A machete-wielding gang reportedly attack three different shops in Jaffna last week, as crime in the peninsula continues.

Three places were reportedly targeted by a gang on the night of October 5. The gang comprised of 6 people, vandalised shops and a vehicle in Nachchimar Kovilady, Oddumadam, and Thami Lane, between 8.45 pm and 9.30 pm that evening.

Tamil National Alliance leader R Sampanthan warned British minister Mark Field that failure to include a “genuine power-sharing arrangement” in any new constitution for Sri Lanka “will lead this country once again towards violence,” in a meeting in Colombo last week.

Sampanthan told the minister that “we don’t want our young people to return to violence,” however pointed out that “the demands of the Tamil people for a genuine power-sharing arrangement must be addressed through a new Constitution”.

British Tamils staged a protest in Oxford yesterday evening, as Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe addressed the Oxford Union.

Sri Lanka’s prime minister has spoken out against international involvement in investigations, during his talk at the Oxford Union today.

“At the moment we don’t feel there is a need for foreign input into these investigations,” Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said, according to a tweet by the union.

A senior US State Department official will urge Sri Lanka to make progress on transitional justice and accountability, as well as on human rights, reconciliation and constitutional reform.

Alice Wells, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, will travel to Sri Lanka and the Maldives this week.

The Tamil Youth Organisation UK (TYO) has condemned the Oxford Union’s invitation to Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is set to speak on the ‘geopolitics of the Indian Ocean region’ later today.

Dozens of protestors gathered in London yesterday to protest against Sri Lanka’s Northern Province Governor Reginald Cooray, who is visiting London this week.

Thousands of people have signed a petition that was delivered to the United Nations and Canadian parliament last week, calling for action to be taken over the disappearances of tens of thousands of Tamils as families of the disappeared continue to protest across the North-East.

Vijayakala Maheswaran, a Tamil parliamentarian with the UNP, has been arrested by Sri Lankan police this morning over a speech she gave earlier this year which faced criticism from cross-party Sinhala politicians for calling for a resurgence of the LTTE in order to curb crime rates in North-East.

Maheswaran has since been released on a Rs 500,000 bail, after being produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate.

Four Tamil political prisoners hunger-striking in Colombo’s Magazine prison have been admitted to hospital.

The four - Seethagopal Arumugam, Rasathurai Jeyanthan, Thevasahayam Uthayakumar and Joseph Sebastian - were admitted following a decline in their health, four days after starting the hunger strike.

Gunshots were fired at a tractor carrying sand, in Jaffna on Saturday according to local reports.

The incident took place around 6pm on Saturday in Maniyanthoddam where illegal sand mining has become an issue locally.

The driver of the tractor said two unknown men tried to stop the vehicle. The driver did not stop but drove away faster, to which one of the men shot at the vehicle with a pistol.

Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) announced that yet another Sri Lankan navy chief was involved in the abduction and murder of Tamil youths in 2008, and is actively supressing evidence and ‘keeping tabs’ on key witnesses involved in the case.

Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa met with current president and former political rival Maithripala Sirisena earlier this week, as reports over a possible coalition between the two continue.

A revamped Counter Terrorism Bill will be presented in Sri Lanka’s parliament this week, reports the Sunday Times.

The bill has reportedly been approved by Sri Lanka’s cabinet and would criminalise acts that will cause “harm to the territorial integrity or sovereignty of Sri Lanka”.