^{Buddhist monks harass Tamil politicians and journalists}

A large Buddha statue being illegally constructed in the land of a Tamil Hindu temple in Mullaitivu was hurriedly declared open by Sinhala Buddhist monks on Wednesday, with the aid of Sri Lankan police and the archaeology department.

While a a Right to Information (RTI) request to Karaithuraipattu (Maritimepattu) divisional council confirmed that the monks had no permission or land rights to build the statue, the Mullaitivu magistrates court was due to hear about the illegal constructions on Thursday (Jan 24), leading locals to accuse the monks of rushing through the statue opening before a potential injunction served by the court.

Tamils in the North protested in solidarity with tea estate workers campaign for a raise in their minimum wage.

Up-country Tamils have been protesting and campaigning for several months for the daily minimum wage for tea estate labour to be raised to 1000 rupees.

Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa met with officials from Facebook on Tuesday, where they discussed cyber security and the spread of “fake news”.

Rajapaksa, who oversaw the killing of tens of thousands of Tamils as president and is a staunch Sinhala Buddhist nationalist, tweeted photographs of his meeting with the public policy director for South & Central Asia from the social media company, Ankhi Das.

<p>Sri Lanka’s president stated that he would not reverse his decision to implement capital punishment on the island telling an audience in Mullaitivu that he had no “fear of NGOs”.</p> <p>In his address, Maithripala Sirisena praised the much criticised campaign against drugs led by Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte, stating that a Philippines “expert team” is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka shortly to explore the possibility of providing technology consultancy services. &nbsp;</p>

The United States navy will begin an operation to transfer its cargo between planes at Sri Lanka’s main airport in Colombo, where goods will then be sent to its vessels at sea.

The transfer operation, scheduled for later this month, will only see “non-lethal supplies” transferred between aircraft, according to a US embassy press release, and is the third reported operation to have taken place in the last few months.

Similar transfer operations also took place in August and December 2018, at the Bandaranaike International Airport and in Trincomalee.

<p>The Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), a constituent party of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), has said that it would not support current proposals for a new constitution as they fall far short of an acceptable solution for Tamils, recalling that the TNA was elected on a mandate to push for a federal solution.</p> <p>In a statement TELO said that the current proposals undermined Tamil demands for self-determination and would strengthen the Sinhala Buddhist majority community.</p> <p>TELO also objected to the proposed constitution’s emphasis on guaranteeing Buddhism’s foremost place.</p>

<p>Over 100,000 new cases of tuberculosis were detected in Tamil Nadu in 2018, according to India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.</p> <p>Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had&nbsp;recorded the highest number of tuberculosis cases in 2017, according to a report by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, with thousands of people continuing to be impacted by the disease. As many as 4,357 people in Karnataka and 3,953 people in Tamil Nadu were detected to have tuberculosis. The large numbers of people afflicted by the lung disease has led India to being on top of World Health Organization's Global Tuberculosis report, in its list of countries impacted worldwide.</p>

Families of the disappeared in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu protested against the Sri Lankan president's visit to the Vanni. 

On Monday, protesters demonstrated outside the Vidyananda College in Mullaitivu as President Sirisena visited to highlight the commencement of 'Drugs Eradication Week', where they were threatened by men claiming to be intelligence officers, who warned they would be arrested if they protested. 

<p>A Chinese company is planning to build a new cement plant in Hambantota.</p> <p>Sri Lanka’s deputy minister for development and international trade said the land allocation and environmental assessment for the project had already been completed and the plant was expected to start production in May 2020.</p> <p>The company is expected to source 40 per cent of the raw material locally and gradually increase on the number.</p>

India has agreed to fund the refurbishment of facilities of the Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies in Batticaloa through a grant of over 270 million Rs (LKR).

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on Monday by India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, with Sri Lankan Minister Rauff Hakeem present.

The project involves refurbishment of the auditorium and construction of a modern building complex with recording cum editing facilities and supply vehicles to the institute.