The JVP has said that the increase in the country’s crime rate is a consequence of the government's failure to take action against law-breaking senior government members.

Central JVP member K D Lalkantha said that this failure has led junior government members to adopt the attitude that they are also above the law, citing the recent cases of sexual abuse by ruling party members.

Published 23:15 BST

Marching in Stratford, by the site of the London 2012 Olympics, London Tamils remembered the events of Black July 1983 and protested against Sri Lanka's inclusion in the Olympics on Sunday.

The protest also marks the beginning of a 21-day hunger strike by activist, Gobi Sivanthan, by Stratford High Street station.

The editor of the Jaffna based Uthayan newspaper was interrogated for four hours by Sri Lanka's intelligence services - the CID, on Thursday, reported the news site Lanka Truth.

See here.

According to an article published by LankaTruth on 18th July, when asked by a Sri Lankan newspaper about white van abductions, Sri Lanka's no nonsense defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, replied that 'only criminals are abducted by white vans'.

Clarifying the definition of "criminal", Gotabhaya explained 'only those who had raped ten or fifteen women has been taken in white vans'.

The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE), an election monitor in Sri Lanka has accused the ruling UPFA and its ally the SLMC, and the main opposition UNP of violating election laws, by campaigning from vehicles on the final day of nominations, reported ColomboPage on Friday.

Suspected LTTE members, who were taken into Sri Lankan government’s arbitrary arrest in 2009 and released after 'rehabilitation', continue to be harassed by Sri Lanka’s intelligence services – the CID, reports Uthayan and TamilNet.

According to reports, 'rehabilitated' members have been identified by CID operatives, interrogated and even severely beaten.

Last week, in Nadangkandal, CID operatives on motorbikes stopped two 'rehabilitated' LTTE members, before taking him to a school were he was severely beaten, reports Uthayan.