A Tamil-run bakery in Paris can claim the title of having the best Pain au Chocolat in all of the French capital, and the second best in the whole country, after a hard fought national competition last week.

Sugeetharan Sigamani narrowly missed out on first place and the ‘Master du Pain au Chocolat’ title, but can still boast of having the best chocolate filled pastry in Paris as he battled it out amongst dozens of professional bakers.

The Sri Lankan government announced that three retired military personnel, who are all accused of committing atrocities, have been appointed as international diplomats in a move that may be aimed at shielding them from prosecutions for war crimes.

Ravindra Chandrasiri Wijegunaratne was appointed High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Damith Nishantha Sirisoma Ulugetenne was appointed High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to the Republic of Cuba and Sudarshan Karagoda Pathirana was appointed Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Nepal.

The US ambassador to Sri Lanka spoke of her government’s “enduring security partnership” and “joint training opportunities” with Colombo, after meeting with a former Sri Lankan commander who stands credibly accused of war crimes.

Julie Chung posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on her meeting with Kamal Gunaratne last week.

Students at the University of Jaffna paid tribute to former student union leader Sellathurai Purusothaman, who was killed 15 years ago along with another Tamil youth by the Sri Lankan Army.

Students at the University of Jaffna cleaned a memorial on the campus and lit flames this evening, as they began preparations for Maaveerar Naal, a day to commemorate those who gave their lives in the struggle for Tamil Eelam.

Maaveerar Naal is marked on November 27 in memory of the first death of a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadre (LTTE), Lt. Shankar who died in combat on November 27, 1982. The date is marked by Eelam Tamils across the island and around the world.

Sri Lanka’s Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) interrogated Uthayan journalist Dileep Amuthan for over 4 hours this week, as they questioned him about a 2020 article on Maaveerar Naal, a national day of remembrance for Eelam Tamils.

Amuthan was summoned to the TID headquarters in Colombo on Wednesday, where he was questioned on the article. He was also interrogated on the paper’s publishing of images and quotes of Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), on his birthday, 26 November 2020.

The Tamil-owned telecoms company Lycamobile has had its former CEO convicted and was ordered to pay a fine of €10 million after being found guilty of money laundering and fraud by a French court last month, just weeks after the company launched a Sri Lankan production arm looking to boost Sinhala-language cinema.

The verdict in the Parisian court comes after years of controversial practices by the multimillion-dollar company, which is reported to have links with the war crimes accused Rajapaksa family in Sri Lanka, and is looking to expand its operations on the island further.

Today marks sixteen years since S. P. Thamilselvan, the head of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was assassinated by the Sri Lankan air force (SLAF).

In cities across Europe, thousands of Tamils marked Tamil Eelam Women's Uprising Day this month, paying tribute to 2nd Lt. Maalathy, the first female fighter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to lose her life in the Tamil armed struggle.

See photographs from events across Europe below.

On October 30, 1995, over half a million Tamil men, women and children fled their homes in Jaffna as the Sri Lankan military launched a military offensive to capture the peninsula, under the leadership of then president Chandrika Kumaratunga.