Sri Lankan security forces have been accused of continuing to use torture, rape and other sexual violence against suspected members of the Tamil Tiger rebels by an international rights group.

Residents in Sri Lanka’s Tamil heartland were forbidden from leaving their homes today after a mob of angry Tamils hacked a top police officer to death and threw stones at military vehicles.

The Tamil Tiger rebels and Sri Lanka’s government must take immediate steps to resume peace talks or the country could return to civil war, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage warns.

SRI LANKA’S president has declared a state of emergency, deepening the country’s political crisis as her political rival was set to meet with US President George W Bush in Washington.