The US issued a security warning on potential election related violence to its citizens living or travelling in Sri Lanka.

Advising citizens to stay away from political rallies and demonstrations, the statement said,

A vehicle owned by Sri Lanka’s first lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa has been linked to the murder of a Sri Lankan national rugby player Wasim Thajudeen.

Three members of Sri Lanka's former Presidential Security Division (PSD) are suspected to be responsible for the murder, reports economy next.

The United People’s Freedom Alliance accused the United National Party government of furthering interests of multinationals by privatising water rights to allow companies to provide services to Sri Lanka.

Addressing media at the Sri Lanka Freedom Party Headquarters, former minister Wimal Weerawansa said that the government moves would make people pay taxes for water, adding,

“We will cancel that Cabinet paper under a UPFA government after August 17.”

Sri Lankan soldiers organised a volleyball tournament for schoolchildren in Mullaitivu last month, reports an army website.

Troops from the 62 division, dressed in full military uniform, alongside a parade of traditional Sinhala dancers, opened the tournament which was held in Weli Oya on 30 July.

Brigadier KGD Perera, commanding officer of the 62 Division, was the chief guest at the event, which was also sponsored by Nestle, with a sales executive handing over prizes to the winning teams.

See more of Sri Lanka’s militarisation of schools in the North-East in our previous posts:

Continuing militarisation of Tamil school children across North-East (17 Feb 2015)

Northern Provincial Councillor MK Shivajilingam in a letter today urged the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussain, to consider a purely international mechanism to address accountability in Sri Lanka.

The councillor highlighted ongoing abuses and said the Tamil nation was being "systematically destroyed".

He also requested the high commissioner to take measures to "judicially address the genocide against the Tamil people", and to press Sri Lanka to sign and ratify the Rome statute, in order to prevent further atrocities and protect the Tamil population.

"The Tamil people have been subjected to Genocide and massacres, their churches and temples have been destroyed, their lands have been taken away, their rights have been denied, and they have been oppressed and occupied. The injustice against the Tamils continues even at this very moment," Mr Shivajilingam said.

The Sri Lankan military held Buddhist ceremonies across the North-East last month, to call for blessings to be invoked on soldiers.

A ceremony was held in Kilinochchi and another in Mullaitivu, as Sri Lankan troops marked “Poya Day” on 31 July.

Troops and commanding officers dressed in white and gave offerings to Buddhist monks, whilst praying at the viharas.

A military website reported the events “invoked blessings on serving Army personnel and transferred merits on fallen War Heroes”.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe vowed that the UNP-led UNFGG would do "its utmost to preserve Theravada Buddhism", while speaking to monks at a conference in Battaramulla.

The prime minister pledged to set up a "dhamma council" to resolve issues affecting Buddhism.

The Sri Lankan president has ordered the Presidential Security Division (PSD) to step down due to reports it may have been involved with murders, and has instead chosen to replace it with the Special Task Force (STF).

Economy Next reports a government official as saying "the PSD will be completely replaced by the STF", due to links to high-profile murders, including that of a rugby player in 2012.

"The process is taking place as we speak,” said the official. “It will be completed in the next 48 hours".

The unit is to however be replaced by Sri Lanka’s Special Task Force, an infamous elite unit that has also been linked to massacres of Tamils and egregious human rights abuses.

The STF is accused of conducting numerous massacres including the killing of five students in Trincomalee in 2006 and the massacre of 17 aid workers of the French NGO Action Contre La Faim (ACF) in the same year. Reports of killings stretch even further back with STF officers also accused of killing 83 Tamils in Kokkadichcholai on January 27 1987.

No member of the STF has ever been prosecuted for any of the killings.