Sri Lanka's foreign affairs minister, Mangala Samaraweera left on Monday for the UK to commence a five day official visit. 

This is the first such visit since the current British prime minister, Theresa May was appointed. 

Buddha statues at four locations in Trincomalee were found vandalised on Sunday morning.

The statues at Moraveva Junction, Pulmoddai, the Velgam vihara and Thiriyai junction were smashed and vandalised by unknown persons.

The incidents are being investigated by police.

The founder of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) called on the Indian government to push for an international war crimes tribunal to be held in Sri Lanka, following Colombo’s repeated refusal to allow in international investigators.

In a statement released this week, Dr S Ramadoss said “with the Sri Lankan government refusing to agree to an international war crimes investigation, there will be no justice to Tamils who suffered under the Sri Lankan government armed forces”.

“All those who committed war crimes on innocent Tamils will go scot-free,” he added. “The Indian government has a responsibility to stop this from happening.”

Sri Lanka’s army organised more Christmas carols for Tamils in the North-East over the festive season, by holding an event in Mannar last week.

Sri Lanka’s 54 Division organised an event at the St Sebastian Cathedral, where soldiers sang carols “in order to develop the reconciliation among the people living in Mannar area” (sic) according to a military website.

The Sri Lankan prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe announced on Saturday that China would be investing US $5 billion into the country over the next 2-3 years. 

“I would like to thank the Chinese Ambassador for confirming this investment," Mr Wickremesinghe was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying. 

He added that the investment would "boost employment opportunities and enhance the life style of people."

"China-Sri Lanka bilateral relations were a role model for all bilateral relations in the world," said Mr Wickremesinghe. 

Sri Lanka missed benchmarks set out by the International Monetary Fund for December, Economy Next reported. 

The benchmarks included introducing a formula to price fuel, as well as automatic market pricing of electricity. 

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The international community must act to “ensure justice and lasting peace in Sri Lanka” said a statement signed by ten Tamil diaspora groups to mark the New Year.

“We would like to bring to the attention of the international community that in the 15 months since the resolution, even basic pledges have been broken by the government -  the commitment to release all political prisoners, return of occupied land that belongs to the Tamil people and repeal of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) are all promises which have not been fulfilled,” said the statement.  

Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena claimed his government would regain the GSP+ trade concession by next week, in a speech delivered on Friday.

Speaking at the opening of a bridge in Kandy, Mr Sirisena said during his tenure the government was able to rebuild relations with the international community.

He went on to add that by next week, the GSP+ trade concessions, which were revoked during the previous government, would be returned.

Joint opposition party supporters, locals and Buddhist monks marched in Amabalantota on Saturday protesting against the government's deal to lease land in an industrial zone in Hambantota port to a Chinese company. 

Government supporters attacked protesters with clubs, the AP reported. Protesters retaliated by throwing rocks. As the violence escalated, Sri Lankan police used water cannons to break up the protest. 

Sri Lanka's state minister of finance, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene this week reiterated that the president, Maithripala Sirisena rejected the inclusion of foreign judges in any probe and under no circumstances would the government target 'war heroes' for war crimes charges. 

“President Sirisena and the government have full confidence in our judiciary, legal process and judges. We have extremely eminent and experienced judges and our judges have served in various countries and global organizations that have given much credit to the country," he was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying.