The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, will hold talks with senior judicial figures during her visit to Sri Lanka this month.

Her office confirmed today that she will make an official visit to Sri Lanka from 25 to 2013, at the invitation of the Sri Lankan Government.

Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa will meet the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navaneetham Pillai to brief her on the security situation in the country and on accountability when she arrives in the island, said Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Jagath Jayasuriya.
 
“Her visit, the CHOGM, the elections in North and UN HR session will directly impact on national security. Therefore we have to maintain law and order,” he said yesterday at a media briefing on the present security situation

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has postponed a scheduled meeting with some media representatives today saying there were some “developments” in Weliweriya.

The Free Media Movement (FMM) was among those called for the meeting with the HRCSL this morning.

According to the FMM, the meeting had been postponed after they were told by the HRCSL that they had to seek an urgent meeting with the army.

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa today appointed a three-member committee to investigate the missing persons cases during the three-decade long war.

The Commission to Investigate Missing Persons is tasked with investigating cases of persons from the Northern and Eastern Provinces who went missing during the war.

This is just one of a number of recent and troubling attacks targeting the Muslim community in that country. It is of utmost importance that every person is able to practise his or her faith free from the threat of violence.

Bennett, a 40-year-old Catholic and academic was named the first head of Office of Religious Freedom in February. He has been the dean of Augustine College, a small, private Christian liberal arts college in Ottawa, since February 2011. He teaches the history of Christianity there and is completing a part-

The Fort police is to go to court over the opposition protest staged yesterday which had violated a court ruling.

Police spokesman SP Budhika Siriwardena said that the police will file the case with the Colombo Additional Magistrate.

A UNICEF commissioned report says there is an increase in child marriages in Sri Lanka.

UNICEF commissioned a qualitative inquiry to better understand why children were marrying young and what could be done about it.

The inquiry was based on a 2009 desk review, which suggested that early marriage and statutory rape might be on the increase in Sri Lanka, particularly in less developed districts.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa Thursday hoped that India will soon regain its rights over the Katchatheevu island that was ceded to Sri Lanka in 1974.

In her Independence Day speech in Chennai, Jayalalithaa also said that her government was taking steps to protect people from inflation due to the central government's wrong economic policies.

"I have faith in re-establishing our rights in Katchatheevu," she said after unfurling the national flag at the state secretariat Fort St. George.

The New Zealand Consulate Senaka de Silva in Colombo  rejected reports claiming that the Foreign Minister of New Zealand, Murray McCully will undertake a visit to Sri Lanka, to discuss the controversial ban on Fonterra’s milk powder.

The Foreign Minister of New Zealand has made no such decision to visit the country, Senaka Silva, the Consul General for New Zealand in Sri Lanka told a local newspaper.

The European Union (EU) has joined the U.S. in raising concerns over Sri Lanka's political and religious rights after three people were killed in an army shooting and a Buddhist mob attacked a mosque, the bloc said in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement comes days after a mob allegedly led by Buddhist monks attacked a mosque in Colombo.