On this day 14 years ago, five Tamil students were summarily executed by Sri Lanka's Special Task Force, whilst they spent an afternoon on the beach in Trincomalee.

To date no one has been held accountable for the murder.

The case – known as the 'Trinco 5' – remains one of the highest profile killings in Sri Lanka to receive international attention, listed in 2014 by the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' report on the island as one of four ‘emblematic cases’ of the government's failure to ensure accountability and having been raised repeatedly in international forums.

<p>An attempted attack on UPFA MP K Kader Masthan has reportedly left the parliamentarian’s bodyguard hospitalised with injuries to his arm.</p> <p>The alleged attack happened on Sunday night when the MP was travelling towards Vavuniya town and his vehicle stopped in Pavatkulam for a member of his team to alight.</p> <p>Masthan’s vehicle was reportedly set upon by a group wielding swords. The MP’s bodyguard sustained a wound to his arm when trying to block the attackers.</p> <p>The attackers reportedly escaped, and the injured bodyguard was admitted to Vavuniya general hospital.</p>

<p>The new year marks the imminent requirement on Gotabaya’s government to pay back 875 billion Sri Lanka rupees of foreign debt due October 2020.&nbsp;</p> <p>Colombo remains heavily burdened with foreign debt, with the Chinese, in particular, having invested billions in major infrastructure projects ranging from power stations to ports. And as Sri Lanka’s economic crisis worsened, the island was forced to hand over control of Hambantota Port in a debt-for-equity swap with Beijing in 2017.</p>

Sri Lankan Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva has been appointed as the acting Chief of Defence staff by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, effective from 1^st  January 2020.

He replaces Admiral Ravindra C Gunaratne, the former Chief of Defence Staff who retired from service on 31^st  December 2019.

<p>Dr Kumaravadivel Guruparan filed a Fundamental Rights Petition in the Supreme Court last week, challenging the decision of the University Grants Commission and University of Jaffna to bar him from legal practice.</p> <p>The senior lecturer of law at Jaffna University and prominent civil society representative was&nbsp;barred from engaging in private practice following pressure from the Sri Lankan military, after he took up a public interest habeas corpus case into the 1996 disappearance of more than two dozen Tamil youth.</p>

An assault on a civil society representative by paramilitary members during a protest by families of the disappeared has caused outrage in the North-East and drawn condemnation from Tamil politicians.

Coordinator of Vavuniya's citizen committee K Rajkumar was attacked while families of the disappeared protested against paramilitary leader and current cabinet minister Douglas Devananda as he was due to appear at a meeting about the disappeared on Monday.

A video which purportedly shows a Sinhala Buddhist monk physically assaulting a Christian man in Batticaloa has been shared thousands of times on social media.

The monk, identified as Ampitiye Sumanarathana, is seen slapping the man whilst Sri Lankan police officers watch on. He then goes on to criticise the Sri Lankan police officer for failing to stop the Christian man from doing missionary work in the area.

A young Tamil woman whose family have been searching for their disappeared father since May 2009 has achieved top rank in the Mullaitivu district in this year’s GCE A Level Commerce results.

Yalini Ravichchandran whose father disappeared in the final phases of the armed conflict found out she had obtained the highest marks in the district earlier this week when A Level results were released.

Families of the disappeared rallied in Kilinochchi on Monday to mark the end of 2019, the third year of their protest.

The families, accompanied by locals and politicians, marched through Kilinochchi town calling for answers about their disappeared relatives' whereabouts.