Supporters of Mahinda Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party held a rally in Mannar on Friday.

Participants in the rally in Mannar town called for a general election, and said a new government was needed to address the development needs of Mannar district.

<p>The reconstruction of the Iranaimadu tank could be a precursor to further Sinhala colonisation under the Mahaweli scheme, former Northern Provincial Council (NPC) member P Aingaranesan has alleged.</p> <p>The reconstructed tank was opened by the Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena last week.</p>

<p>The United States ambassador to Sri Lanka, Alaina Teplitz urged the government to resolve the political crisis promptly in an interview with the Daily FT, warning the that "restoring political stability is crucial".&nbsp;</p>

<p>Two drunk police officers were arrested at a tourist hotel in Weligama for 'unruly behaviour', <a href="http://www.colombopage.com/archive_18B/Dec08_1544287973CH.php">Colombo Page</a> reports.&nbsp;</p> <p>The officers had damaged the hotel and had started a fight with officers from a different unit, the police officers making the arrest said.&nbsp;</p> <p>The officers are to be produced before court today.&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;</p>

Tamil civil society representatives in Mullaitivu met with UN human rights officials and discussed growing concerns in the district about systematic Sinhala colonisation and violations carried out by the Sri Lankan state under various wings, particularly the archaeology department.

The Tamil Heritage Council, a civil society organisation, said they had published a detailed report about Sinhala colonisation and land-grabs in the district and handed it over to the officials.

The image of a Buddhist vihara on the sign board for Nainativu was found covered with red paint on Saturday. 

Nainativu, which is site of an iconic Tamil Hindu temple, has become a focal point of Tamil anger towards the military's Buddhisation of the Tamil homeland. 

Sri Lanka's president, Maithripala Sirisena warned against what he described as "the shadows of old Imperialism", arguing that the current political crisis was not a conflict between political parties, but a !conflict between national and foreign thinking". 

"When I act according to the principles of nationalism without giving into foreign forces and without intimidated by their threats, foreign forces have now become a challenge and the shadows of the old Imperialism stand in our way," he told an audience at him home town, gathered at Polonnaruwa Royal College. 

The Sri Lankan army announced that soldiers had been involved in carrying out repair work at a Tamil school in Kilinochchi last month, as the military continued to involve itself with civilian activities in the region.

The military announced that soldiers helped to repair a fence at the Thevanpiddy Roman Catholic Tamil Mixed School in Kilinochchi.

Buddhists monks and the Sri Lankan military partnered up once more to hold religious ceremonies in Mullaitivu last month, despite concerns over the militarised Sinhalisation of the North-East.

<p>Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in charge of Jaffna Police, W S E Jayasundera has been appointed as Sri Lanka’s new director of the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID).&nbsp;</p> <p>Jayasundera’s appointment comes after the former director of the TID, was arrested over an alleged plot to assassinate Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena and former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>