The Commonwealth Secretariat will extend support to Sri Lanka to strengthen human resource management at the state sector.

The Secretariat through the move aims to empower the state sector institutions and to enhance efficiency in state institutions.

The Ministry of Finance says the Commonwealth Secretariat will also help to establish a special unit to prepare international level policies for the well-being of the state sector.

Asserting that it attaches no "conditionalities" to assistance to countries including Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldivesand Bangladesh, India today said it also does not "challenge national sovereignty" of these nations and noted such aids were demand driven and mutually beneficial.

It also cautioned against developed countries stopping ODA (Official Development Assistance) to their developing counterparts as suggested by the recent communique of the UN Secretary General on the post-2015 development agenda. <

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has proposed a 20 per cent cut in the American aid to Colombo, a move reflecting the unease in their ties over issues related to human rights, reconstruction and political integration in Sri Lanka after the end of the civil war.

It is believed to be the highest drop for any South Asian country in Mr. Kerry’s budgetary proposals, which was sent to the Congress last week for its approval.

In actual term, Mr. Kerry has proposed a USD 11 million in aid to Sri Lanka, which, accord

United America has urged Sri Lanka to conduct a credible investigation concerning the "Udayan" office attack.
 
The attack against the  main office of "Udayan" press located at Jaffna, Kasthuriyar Road was denounced by United America, and it has insisted to conduct a credible investigation  concerning to this attack incident.
 
US embassy located in Colombo, its Chief Public Affairs Officer Christopher Reels has expressed his statement condemning over twitter.

Rooms in hotels in Colombo and Wadduwa were booked by the government for the period of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November to accommodate the visitors.

However, expectations of an increase in revenue for the country’s hospitality sector due to the CHOGM scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka this November have fallen with a decline in the expected number of visitors to the country during the summit.

The following is a statement issued by a group of Asian jurists, who met from 9-11 April in Bangkok, to discuss about threats to professional freedom of lawyers and the independence of the judiciary in Asia. Jurists from Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam, and Hong Kong attended the consultation. The Asian Human Rights Commission along with the Lawyers' Collective of Sri Lanka organised the consultation.

It is a great honour that Hon Malcolm Fraser -Former Australian Prime Minister has endorsed the petition for Commonwealth Summit in Australia- Reconsider attending CHOGM 2013 in Sri Lanka launched jointly by ATC and Sri Lanka campaign for peace and justice.

Please sign and promote widely. https://www.change.org/petitions/prime-minister-reconsider-attending-chogm-2013-in-sri-lanka

Other eminent persons endorsing the campaign:

Over 25 Tamil asylum seekers are on hunger strike at a detention center in Melbourne, Australia.

Media reports said that the Tamils are seeking their release from detention or be given asylum.

The Tamils had launched the strike on April continued it since then with some of them falling sick.

At least five of the protesters had been hospitalized after falling sick during the hunger strike.

Sri Lanka Marxist party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) says that the party is currently engaged in gathering information about the Matale mass grave and that it would be shared with an independent judicial process.

The party states that it would not allow the matter of the Matale mass grave to be swept under the carpet.

JVP parliamentary group leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake has said that the party would not go before the commission of inquiry proposed by the President.

Private bus operators in Sri Lanka have threatened to launch a strike action between the 20th and 30th of this month to protest government's order to paint the buses.

The Private Bus Operators Association (PBOA) has informed of this move in writing to the President and the Private Transport Minister.

President of the PBOA Gemunu Wijerathna has said that the strike will be launched to protest against a new regulation introduced by the government on specific colors for passenger buses.