.

Repeating a common falsehood, Sri Lanka’s President Rajapakse recently lambasted the Tamil diaspora as not having spent a penny on helping the Tamils of the Vanni.

After announcing the closure of a number of embassies in Europe deemed as not serving Sri Lanka's interests, Sri Lanka has appointed an ambassador to Turkey - Bharthi Wijeratne.

In an interview to Sudar Oli, the Sri Lankan military’s army commander in Jaffna, Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe admitted that land in Jaffna was being taken by the military to build army camps, but dismissed the allegations of land invasion.

Sri Lanka's trade deficit for April widened by 2.6 percent year-on-year to $761 million, reported the Reuters news agency.

The export of tea fell 9.3 percent in April, after a record fall in January - April of 11.7 percent.

The export of textiles and garments was also reported to have dropped, 2.2 percent in April.

The Sri Lankan envoy to Australia and New Zealand has claimed that Tamil refugees, fleeing the island, are ‘paid’ by smugglers to make the dangerous journey across the Indian Ocean.

In a radio interview by Ashley Hall on the AM program on ABC radio, Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe said that Sri Lanka has evidence that these payments have been made.

Extracts from the interview:

ASHLEY HALL: Who are the people on board these boats? Who's trying to leave Sri Lanka?

THISARA SAMARASINGHE: Oh they were a mix of people who were persuaded to come over by various organisations who were trying to get them out of Sri Lanka for whatever the reasons that they have.

There were economic concerns and they have been paid...

ASHLEY HALL: They have been paid?

THISARA SAMARASINGHE: Yeah, in the sense they have not paid for the moment and we do not know the exact arrangements, and I would prefer to keep this information with ourselves or with the investigators because they are continuing to stop and that has resulted in the 113 people being stopped before they boarded a vessel.

ASHLEY HALL: But you have evidence that people were paid to get on a vessel and travel to Australia and seek asylum?

THISARA SAMARASINGHE: They have evidence. They have not paid, the racketeers, these human smugglers, these international racket band, they do this for various reasons - for money, for…

Writing in The Guardian's Comment is Free section, the newspaper's readers' editor, Chris Elliott, expressed regret over the paper's decision last week to include a 24-page promotional Sri Lanka supplement in the same issue as the newspaper's reporting of on-going torture of deportees.

The US has granted seven further countries, including Sri Lanka, exemptions from sanctions for importing Iranian oil.

South Africa, India, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Turkey were given a waiver from meeting a US deadline, which is looming at the end of this month, to reduce imports from Iran.

Students at the Eastern University boycotted lessons for the third day on Saturday, protesting against the appointment of a paramilitary backed appointment of Dr Jaffer to the university's governing council, reports TamilNet.