A Tamil political activist has been remanded by a Sri Lankan court over a hartal in protest at the appointment of former UPFA MP Hizbullah as governor of the Eastern Province last month.

Kanapathipillai Mohan, who heads the Thamizh Unarvaalar Amaippu, has had an order issued against him by the Eravur Circuit Magistrate Court, holding him on remand until February 13.

The court head that Mohan was arrested after organising the hartal against Hizbullah, who locals have accused of exacerbating inter-community tensions in the East during his time in the Eastern Provincial Council.

The court also called for the other organisers of the protest to be arrested.

<p>Sri Lanka is facing delays in receiving a $300 million (USD) loan offered by the Bank of China, Reuters reports.</p> <p>The loan was due to be released before the end of January but is now unlikely to be finalised until later this month.</p> <p>A Sri Lankan government official told Reuters that the negotiation, which was due to be closed in the last week of January, had dragged on after the Chinese bank had asked for “in-depth and lengthy data unlike in the previous negotiations” to compile the loan and the Finance Ministry needed more than a week to compile the data.</p>

Students from the University of Jaffna joined an event held by the US Consulate in Chennai to mark Black History Month.

The Jaffna students joined in with the event, a screening of a documentary on black civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr, via video conference.

The screening was held at the same hall in Presidency College where King had addressed students during a historic visit to Chennai fifty years ago.

The former TNA MP Chandranehru and LTTE political head Kousalyan, as well as the LTTE cadres who were killed with them in an ambush by Sri Lankan paramilitaries were remembered in Batticaloa on Thursday.

The group were attacked by gunmen, at the time thought to be Sri Lankan soldiers but later linked to Karuna’s paramilitary, on February 7, 2005, while travelling back to the East from Vanni after a meeting about tsunami rehabilitation efforts.

At least two people have died as the Sri Lankan navy clashed with villagers in Kinniya, Trincomalee, last week, after members of the military attempted to arrest a group of men they claimed to be involved in illegal sand mining.

The Sri Lankan navy, acting on a reported tip off, arrived at Kandakadum by the Savaru Bridge last Tuesday in a joint operation with the Special Task Force as they attempted to arrest of men.

<p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/images/icons/Palaly%20airport.jpg"></p> <p>The development of Palaly airport and the sea port at Kankesanthurai (KKS) is to commence next week on February 15, the Jaffna District Secretariat’s office said on Tuesday.&nbsp;</p> <p>The development projects, which are to be a joint Indian and Sri Lankan venture, have been stuck in the discussion stage for several years, despite the armed conflict ending 10 years ago.&nbsp;</p> <p>As recently as last month, India's&nbsp;ministry of external affairs (MEA) had not approved a report on the project due to the&nbsp;Airports Authority of India (AAI) citing political instability&nbsp;on the island, following last year's turmoil.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Sri Lanka's prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, yesterday pledged a fire brigade service would be established in Mullaitivu and Puttalam within one week, following an outcry from residents who had been without any service for many years.&nbsp;</p> <p>Ranil was responding to a statement made by the TNA MP, Charles Nirmalanthan, pointing out that the government had failed to act on the issue despite repeated requests.&nbsp;</p> <p>"We wrote to the Prime Minister on December 27 last year addressing this complaint, " Nirmalanthan stated, pointing out the nearest fire service to both districts was in Vavuniya.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Sri Lanka's president, Maithripala Sirisena, yesterday vowed that "come what may" he would implement the death penalty within "2-3 months".&nbsp;</p> <p>Over recent months Sirisena has repeatedly reiterated his plans to reintroduced the death penalty for those convicted of drug trafficking, despite international outcry and warns of interventions.&nbsp;</p> <blockquote><p> “We need stringent laws to make a law abiding and spiritual society,” Sirisena told parliament.&nbsp;</p> <p>“The country is now proliferated with various drugs including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and ice."</p>

The Mullaitivu court rejected an application by Sri Lankan police to prohibit Tamil protestors from protesting anywhere within the army-occupied village of Keppapulavu.

On January 28, residents of Keppapulavu intensified their campaign to have their lands released from Sri Lankan army occupation, getting as close to the camp and their lands as possible while military personnel and police were deployed to hold them back.

A court ordered that the protesters must keep at least 75 metres away from the army camp entrance, to which the protestors responded by measuring and setting up exactly 75 metres away.

<p>Tamil refugees who fled Sri Lanka are to be excluded from India’s current Citizenship&nbsp; Amendment Bill which was adopted by the Lok Sabha, the lower house in the country’s bicameral Parliament.&nbsp;</p> <p>There are approximately a hundred thousand Tamil refugees in India, with over two-thirds residing in government camps and the rest living on their own.&nbsp;</p> <p>India’s home minister, Rajnath Singhji, has defended the exclusion of Tamils stating that they would be protected under a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued in December 2011. This extended the protection of the Long Term Visas (LTVs) which both Sri Lankan and Myanmar refugees were eligible for. To be eligible for this protection they needed to prove that they had been “victims of oppression in their countries of origin on account of race, religion, sex, nationality, ethnic identity, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” Experts are wary of this proposal as generally LTVs have not been issued to Tamil refugees, The Hindu reports.</p>