The people of Keppapilavu, Mullaitivu held a protest to coincide with the visit of the Sri Lankan president, demanding their own lands be returned to them.

Although President Maithripala Sirisena cancelled his visit, reportedly due to poor weather, a public function was held to mark the return of some Mullaitivu lands.

However many displaced Tamils maintain that the released lands are not usually their original properties, but alternative lands.

The Keppapilavu residents protested, with boards demanding they be allowed to return to their traditional lands and homes.

The US-based Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC) met with officials from the Sri Lankan government in Colombo on Tuesday, the DailyFT reports.

The MCC, a bilateral US foreign aid agency, discussed economic growth strategies and planned solutions to eradicate poverty through growth with Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake and the Acting Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva.

The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry will open an office in Jaffna this week.

The Regional Consular office will be located in Jaffna’s District Secretariat and will provide certain services that were previously only provided in Colombo.

According to the ministry’s website, the office will provide services ranging from attestation of birth, marriage and death certificates as well as educational certificates for their use abroad; extending assistance to family members of Sri Lankans who may be stranded abroad; facilitation of redress and compensation claims of families of migrant workers; and repatriation of human remains from abroad.

A pregnant mother was violently murdered in Kayts on Tuesday.

27-year-old Ramsika Mary Gnaneswaran, seven months pregnant and mother-of-one, was beaten to death while home alone on Siruvil Road, Kayts.

Two suspects, reported to be steel traders from outside the area were arrested after Kayts police chased their auto down, and two further arrests were later made.

There were agitations outside Kayts police station, as furious locals demanded the suspects be handed over to them.

While police are investigating, the murderers’ motives are yet unknown.

Sri Lanka's Court of Appeals has reinstated an appeal filed by the wife of Tamil MP Nadarajah Raviraj, against a verdict passed last month acquitting all of the suspects accused of his murder.

Shashikala Raviraj, the wife of the murdered MP, challenged the Colombo High Court's decision last month, but her initial appeal was dismissed on January 19th. However the appeal will now be taken up for support by the Apellate Court on March 3rd.

Three fishermen from Neduntheevu (Delft) were assaulted by Sri Lankan navy officers last week.

Thiyogupillai Yesuthasan, Sahayan Selvan and Mariathas Vasantharaj were forced to land ashore on Kachaithivu, after their boat ran out of fuel on Friday.

The three were arrested by navy officers stationed at the island and beaten severely with batons.

After being kept overnight at the camp, the fishermen were ejected from the island still with a fuel-less boat.

The stranded group were found at sea by fellow fishermen and helped back to land, three days after they had set off.

The incident has been reported to Kayts police.

Following days of protests, Tamil Nadu has passed a new bill allowing Jallikattu – a controversial bull-taming sport that is central to the harvest festival.

In 2014, the Supreme Court banned Jallikattu on the grounds of animal cruelty. Animal rights activists say that the practice causes stress to the bulls as they are released into a crowd and try to fend off people that try to ride them. However, the government temporarily lifted the ban on Saturday.

Relatives of missing persons and the forcibly disappeared have begun a hunger strike in Vavuniya.

In an open letter to the Sri Lankan president, the signatories said they had exhausted all other avenues in the search for information about their missing loved ones, including countless domestic commissions and probes.

The hunger strikers in the letter said,

China’s Foreign Ministery urged the new US administration to adhere to the “one China” policy when dealing with Taiwan in a statement made on Monday.

Speaking at a regular press briefing in Bejing, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, said,

“We urge the new administration to fully understand the high sensitivity of the Taiwan issue and to continue pursuing the one China policy.”

The spokeswoman stressed that the policy was the “political foundation” of future relations between the United States and China, reports Reuters.

A United States navy vessel has departed from Colombo, following a five-day visit to the island, starting last week.

The US Naval Ship 'Hopper' arrived in Sri Lanka on Thursday, where it was greeted by the Sri Lankan Navy.

According to Sri Lanka’s ministry of defence, the American crew took part “in a number of programmes organized by their Sri Lankan counterparts during their stay here”.