Sri Lankan President's UK visit sparks protest

A speech by Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapaksa during his visit to the UK has been cancelled after the Oxford Union Debating Society expressed concern over protests by the Tamil community.

The cancellation has sparked protests in Sri Lanka's capital where government supporters tried to overcome police barricades outside the British High Commission in Colombo.

Both the Tamil Tigers and Sri Lanka's government have been accused of committing "crimes against humanity" by human rights groups during the last year of its 26-year long conflict.