Murdered Tamil MP's funeral held

Mr Raviraj was considered a moderate Tamil MP

Pro-Tamil Tiger politician, Nadarajah Raviraj, has been cremated in northern Sri Lanka five days after he was killed in capital Colombo.

Thousands of people gathered in his native Jaffna district, 400km (250 miles) north of Colombo, to pay their last respects.

Businesses in the north and east of the country were shut, and supporters in Jaffna raised black flags in mourning.

Violence has claimed about 3,000 lives this year, the government says.

Mr Raviraj is the second pro-rebel politician to have been killed in a year in Sri Lanka.

He was shot by an unidentified gunman as he left his house in the capital last Friday and died later in hospial.

Mr Raviraj represented Jaffna for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) coalition in parliament.

The TNA is linked to the Tamil Tigers, who are fighting for autonomy in the north and east.

Another TNA politician, Joseph Pararajasingham, was killed in Batticaloa, 300km (189 miles) east of Colombo last December.

Abducted

Meanwhile, unidentified gunmen have abducted four ethnic Tamil teenagers in Batticaloa district, the pro-rebel TamilNet website said.

It said the students were working on a tsunami construction site when they were seized late on Tuesday.

The incident came a day after a United Nations official accused Sri Lankan security forces of recruiting children for a breakaway rebel faction fighting the Tamil Tigers.

The authorities denied the charge. The Tamil Tigers have often been accused of having child soldiers in their ranks.