The appointment of former Air Force Commander, and accused war criminal, Sumangala Dias as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Canada is being stalled by the Canadian government, reports the Sunday Times, amid pushback from Canadian politicians and the Tamil diapsora.

Prominent Sinhala Buddhist monk and academic, Medagoda Abhayatissa, has attacked the development of the East Container Terminal as an attempted invasion of India.

Comparing the development of the port to the battle between Rama and Ravana the monk claimed

“If Sri Lanka loses the East Container Terminal, the government will never be able to raise its head again”.

Tamil-Swiss singer Priya Ragu has defined her own style of music - which uniquely blends soulful vocals and electro-pop beats that she refers to as 'Ragu Wavy'.

She is rapidly growing worldwide acclaim, as has already been named one of the 6 Musicians About to Blow Up in 2021 by Vogue, featured as one of the top 100 Essential emerging artists for 2021 by NME and had her single “Good Love 2.0” included on FIFA 21’s official soundtrack.

The 15^th anniversary of the murder of Tamil journalist Subramaniyam Sugirdharajan was marked by his colleagues in Batticaloa this week, as they paid tribute to the reporter who was shot dead after exposing the Sri Lankan Special Task Force's killing of 5 Tamil students, in a case that has been dubbed the 'Trinco 5'. 

The Sri Lankan government has awarded a contract to a Chinese based joint venture, to install a hybrid renewable energy system in three islands of the coast of Jaffna, at a cost of USD $12 million.

The contract forms a part of the Supporting Electricity Supply Reliability Improvement Project, which is being implemented by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) but is directly funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Responding to German Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Holger Seubert, Amnesty International have lambasted calls for a “consensual resolution”, at the upcoming UN Human Rights Council session, highlighting that Sri Lankan government has not shown any support for “an international process to end the cycle of impunity and advance accountability”.

Campaigners have called for the UK Government to halt police training programmes for repressive state forces, including in Sri Lanka, and conduct a review of all international training offered by the College of Policing.

The leader of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) G G Ponnambalam has condemned the Sri Lankan governments complicit support of colonisation in the North-East and the deliberate ‘pauperisation’ of the Tamil people across the homeland.

Addressing parliament this week, the lawmaker said that ‘this government is not empowering the people of the North-East, they are pauperised and deliberately kept in that position, but infrastructure is given prominence, Buddhist viharas are given prominence why?”

A memorial statue of Fr James Pathinanthan, a Catholic priest remembered by the Tamil community for his social work, has been unveiled in the tsunami victims memorial complex in Mullaitivu.  

When the waves struck the coasts on December 26, 2004, claiming thousands of lives, Fr Pathinanthan provided much needed humanitarian relief to the affected Tamil community in the coastal Vanni area. 

^{Image: Shani Abeysekera}

The custody of former Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Director Shani Abeysekera has been extended once again announced Gampaha Magistrate’s court this week, bringing the new release date to February 3rd 2021.