A 14-year-old pupil was arrested after he attacked at least 20 pupils with a 8mm medical needle at a school.The incident, involving what is believed to be a diabetic insulin pen, happened at Toot Hill School in Bingham, Nottingham, on Wednesday.Parents were informed of the incident and advised to get their children tested for infections, although the risk is low, the school said.Nottinghamshire Police confirmed they had arrested a 14-year-old boy over an incident involving what is believed to be a diabetic pen at the school on Wednesday but described the injuries suffered by the pupils as “minor”.They refused to confirm reports the children had been taken to hospital.

A statement from the school on its website said: “The incident that occurred on June 13th has been dealt with by the school in a prompt and appropriate manner.”The investigation of the incident has not yet been completed, but we have established that a 14-year-old boy acquired a medical lancet (8mm in length) and used it to prick around 20 others.”The school’s first action was to contact the relevant parents and provide appropriate medical advice as ascertained from the Health Protection Agency.

“The agency emphasises the extremely low health risk associated with incidents of this nature.”The health authorities recognise that the school has followed all advice and procedures in caring and supporting our students and their families.”It is always important for a school to maintain a calm and supportive environment and to take a proportionate view of events in order to prevent unnecessary anxiety.”

General  Secretary of the JVP Tilvin Silva said today that the government was behind yesterdays shooting in Hambanthota. “It is clearly the work of the government and we have proof for it” he said.

Silva went onto point out that the government was trying to blame the incident on the parties internal rift when in reality it is not so. “ They are trying to blame the incident on the FSP , how can a party which cant find 2 or 3 people to walk on the pavement carry put a shooting” he said.

The secretary said that his party would take this issue internationally. “ We want to do our politics democratically and that right must be protected, we will take this shooting internationally and try and bring those responsible to the book” he said.

Responding to the allegations of the Sri Lankan government who  charged that the law enforcement authority in the UK had failed in its duty, spokesman for the British High Commission Sarah Mann said that Britain respects the legitimate right of its citizens to protest.  “ We respect the legitimate right of UK citizens to protest, but this has to be balanced with the right to free speech” she said.

Speaking on the cancellation of the proposed speech by President Rajapaksha at the Commonwealth Business Council, the spokesman said that the cancellation was not a government decision “ This was not a government decision: CBC is independent.  CBC took its decision after careful consideration of the potential impact that large-scale policing of the protests would have had on the City and we respect that decision. ” she said. (Hafeel Farisz)

At least two persons including a female were killed when a group of unidentified men on motorcycles opened fire at a JVP meeting at Katuwana in Hambantota this evening, police spokesman SP Ajith Rohana said.

The JVP blamed the incident on a government sponsored armed group led by a person notorious for unleashing violence against political opponents.

Party General Secretary Tilvin Silva told the Daily Mirror that the two victims were attending the pocket meeting organized by the party in the area. He said western provincial council member Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa was addressing the meeting at the time of the incident. “Around 7 in the evening, a group of about eight to ten arrived in several motor bikes and opened fire at the crowd in a frenzied mood. Two participants died and scores were injured,” he said.

Hambantota has been a hotbed of political violence in recent times. In the run up to the 2010 presidential election, an elderly woman was killed when armed men shot at a crowded bus carrying political supporters to a rally of common opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka. On Christmas eve last year, a British national was killed in a

melee at a tourist hotel in Tangalle, Hambantota. The main accused in the case was the chairman of the UPFA controlled Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha.

Police said the gunmen had arrived in three motor bikes to commit this crime. Around 100 supporters had attended this meeting organized by the JVP. According to initial investigations, T-56 guns had been used in this case. A special police team had been deployed to apprehend the perpetrators. JVP propaganda secretary Vijitha Herath said the meeting was conducted at the residence of a party supporter called Ranjith.

“The woman who died in the incident was his wife. A politically sponsored person is responsible for this killing spree. This person enjoys state security,” he said.

The leader of Sri Lanka’s major Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has blamed the translator who has translated the constitution of the alliance’s main constituent, Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), that had called for a separate state for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.

The TNA leader R. Sampanthan and parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran have told The Hindu that a certified translator has made a “deliberate false translation” of the ITAK constitution, which was in Tamil, to English and the translated sworn affidavit filed in the Supreme Court has portrayed the ITAK as a party that stood for secession of the Tamil parts from Sri Lanka.

“This could only be done with motive,” Sampanthan has said adding that the ITAK did not stand for a separate Tamil and a separate Muslim State in Sri Lanka.

A Sinhala nationalist political party in April filed a petition in Supreme Court of Sri Lanka calling to prohibit Tamil political parties that have the ‘separate state’ demand in their constitutions.

The petitioner Jayantha Liyanage, secretary of Sinhala National Front, has cited that the constitutions of TNA, ITAK, Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) and Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) aim to establish a separate state.

The Sixth Amendment to Sri Lanka’s Constitution, enacted in August 1983, prohibits political parties from having as one of their aims the establishment of a separate State.

Sri Lanka’s Sinhala nationalist Buddhist monk party Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) also said that it has decided to take legal action against the TNA leader for his statements regarding formation of a Tamil Eelam state during the ITAK convention held in Batticaloa last month.

The JHU pointed out that the statements made by Sampanthan are against the Article 157 (2) in Chapter 20 of the Constitution which states that “No political party or other association or organisation shall have as one of its aims or objects the establishment of a separate State within the territory of Sri Lanka.”

During the ITAK convention the Tamil National Alliance leader has said the party’s expectation for a solution to the ethnic problem of the sovereignty of the Tamil people is based on a political structure outside that of a unitary government, in a united Sri Lanka in which Tamil people have all the powers of government needed to live with self-respect and self-sufficiency.

“We believe that only within such a structure of government can the Tamil people truly enjoy the right to internal self-determination that is their inalienable right,” Sampanthan has said in his speech.

He has said that the acceptance of a solution that goes beyond the 13th Amendment is to appease the international community since it would be the one that is likely to be acceptable to members of the international community including India and the United States.

He has asked the Tamil community to be patient in arriving of a solution to the ethnic problem as they have to prove to the international community that their efforts for a solution are doomed to fail.

“We must prove to the international community that we will never be able to realize our rights within a united Sri Lanka. We must be patient until the international community realizes for itself that the effort we are involved in is doomed to fail,” Sampanthan has said.

” You must build the genuine unity that is necessary to create an untainted force that will lead the Tamil Nation,” he has asked the Tamil people of the North and East.

Sri Lanka’s former army chief-turned-opposition leader vowed Thursday to topple the government in elections due by 2016, calling the administration corrupt and dictatorial in a speech three weeks after emerging from prison.

Sarath Fonseka, once a close ally of President Mahinda Rajapaksa but now a bitter enemy, said he was in talks with other opposition lawmakers to come up with a common election strategy against Rajapaksa’s administration.

“We must topple this corrupt government,” he said, in his first news conference since his May 21 release from prison.

Elections, however, are not due for another four years, and the current government is unlikely to want to call early elections because it now controls two-thirds of the parliament’s seats. Also, Fonseka himself is barred from running for another seven years because of his prison term, although he said would spearhead the opposition in the interim.

“I can speak on election platforms, I could form a political party and be its leader and could lead the masses,” he said.

After challenging Rajapaksa in 2010 elections, Fonseka was charged and convicted of fraud – and later of additional charges – in what he and his supporters said was a political vendetta by Rajapaksa’s administration.

The government has denied those allegations, and had no immediate reaction to Fonseka’s comments Thursday.

Fonseka was freed as a result of a presidential pardon by Rajapaksa, which was issued following intense pressure from both the former army chief’s local supporters and foreign governments, including the United States, which called him a “political prisoner.”

Fonseka, on Thursday, accused the government of nepotism. One of Rajapaksa’s brothers is the parliament speaker, another is defense secretary and a third is minister of economic development.

Fonseka also complained about a constitutional amendment pushed through by Rajapaksa’s ruling coalition in 2010 that boosted the president’s control over the judiciary, police and elections officials, while eliminating term limits for the presidency.

Rajapaksa and Fonseka were both considered war heroes by the Sinhalese majority for crushing the Tamil rebels in 2009, ending a quarter-century civil war that killed 80,000 to 100,000 people

But they fell out months after the war ended and the general quit the army after accusing Rajapaksa of sidelining him, suspecting a military coup. Their relationship further deteriorated after Fonseka challenged Rajapaksa in the presidential election in 2010.