Sri Lankan cricketer Lasith Malinga paid tribute to former president and accused war criminal Mahinda Rajapaksa in a farewell speech last week, after he announced his retirement from One Day International cricket.

“I was able to play cricket longer than expected only because of President Mahinda Rajapaksa,” Malinga told the crowd at the Ranasinghe Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. “I am forever grateful for his help.”

Former Tamil political activist, Mr Kaviraj Shanmuganathan, was denied entry into Sri Lanka upon arrival at Bandaranaike International Airport on Monday.

Upon enquiry, he was told he was denied entry as he was listed as someone who worked against the sovereignty and interests of the country.

He was then told that he could voluntarily return a country of his choice or go back to the UK where he could make an application to visit with the permission of Sri Lanka’s Defence Ministry. He would need to contact  Sri Lanka’s High Commission in London. 

The Sri Lankan military declared open a new village, exclusively run by the army, in the Tamil heartland of Kilinochchi last week.

<p>Seven Tamil Nadu fishermen were arrested by Sri Lankan naval personnel on Sunday for allegedly fishing in the island's territorial waters.&nbsp;</p> <p>The fishermen claimed that the strong winds and rough seas caused them to cross&nbsp;the International Maritime Boundary Line.</p> <p>They were charged for poaching in Sri Lanka's territory, their boat was seized and they were arrested.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Kurunegala Magistrate’s Court has granted bail to a Muslim doctor, Mohamed Shafi, who was falsely accused of having sterilised over 4,000 Sinhala women.</p> <p>Safi was given bail of 2.5 million rupees after a five-hour court hearing.&nbsp;</p> <p>His defence lawyer, Faris Saly, that when he was initially arrested in May, the judge found “no reason to refuse bail”.</p> <p>Nationalist Buddhist monks and other locals had crowded outside of the court to demand his continued detention. They allege that Muslims are seeking to spread influence by maintaining a higher birth rate and hampering the birthrate of Sinhala Buddhists.</p>

The Tamil Academic Journal has launched its first conference focusing on “Tamil Resistance in the 21st Century” at Kingston University on July 6. 

The Sri Lankan government has expressed its unhappiness with the amount of India aid money it has been allocated and requested a larger amount, reports India Today.

Though Indian aid to Sri Lanka has increased from Rs 150 crores last year to Rs 250 crore, it still lags behind other coutnries such as the Maldives who have been allocated Rs 576 crore and Mauritius who will be receiving Rs 1,100 crores.

The allocation “has left Colombo feeling a trifle slighted,” said India Today.

“Colombo feels the amount is "not in keeping with its requirements" and would like aid amount to be reviewed by India,” reports the news magazine.

Muslims in Sri Lanka have continued to face racist harassment, with reports that a pig’s head was hung in front of a Muslim store - the latest in a string of incidents to hit the community since the Easter Sunday attacks earlier this year.

"Sinhala Buddhist hegemonic majoritarianism that prevails in Sri Lanka is very dangerous," said rights campaigner Nuwan Athukorala.

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Boris Johnson has been appointed as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with a new cabinet that includes many politicians that have spoken out in support of British Tamils.

We examine key figures in the new cabinet and their previous statements on the British Tamil community, justice for mass atrocities and the enduring ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan authorities apply laws in discriminatory ways, with Tamil protests and gatherings in the North-East disproportionately facing crackdowns, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association said last week.

The special rapporteur Clément Nyaletsossi Voulé said in his closing statement of his official trip to the island that although Sri Lanka had a comprehensive legal framework governing the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, this was “scattered in different sets of laws and regulations which seem to be interchangeably enforced”.