A Tamil councillor with an independent political party has been gunned down in Colombo this week.

Colombo Municipal Councillor Krishnapillai Kirubanandan was killed in a shooting that took place on Sea Street, in the southern capital.

The murder was captured on CCTV, which shows the killer walking into a shop that the councillor worked at before shooting him dead.

A Sri Lankan military regiment celebrated its anniversary by donating blood in Jaffna last month, despite previous controversial comments from military and government officials on how the blood of Sinhalese soldiers runs in Tamils that have received treatment.

A delegation from China’s People’s Liberation Army visited Sri Lanka In May to check up on another Chinese funded project on the island – the construction of an auditorium at the Sri Lanka Military Academy.

David McKinnon, the Canadian ambassador to Sri Lanka, met with Tamil residents of Iranaitivu this week to discuss the ongoing issues around resettlement in their military occupied land.

A Tamil disappearances activist was attacked yesterday, just days after she was harassed by Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department.

The activist, a families of the disappeared protester, returned last week after attending the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva.

CID officers visited her home on 6th July, the day after she returned and questioned her about why she went to Geneva and what she spoke about.

The activist said she told the officers that she had spoken about her disappeared husband and that all her speeches were in the media if they wanted to check.

Sri Lanka's Minister of Buddhasasana announced on Tuesday that the cabinet had decided to implement the death penalty for those convicted of drug trafficking. 

Making the announcement, the Buddhasasana minister, Gamini Jayawickrama Perara said "as the Ministry of Buddhasasana, I never take decisions on my own. My Chief advisers are Mahanayakas, Anunayakas and Lekakadhikari Theras including the Maha Sangha"

All the Maha Sangha, senior Buddhist clergy, have agreed to the decision, the Colombo Page reported. 

A Buddhist monk was arrested today for allegedly strangling a police officer to death. 

The officer is understood to have been investigating the monk over an allegation of paedophilia when he entered the temple in Ratnapura the monk was believed to be, after the monk ignored the court summons. 

Local papers reported the monk pushed the officer, who had arrived alone, to the ground and strangled him with his bare hands. 

The officer was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Sri Lanka's law and order minister, Ranjith Madduma Bandara is to visit the North-East on Thursday in order to "defuse the pro-LTTE mindset in the area", his deputy said at a news conference. 

The deputy minister of law and order, Nalin Bandara Jayamaha and the Inspector General of Police, Pujith Jayasundara are to accompany Mr Bandara on his visit to the Northern province. 

“We will gather all stakeholders and will try to resolve matters,” the Mr Jayamaha said. 

Members of a Jaffna temple board have been harassed almost daily by Sri Lankan security forces, police and intelligence personnel since their deity was displayed with a Tamil homeland-shaped backdrop on the final night of the temple's annual festival (thiruvizha).

The Swiss Federal Criminal Court decided last month that it would not hand down jail terms to 13 Tamils accused of fundraising for the LTTE, stating that there was not enough proof to consider the group a criminal organisation.

Eight of the thirteen accused Tamils were acquitted of all charges, whilst the remainder were given suspended prison terms for fraud. 

The judges ruled that the “hierarchical link between the LTTE and WTCC was not sufficiently established” and that “there was not enough concrete proof to consider the LTTE as a criminal organisation.”