Seven Bangladeshi sailors, held hostage by Somali pirates for almost four years, finally returned home Thursday, saying it was "unbelievable" to be alive and describing their ordeal as "like hell."

The sailors, who had been held in dire conditions and suffered beatings, flew into the Bangladeshi capital after the foreign ministry said they were freed last week after lengthy negotiations. 

Sri Lanka vowed Tuesday it will not cooperate with a United Nations war crimes investigation confirmed by the U.N. human rights chief, describing the probe as setting a "dangerous precedent."

Sri Lanka told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva that it would not assist the investigation into widespread allegations of rights abuses and mass killings of civilians in the final stages of its decades-long separatist war.

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered the release of 29 Indian fishermen held on poaching charges, officials said Tuesday, in a move to ease tensions over illegal fishing.

Unusually heavy monsoon rains have flooded Sri Lanka's capital and neighboring districts where mudslides killed at least 13 people, officials said Monday.

The island's western and southern regions experienced heavy rains with more than 100 millimetres (four inches) dumped within about one hour on Sunday, an official at the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said.

A Sri Lankan asylum-seeker has died after setting himself on fire while awaiting a visa decision in Australia, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said Monday, with a Tamil group claiming he was "living in great fear".

Leorsin Seemanpillai, 29, who was living in Geelong, outside Melbourne, after being granted a temporary visa a year ago, suffered burns to 90 percent of his body after the incident on Saturday morning.

Sri Lanka's navy said Sunday it had seized 29 Indian fishermen, the  first arrests since President Mahinda Rajapakse and India's new premier held talks on resolving the thorny issue of poaching.

The navy arrested the Indians along with six trawlers off the island's northwest coast on Sunday, a navy statement said.

Three men suspected of being Tamil Tigers have been arrested in Malaysia, a top police official said Sunday, accusing them of attempting to revive the Sri Lankan separatist group.

Khalid Abu Bakar, inspector-general of police, said the trio, who had been in Malaysia since 2004, were arrested in multiple raids in the central Selangor state on May 15, and were being held under the Immigration Act.

President Mahinda Rajapakse led celebrations at a major victory parade Sunday to mark the fifth anniversary of the end of Sri Lanka's Tamil separatist war, after banning commemorations for its victims.

As the envoys of Western nations stayed away from the parade, a defiant Rajapakse insisted he would not bow to pressure from foreign critics who are pushing him to investigate claims that tens of thousands of people died in the final stages of the conflict. 

Sri Lanka's police broke up a remembrance service for ethnic Tamils killed in the separatist war, residents said Saturday, as the military prepared to celebrate its victory over Tamil Tiger rebels five years ago.

Tamil politicians attempted to stage the remembrance on Friday at local council offices in the northern battle-scarred town of Jaffna, defying a ban on public commemorations of war victims, witnesses said.

Sri Lanka has banned public commemorations of Tamil Tiger rebels ahead of the fifth anniversary of rebel supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran's killing which marked the end of the war, a military spokesman said Sunday.

Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said public events to commemorate Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels killed in the final battle of the decades-long separatist war were barred as the organization remained outlawed.