The Karaithuraipattu (Maritimepattu) divisional council (prathesa sabai) in Mullaitivu has resolved to stop a Buddhist vihara from being constructed on Tamil people’s land in Semmalai East - Neeraviyadi.

An attempt is underway to appropriate Tamil-owned land to construct a vihara in the area. Surveyors attempted to access the land on July 3rd to inspect the land but failed due to protest and resistance by locals.

The Sri Lankan Army engaged in preparations for a large-scale event in Jaffna Town to mark the handover of ambulances funded by India.

Sri Lanka’s Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) summoned the Associate Editor of Rivira Sunday newspaper to discuss an article published last month which spoke of possible LTTE activity in the North-East.

Associate Editor Tissa Ravindra Perera delivered a statement to the TID earlier this morning. The article published last month was on the reported recovery of claymore mines in Oddusuddan in Mullaitivu.

British DUP parliamentarian Ian Paisley Jr is under pressure to resign from his post, after being found guilty of accepting all expenses paid trips funded by the Sri Lankan government, before he lobbied against an United Nations Human Rights Council resolution.

Mr Paisley Jr has been suspended from the British parliament for 30 days after a damning report by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards said his actions amounted to “paid advocacy”.

The DUP’s party leader Arlene Foster told BBC News NI that she had received a personal apology from Mr Paisley. However, when asked if he had her full support, Mrs Foster said “the issue was now a matter for party officers”.

The Tamil diaspora across the world held a series of rallies earlier this month, in solidarity with families of the disappeared in the North-East who have been protesting for over 500 days.

Hundreds attended protests in their respective cities and supported the call for international pressure onto the Sri Lankan government to meet the families’ demands.

A gang of men on motorbikes smashed up a home in a Jaffna Town suburb on Thursday night.

The men were armed with swords and also used iron rods and axes to break things in the house.

They threatened the home's residents and broke the house's doors and windows and also threw a petrol bomb before leaving the vicinity.

The attack took place at a home on Thamarai Road in Vannarpannai.

Father Sakthivel, the head of the National Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners, urged the government to release all political prisoners. 

Speaking at a meeting with the organisation and the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), R Sampanthan, Father Sakthivel said around 107 political prisoners were currently imprisoned. 

The past 3 years have seen a number of protests across the North-East of families of those imprisoned calling for their release. Many have been held without charge indefinitely under Sri Lanka's notorious anti-terror legislation, the Prevention of Terrorism Act. 

A Tamil refugee, deported from Australia this week and detained by Sri Lankan police on arrival in Colombo, has been charged by the Sri Lankan authorities for illegally leaving the country. 

The offence is understood to carry a maximum sentence of a fine of 200,000 rupees and prison term of five years.

Thileepan Gnaneswaran, a 30 year old father of one was deported after his application for a temporary protection visa was denied.

There is "absolutely no threat to the security in the Northern region" the state minister for defence, Ruwan Wijewardene was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying. 

"Certain groups of people are making groundless statements to incite fear in public," he reportedly added whilst speaking at an event in Diyagama. 

In recent days Sri Lankan government officials have sought to reassure the Sinhala electorate that there was no threat to national security in the North-East and that there would be no demilitarise of the area or removal of army camps. 

Sri Lankan Navy personnel have returned a food hall of the Varatharaja Perumal Kovil in Ponnalai after having occupied it for 23 years.

After the Army captured the area from the LTTE in 1995, the coast from Ponnalai to Keerimalai became inaccessible to civilians with only the Sri Lankan Navy occupying the region.