Amnesty International on Wednesday called on Sri Lanka to withdraw its plans to implement the death penalty for drug trafficking offences. 

This week the country's ministry of Buddhasasana announced that the cabinet had decided to implement it, and to include 19 prisoners currently on death row. 

The body of a young woman was found in a home in Mayilaampaaveli village, Eravur.

The woman was identified as a 35 year old mother named Thayaanithi Vasanthakumar. 

Her body has been taken to Batticaloa Teaching Hospital for a post mortem examination. 

A member of the Nallur divisional council (prathesa sabai) has been threatened by army intelligence personnel for bringing resolutions against militarisation in the council.

Council member S. Sivaloganathan told the council yesterday that he had received phone calls from intelligence officers where he had been asked in a threatening tone why he was bringing resolutions against the Sri Lankan military forces, such as resolutions calling for the return of land occupied by the army.

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.