<p>Following weeks of political crisis and falling rupee, which dropped to record levels, the Sri Lankan prime minister today announced a plan to obtain US$ 1.9 billion from 'international sources' to stabilise the currency.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Indian officials visited Jaffna on Monday to check on the status of an India-funded cultural centre being built in the town.</p> <p>A team led by Deputy High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Shilpak Ambule visited the site alongside officials from the Consulate in Jaffna as well as the district government agent N Vethanayagam, and municipal commissioner Jeyaseelan.</p>

<p>Sri Lanka's finance minister, Mangala Samaraweera is to travel to Washington tomorrow with the aim of getting the next stage of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) External Fund Facility (EFF).&nbsp;</p> <p>The visit comes after weeks of Sri Lanka's political crisis left the country with a falling rupee and halting of international funding.&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/Image/pictures/2019/North-East/190109%20mother%20of%20disappeared%20Vijayaluxmi%20Shanmugarajah.jpg"></p> <p>Another mother of the disappeared has passed way on Monday due to ill health, still in search for her son, who disappeared after surrendering to the army.&nbsp;</p> <p>Vijayaluxmi Shamugaraja, aged 68, from Thevipuram, Mullaitivu had been searching for her son, Shanmugaraja Arjun, who surrendered to the army in May 2009, at Valaincharmadam.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Two Tamil men and a woman have been arrested in relation to the military search conducted in Vavuniya last week.&nbsp;</p> <p>A Tamil youth from Nedunkeni, Karthik and a 20 year old man from Alamkulam, Jegatheeswaran Kajendran, and a 35 year old woman from Puthukkulam, Tharshiny Srikanth were arrested on Sunday.&nbsp;</p> <p>Kajendran is accused of possessing a locally made hunting gun.&nbsp;</p>

Dutch soldiers, alongside troops from Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Maldives and Pakistan, are amongst those currently undergoing a course on “Asymmetric Warfare”, conducted by the Sri Lankan navy in Trincomalee this week.

Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa has officially been recognised as the leader of the Opposition by Speaker of parliament Karu Jayasuriya, despite calls from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to not to allow him to take up the post.

The Speaker’s decision was announced by Deputy Speaker Ananda Kumarasiri when parliament met on Tuesday.

Shavendra Silva, a Sri Lankan army commander who headed a division accused of war crimes, has been appointed as the army’s Chief of Staff, according to several reports in the Colombo press on Wednesday.

Adaderana and the Daily Mirror stated that the army confirmed Silva was the 53^rd chief of staff of the Sri Lankan army.

Last year, the commander, who headed the notorious 58th Division of the Sri Lankan Army during the final stages of the armed conflict were tens of thousands of Tamils were massacred, was promoted by the current government to the post of Adjutant General.

<p>The Sri Lankan govenrment is having discussions with China regarding the importing of hybrid buses for the island's public transport &nbsp;system.&nbsp;</p> <p>Sri Lanka's State Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, Ashoka Abeysinghe said a procurement plan "had been finalised" for hydrogen powered and hybrid buses.&nbsp;</p> <p>“I went to China a couple of months ago and visited the Chinese companies,” Abeyshinghe said.</p>

<p>Sri Lanka has failed to investigate a mass grave of over 80 skeletons discovered in Mannar in 2014, a TNA MP has accused.</p> <p>While commending efforts to investigate the mass grave in Mannar town in the Sathosa retail premises, excavation of which has unearthed over 200 skeletons, including those of children, TNA MP Charles Nirmalanathan said that other sites in the district have been ignored or even covered up.</p>

<p>The Sri Lankan army is attempting to appropriate civilian lands in Mullaitivu, over a week after failing to meet a deadline set by the Sri Lankan president to return all occupied land in the North-East.</p> <p>Owners of land in Alampil, which the Sri Lankan army currently illegally occupies, were notified that their land would be surveyed on January 10.</p>

<p>The Sri Lankan navy yesterday arrested four Tamil Nadu fishermen for allegedly poaching fish.&nbsp;</p> <p>The fishermen were taken to 'Elara' navy base today and are&nbsp;to be handed over to the Assistant Director of Fisheries in Jaffna.&nbsp;</p> <p>Last month over 3000 Indian fishermen were chased away by the Sri Lankan navy and eight fishermen arrested.&nbsp;</p>

A Sri Lankan army truck killed three civilians on Tuesday morning, during a road accident in Iyakkachchi, Palai. 

The army truck collided into an auto rickshaw. 

Investigators within the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) have uncovered a plot hatched by senior naval officers to kill the chief investigator and several key witnesses in high profile cases of abduction, torture and extrajudicial killing, reports JDS.

One such case details the abduction and murder 11 Tamil males in the suburbs of Colombo.