<p>Political turmoil in Sri Lanka looks set to continue in the year ahead, warned analysts from consultancy groups this week, with worries that investors may have underestimated the crisis on the island.</p> <p>Sasha Riser-Kositsky, senior analyst at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, told CNBC that the current impasse is “at best an uneasy and fragile truce”.</p>

On this day 13 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.

We look back at 2018's top news stories and significant issues through images from throughout the year. 

A US embassy delegation met with the Sri Lankan military in Jaffna earlier this week, in a reported discussion about further training opportunities between the two militaries.

Captain Armando Peralta, director of the Information Support Team from the Pacific Augmentation Team of the US Embassy in Colombo, met with Major General Darshana Hettiarachchi, the head of the Sri Lankan army in Jaffna, at its headquarters in the peninsula last week.

<p>Sri Lanka’s prime minister has pledged to take action against those who vandalised Buddha statues in the Kegalle district earlier this month, according to a report in The Island.</p> <p>Ranil Wickremesinghe reportedly told a group of senior Buddhist monks from the Asigiriya and Malwathu chapters on Friday that his government would take stern action against the "real culprits" who had damaged the Buddha statues in Mawanella last week.</p> <p>During the meeting he also told the monks of how Buddhism would continue to hold the foremost place on the island, despite any change in the constitution.</p>

The Canadian government has issued a travel advisory for tourists heading to Sri Lanka, urging visitors to “exercise a high degree of caution at all times” when on the island and added that Tamil Canadians have faced arrests and detention by security forces.

“The Sri Lankan military continues to maintain a strong presence in the country’s north and east, including the Jaffna Peninsula,” said the official travel advisory this week.

<p>Despite its admirable conduct during the island's political crisis, Sri Lanka's judiciary is not capable of delivering justice for the atrocities perpetrated against Tamils, former Chief Minister of the Northern Province and former Supreme Court judge C V Wigneswaran has said.</p> <p>Speaking in Kilinochchi last week, the former Chief Minister said that although "actions of the top judiciary in solving the political crisis and establishing democracy were admirable", they were also exceptional and could not be taken as an example of how the judiciary on the island functions in all cases.</p>

A confrontation occurred in Jaffna between locals and a group of Sinhalese people who illegally harvested aloe vera plants from the coast of Ponnalai.

The group were seen harvesting the plants and loading them into a pickup truck by a group of Tamil youths at the seaside.

The Tamil youths confronted the group and contacted a member of the Valikamam West divisional council, who also came to the scene.

Although the group claimed to have obtained permission to harvest the aloe vera, they could not produce evidence when requested by the divisional council member.

<p>Land release activists in the Amparai District have highlighted that despite Sri Lankan military forces’ highly publicised rapid release of pockets of lands in the North-East, there have been no indications that those within Amparai will be released.</p> <p>Writing to Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena on December 31, the president’s proclaimed deadline for the release of military-occupied land, Amparai land activists urged him to keep his promise and secure the release of lands in Amparai.</p> <p>Over 2500 properties, both homes and livelihood lands, are currently occupied in the district, the activists said.</p>

<p>Provincial governors were asked by the Sri Lankan president to submit their resignation by the end of 2018, with a number of governors including of the Northern Province having resigned as of yesterday, reports Daily Mirror.</p> <p>President Sirisena will reportedly reappoint some governors while replacing others.</p> <p>Following the expiry of the terms of six out nine provincial councils, these provinces including the Northern and Eastern provinces have been under the rule of the unelected governors.</p>